Civilization IV is a turn by turn strategy game, meaning you make your play then you wait for everyone else to make their play. In this game you can do a lot of customizing to make each game a little more different and a lot more fun. You will be playing against world leaders from the past and have to deal with their personalities. Some will attack you just for being a certain civilization others will like you for that reason. Each civilization has its own unique traits, unites, and research pre-done. So pick the one that best matches you.

The objects of the game and time it takes can vary depending on what you set the objectives to be. The objects your can choice from are: Time Victory, Conquest, Domination, Diplomatic or Space Race. To win a time victory have the most points by the time you reach the year 2015 (each turn is a year). To win the Conquest, be the last player standing. To win Domination, have at least 45% of the population and about 64% of the land space under your control (these numbers will change). For diplomatic victory the goal is be build the United Nations and win the most amount of votes for Diplomatic Victory (I tend to kill my rivals). The goal for the Space Race is to finish all the space research before anyone else on the map.

Once the game starts you will have a dashboard set up. On the top you will see the basics plus a few additional buttons, I encourage you to play. You can see what you’re researching and how everyone feels about you and each other. You have the option to check on your victories, money, troops and etc.

As you play the game you will start to see pop ups when something new is going on or you need to do something. When you are done building something in a city you will get a pop up window telling you what options you have to select from (I tent to ignore the recommendations).

At the base of your screen, you get the basics a map and other tools you can click on. As I said before I encourage you to play around. Since this is a turn based game, you get a little green circle on your dashboard that turns red once all your troops and other characters have moved. The more troops you have running around the field the longer it takes for green circle to turn red. You can end your turn before the circle turns red. (I do this if I’m not involved in a war)

If you are looking for a new Strategy game for the PC and want something a little more challenging then pick up any of the Civilization games IV and up.

Based on that amount of options and the level of involvement in this game I give this game 4 out of 5.