Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword Reviews

Great game. Tried newer ones, and this one is better.

Spyes, religion, really good improvment over Civ4 base game

games stake a long time but you never get bored winning in the game is very awesome get this game if your considering (still holds up today in everything but graphics)

very good game, my first version of civ Ive have played was the original civ 4 game. This just adds so much more to the game and very fun 10/10

Probably the best civ game to this day, extremely moddable, and the last game to have stacks of doom. It's a little old now, but it's still recent enough to have ui that's better than civ 7...

An iconic and timeless CIV game. I used to watch my dad play CIV III and IV over 20 years ago, I ended up playing IV as one of my first strategy games. This game means a whole deal to me that I sung Baba Yetu with my Highschool choir class, it was quite a majestic experience that I will never forget. As for the game, I like that the UI is easy to get along with as it doesn't feel like your screen is clogged up with so many tooltips, the icons are easily distinguishable, and there aren't many buildings or objects in the game that overcrowd the world map (later CIV games are filled with so much stuff that it's hard to tell what's going on sometimes). The soundtrack is simply legendary (I cannot emphasize this enough) with the iconic Baba Yetu Prayer and the Civ leader themes which are super fun. The combat is simple but hilarious at times because of the insane doomstack units you can muster. It also contains many material for learning the background history behind leaders, empires, units, wonders, and technologies. Don't forget the memorable narration of Mr Spock himself, who will make the tech quotes embedded in your mind! And lastly, the mod support is IMMENSELY EXTRAORDINARY. You will find many great mods and scenarios engineered by some of the most creative minds of the CIV community. Some of my most favorite mods are the Road to War (An Interwar-WWII mod), Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, Dune Wars, and Caveman to Cosmos. Yes indeed, the mods can make the game more fun by 100x if you get bored of the vanilla game. If you're considering on buying CIV IV as your first game, I say go for it! You will not be disappointed! 10/10

lots of cities, lots of monuments,----no national wonders,,,,beware of the stacking of troops......fun vinatge game

Still the best Civ, or at least the best I've played, the final refinement of the classic Civ formula. An interesting aspect of it is that Civ 4 is a toybox: my 800 hours, over almost 20 years, aren't all grinding away at the same basic loop, but represent everything from classic Civ to _Master of Orion_-style space games to RPG-ish fantasy to tower defense. Plus that one scenario set in Russia in the 1990s that would be amazing, if only the unaligned cities weren't acting together as if they were a single faction...

Civilization IV is honestly the greatest civilization to exist out of all of them. I only stopped playing it because I felt like I had to play the newer CIV versions. BtS expansion without a doubt is how Sid Meier originally conceptualized and is his Magnum Opus. Doom Stacks, Leonard Nimoy technology discovery narration, baba freaking yetu is the CIV IV theme song!!!!!!! So much customization in this game makes the newer versions feel so empty and lackluster. Religion was actually cool in this game and could cause world wars and defined friendships. In the newer CIVs that literally would never happen. The only thing I really liked from the newer Civs is the better AI, district planning, hex tiles, and city states. This game also had the vassalage and capitulation options like where the hell did that go in the newer ones that is one of my favorite features in this game. The graphics in this game are kinda aged but at least it doesn't feel like an 8 bit game and is good enough for 2025. If you think any other CIV could possibly be better then YOUR HEAD WOULD LOOK GOOD ON A POLE!!! >:3

This game has been a lot of fun for me over the years. Mods added, it always changes dynamics and strategy and the whotnot.