Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword Reviews

I love this game and have been playing it since i first bought it on cd rom. my favorite Civ game.

Id rank them like this CIV4 Alpha centauri CIV5 CIV6 didnt play the rest so i cant judge

Played the game for so many years only to just now find out the mechanics are literally rigged. It will say you have a 50% chance of success with something, but has already determined which outcome it wants and whether you save and load or just blindly accept the results, there is no benefit to strategizing and putting in any extra effort, you'll get what the game wants your experience to be like whether you like it or not. Such a huge waste of time. The quotes are great, but definitely not worth the shitty experience of playing the game.

Fun historical and what if scenarios in the Civ IV format.

The perfect blend of complexity and playability in the Civ series.

It's Civ IV. 'Nuff said. Honestly though, this is a classic and still my favorite Civilization game.

Best way to play Civilization 4. On modern computers, Civ 4 crashes for me in larger maps due to a Memory Allocation Failure (MAF). Beyond the Sword fixes this issue, so I recommend playing Civ IV: BTS for your modern Civ 4 fix.

Classic. My favourite Civ, I reckon, the last of a generation stemming from the original

Grognards will wax poetic about how this game is the pinnacle of CIV, with the most choice in how to play, the most sophisticated strategy and the most detailed economy. The second you ask why the game seems punishing they explain you have to follow their strict food->bronze->slavery strategy guide, why you haven't got a 15 year-long mod list, and why you aren't save-scumming by default. The majority of the stategic detail comes down to not getting caught off-guard. The economy is somehow even more prone to the snowballing issues that plague V, and the gold/science/culture/espionage slider is not nearly so interesting a strategic decision as you might imagine. I'm sure this game is great if you've got the time to become such a grognard, and I'm sure I don't fully appreciate it's full depth. Much in the same way that hand-Chiselling marble can be a rewarding hobby, but I'm not getting into it. If that's what you're into though, learn Chess or Go instead. If you want to relax with a video game get V.

Played many many hours of this game back in the day, on an old Windows NT machine. Possibly the best civ game ever. Enjoying getting back into IV-BTS now (in Windows 11 on a newer machine, no performance problems), even though VI-GS is a great game in its own right. Not even trying VII until it's been out a long time. Bottom line: Civ IV-BTS is highly recommended.