Product Details
 | Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword |
| List Price: | $19.99 |
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Product Description
The massive Civilization IV universe is about to become more epic with this 2nd expansion pack to the 2005 Game of the Year. The biggest Civ expansion set ever, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword focuses on the “late game” time periods after the invention of gunpowder and will deliver 12 unique and challenging scenarios created by the development team at Firaxis as well as some esteemed members of the Civ Community.Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1931 in Video Games
- Brand: 2K Games
- Released on: 2007-07-23
- ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
- Platform: Windows XP
- Dimensions: .40 pounds
Features
- 10 new civilizations
- 12 new scenarios
- 78 new units and 64 new buildings
- 16 new leaders
- 5 new technologies
Customer Reviews
Sink your teeth into this hearty expansion!
Beyond the sword offers so
much more than the previous one. Here is what I believe to be the best
aspects:
Espionage is now a much larger part of the game. You may
use funding to increase and decrease the amount you would like to
concentrate on it. Just like science and culture.
Next war mod-
This will add about thirty more techs to your tree in the end-game.
Clones, mechs, and mind control centers are just a few examples. The
only thing I don't like about this is you have to load the mod in order
for it too work. Also, it is a tad annoying that the end-game music
plays throughout the entire game if you choose this.
A bunch more
leaders and few more civs- this is always a bonus. Holy Roman Empire
and Byzantium are great choices. Being a fan of ancient Mesopotamian
culture I appreciate the Babylonians and Sumerian civs being added as
well. Native Americans are also a fun addition.
There is a new
random event concept that actually adds a lot of fun to the game.
Something good or bad happens at random and you make choices that either
make things better or worse.
When it comes to the scenarios, it
looks like they were going for a bit of experimentation instead of the
usual. Still if you're anything like me you play these once and never
look at them again.
There is one that is like a cyber-punk scifi
where you fight zombies. Interesting idea but there isn't much to it.
Just walk around in dark buildings while you are assaulted by wave after
wave of zombies.
Perhaps the best one is an outer space scenario
where you colonize planets. About ten new space civs to choose from and
a brand new tech tree .
The Charlemagne scenario as you may have
guessed involves the many countries vying for power during the dark
ages.
Broken star is a russian campaign that involves a fractured
russia. Choose a faction and attempt to find nukes.
I believe
the animations have been improved and the units of different civs have
been changed so they have more personality. ie. an asian civ will look
asian while a native american civ looks native american, instead of the
units of every civ looking the same.
Unlike the last installment I
believe your getting your moneys worth this time around.
Worthy Expansion
I have enjoyed Civilization
since my discovery of this wonderful game in the mid-90's. Civilization
IV: Beyond the Sword is a nice addition if your a "builder", Warlords
the last expansion added some great features, but Beyond the Sword has
hit the ball out of the park with new spy unites early in the game, more
complicated game dynamics including corporations, religion, spy related
point system, and new wonders. Another big plus, is the advanced
technology tree, I always wanted to continue past the "Future Techs"--
now I can. PS -- to play civ on linux see [...].
Problems solved.
As I understood it, the
"Beyond the Sword" in the title referred to making the game more
interesting in the period after most of the world's territory has
already been staked out and all religions founded; previously there was
little to do in the late-game apart from declaring war out of meandering
ambition and/or boredom (which may yet have been some pretty
spectacular social commentary though it didn't make the game any more
fun to play). This expansion pack adds espionage, missing from Civ 4
until now, although as I understand it a popular feature in previous
installments. I've so far heard mixed feedback as to how much weight it
actually carries - and will admit that I didn't bother really trying it
until my second or third game of Beyond the Sword - but I can confirm
that it most certainly gives you something to do.
Beyond that,
the game runs a bit better than it did previously, and the addition of
neat little cause-effect events (i.e. "A dispute has arisen over a
marriage between your citizen and a neighboring civilization's; offer
money to boost foreign relations or decline and receive a boost in your
cultural output") add a lot more than you'd think.
Meanwhile - as
is always the case with expansions like this, there's hardly any way to
react to any of the new tangible content (the requisite Civs, leaders,
mods, etc.) other than to be glad of the fact that it's there, though
that's no reason for complaint. Beyond the Sword makes Civilization IV a
better game.
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