Sid Meier's Console Civilisation

 If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't

I'd imagine that a lot of you out there have heard of Civilisation, (not the concept, the game) and maybe even enjoyed the game yourself once or twice. Maybe you're a mega fan and it ranks as one of your favourite game series' of all time, or maybe you hate these overarching strategy games that threaten to swallow up entire weeks worth of your life. Personally, this game and others like it should have been the furthest from my radar, what with how genuinely strategically challenged I am, but somehow this series has been a gateway for me falling into an absolute rabbit hole of the later Civilisation games themselves, Star Wars Empire at War, Stellaris, Divinity Dragon Commander (although in fairness that game was more just laying in my way to total Divinity franchise ownership) and the XCom games. All of which I'm pretty terrible at, but I keep picking them up and submitting myself to their torture time and time again. And when I think about how I got to this self-flagellation, I think it all comes back to my discovery of a Civilisation game that not many know exist; the console version.

Civilisation is an absolutely huge title, no matter which entry of it you pick up. That comes from it's very core premise, which attempts to simulate all of civilised human history from initial tribal floundering to the prosperous industrial ages and further to our eventual ascent into space. Every game has to tell this simply epic tale which means even in the quickest of games you've got a lot of ground to cover, and in the more complicated games it's entirely feasible to be juggling a match for months. Typically Civilisation 'difficulty' comes in managing how cities are founded, the direction development takes, the acquisition of land and resource nodules, diplomacy with neighbouring states, and handling military might. The late game of Civilisation typical changes things up with a lesser weight on violence and much more in on the diplomacy (especially given how any war is within reach of going nuclear) but apart from that most games just 'evolve' by giving you more systems to juggle and manage as the ages go by and life becomes more complicated.

All of these is what makes this a '4X game', and is why it's the sort of game best suited for the PC audience. Afterall, decisions about how to build your ideal society are going to be informed by pausing and taking stock of everything you have at your disposal, what your best move might be and (crucially) what your opponent's response to that move will be. (it's that last one which I always have trouble with) All of which are traits typically more in line with PC gamers and the way that they plan their games, which is why strategy works best for them. Alongside RPGs. (Which is the reason why it's simply insane for Persona 5 Royal to not have been ported to the PC yet, ATLUS! At this point now I want 5 and Royal to show up as a package deal, just to make up for all this infernal 'will they, won't they' you've subjected us too!) So with those prejudices/rules to mind, why exactly is there a Civilisation on the Xbox 360?

Well the obvious answer is reach, given back at that time in 2008 PC gaming was big, but not as big as the very many popular consoles that were bubbling around then. The PlayStation 3, the Xbox, The Nintendo DS, even App stores. These were all fertile grounds for picking up players, many of which hadn't even heard of this venerated series before simple due to the tech gap. (like me) Then there's the fact that Civilisation had gone two years without an entry already and it felt like time. Civilisation V, the one which is considered the definitive by many, even today, would come out in two years from then, and the staying power of these games meant that the Firaxis didn't necessarily have to feed the PC audience just yet to keep them interested, and therefore the team could focus on cultivating a new and expanded fanbase instead.

I came upon this game back in a time before I had disposal income to really pursue the games that I'm interested in, but I was still invested in the gaming world and that led to me seeking out publications and magazines that touched upon it. That was how I learned about a lot of games that would file away in the back of mind only to be teased out years later when I saw them pop up and went, "Well I have the money now, why not give it a go?" One such magazine would come every other issue with a demo disc loaded with little snippets of upcoming games, which is where I got into the habit of seeking free demos. The Xbox 360 had an entire infrastructure built to support demos and dish them out to the public, which was how I ended up coming across Civilisation Revolution. Quite simply, I happened across a game I never would have attracted to normally and played it simply because it was free; let that be an example of how genuinely helpful it can be to have a game demo out there.

The demo put you in the shoes of either Caesar and Cleopatra and would let you play out a chunk of the early game for Civilisation, namely founding a few cities and researching and creating until the 1200's. Just before the game really kicks into the renaissance age and the more complicated mechanics rear their heads. And let me just say right now that I was hooked. Likely due to the way the game was set to quicker matches, I could slip into a civilisation and immersive myself in the daily running in no time flat. Thus I started to really pick up on some of the finer details. What were the best places to found a city, how defending the first city isn't necessarily worth situating a home army for because barbarians don't really have a chance against fortified gates. I learned that World Wonders are an early game must-have, and how there's a lot more to city composition than "just pick what the game recommends and hope for the best." This demo proved long enough to show me what this series was about, and then cut me off just when it was getting good. So of course I would go on to buy the game.

You can find the Civilisation Revolution game today on the original consoles (or the sequel on IOS) and even though both games are dated, I will say right now that if you've a passing interest in the franchise than this really is a fantastic way to get a foot in. It's incredible how much of the core experience was preserved in this smaller, quicker, and streamlined product. And in many ways, I actually prefer the late game of Revolution because it allows you to win by specialising in whatever area you want to, such as simply by being an economic powerhouse, instead of having to use that money to further your goals towards another victory. (Perhaps some might find that a little passive of a way to win at Civilisation, but to my little console gamer brain that's just fine by me.) Late game has a lot of it's systems stripped, making it so that you don't really have to start micromanaging relationships across the entire world like the main games would. Combat is simplified, research trees are shorter (and more legible) and we're all around looking at a game which managed to stick the unwieldy package that is Civ into a weekend party game box. Genuinely impressive.

Sid Meier's games could really use with more efforts to open themselves up to the casual crowd, because as evidenced by myself it really does open up the doors for the series to gain new, unlikely fans. Revolutions proved enough to get my beak wet, but it wasn't until Civilisation V proper that I truly felt part of the grand strategy experience, and that is the exact purpose a small spin-off title like this should serve. It's only a shame that they never managed to get the game working for the Nintendo Wii, because with the proliferation of games like 'Fire Emblem', I think that Firaxis would have gained to score a fair few fans from that crowd. I hope the future might see some more accessible spin-off titles lure the curious into the fold, with the provision that whatever is offered in no way resembles 'XCOM: Legends'. (Making a game that encapsulates the core mechanics of the main game is typically where you should start, Firaxis.)