Civilization: Call to Power (Macintosh)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.7 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Vince Broady
• Reviewed on: 04/16/1999
• Updated on: 05/01/2000
• Released on: 03/31/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Civilization: Call to Power (Macintosh) Review

The stakes don't get much higher than this. In Civilization: Call to Power, we have the answer to what some would call the single-most daunting challenge in PC gaming: to design the direct heir to Civilization II, widely regarded as the best turn-based strategy game of all time.

Whatever else you may think about Call to Power, you have to admire the ambition behind the effort. This is not a mere rehash of Civilization II. Rather, it is a bold step in a new and at times almost entirely different direction. The designers took the opportunity to revisit almost every major aspect of the Civ II experience - units, combat, interface, graphics, and more. While superficial similarities exist, in truth, Civilization: Call to Power bears less resemblance to Civilization II than Civilization II did to the original Civilization. Indeed, one could argue that Call to Power has less in common with its immediate predecessor than does this year's other turn-based strategy behemoth, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

The obvious question, then, is whether this uniqueness is good or bad. And the answer, of course, is that it's both. As for the natural follow-up question - Does the good outweigh the bad? - the answer is yes, but barely.

Let's start with the good. Call to Power's graphics are beautiful, far superior to any previous Civ game and even to Alpha Centauri. The animations are wonderfully detailed, and the sound effects are first class (although at times I must admit I wished my units weren't quite so vocal in their response to being clicked on). And the inclusion of seamless multiplayer support right out of the box is a welcome feature, indeed.

But the single best aspect of Call to Power is that, for the first time in this series, it puts the concept of "empire" front and center. This might seem like an odd statement - after all, the Civ games are all about empire building, aren't they? Actually, they're not. They're really about city-level management - many cities and many levels to be sure - and with few exceptions, the Civ games' policy-management controls, support schemes, and even interfaces are oriented around individual cities rather than the empire as a whole.

Not so in Call to Power, which takes a global approach to empire building. A few key examples: Units no longer are supported by a specific city, but by the empire itself; city improvements (tile improvements) are no longer built by settlers, but financed and supported by the empire; and while city-specific management is allowed, it must always be done within the parameters of the empire's global fiscal and social policies.

These are just a few examples; this empirecentric orientation permeates the entire game, including the interface. Out are the city-specific screens and the associated subscreens of the old Civ games. In is a new universal command module that occupies the bottom right of the screen. Once you become acquainted with it, this command bar lets you easily monitor and quickly modify nearly every aspect of your civilization - production, research, wealth, social policies - and the cities within it, all at the click of a mouse and all without leaving the main map view. The net result is that you feel highly informed about what's happening in the game and can change strategic focus and react to events more rapidly than ever before. This is a refreshing change of pace from previous Civ games and is just the way this would-be emperor likes it.

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