''Sid Meier's Civilization II'' is a

turn-based strategy Strategy video game is a major video game genre that focuses on analyzing and strategizing over direct quick reaction in order to secure success. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, the strategy genre is most commo ...

video game in the ''Civilization'' series, developed and published by

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

. It was released in 1996 for PCs, and later ported to the

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Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

. Players build a civilization from a primitive tribe, competing with rival computer- or human (in some editions)-controlled civilizations. They manage cities and units in a quest to assure their civilization's dominance—either by conquering all other civilizations or by manufacturing advanced space technology. ''Civilization II'' was a commercial hit, with sales of around three million units by 2001, and has won numerous awards and placements on "best games of all time" lists. It was followed by ''

Civilization III ''Sid Meier's Civilization III'' is the third installment of the ''Civilization (series), Sid Meier's Civilization'' turn-based strategy video game series. It was released in 2001, and followed by ''Civilization IV''. Unlike the original game, ''C ...

''.

Gameplay

As a turn-based strategy game, ''Civilization II'' models the historical development of human civilization. A player, when creating a game, may pick one of 21 historical civilizations or a custom-named civilization. The computer will intelligently control multiple rival civilizations. Only a single-player mode was available until the release of the Multiplayer Addon. The following civilizations appear in the game:

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Aztecs The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the ...

Babylonians Babylonia (; , ) was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as an Akkadian-populated but Amorite-ru ...

Carthaginians The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

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Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to the Iberian Peninsula, primarily associated with the modern nation-state of Spain. Genetically and ethnolinguistically, Spaniards belong to the broader Southern a ...

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

and

Zulus Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. They originated from Nguni communities who took p ...

Barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

s are non-playable NPC characters. The game takes place on a map made of tiles. A human player may generate a random map based on their specifications, or opt for a pre-made map. Different terrain types, special resources and improvements such as irrigation are present on different tiles. Players begin with one or a few units, including settlers to found their first cities, in 4000 BC. All of the map is unexplored except the starting units' immediate vicinity, and exploration is a top early-game priority. Cities occupy one tile and harvest yields from nearby tiles: food, trade and production. They may build units, city improvements or

wonders of the world Various lists of the Wonders of the World have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, in order to catalogue the world's most spectacular natural features and human-built structures. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the o ...

. Typically, each civilization will constantly expand by founding new cities until all of the map is settled. Analogous to

chess pieces A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (ches ...

, the many different units vary in their functions, mirroring historical types of soldiers and occupations. Units occupy one tile at a time and may move every turn. Most of them can attack others in battle; a minority have non-military functions. After civilizations make contact, they begin diplomatic relations. In war, a civilization may conquer another civilization's cities. When all of a player's cities are conquered, they are permanently removed from the game. To end war, two players may promise peaceful relations. Scientific research is a focal point of the game. Players begin with primitive technology and hence limited possible actions. Grouped by eras from ancient to modern, civilization advances, both scientific and societal, offer numerous advantages. There are three paths to victory: conquering all other civilizations, building a spaceship that reaches the

Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri (, α Cen, or Alpha Cen) is a star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus (constellation), Centaurus. It consists of three stars: Rigil Kentaurus (), Toliman (), and Proxima Centauri (). Proxima Centauri ...

star system using advanced technology, and otherwise surviving until 2020 AD. A player's score is calculated after finishing the game.

Other features

''Civilization II'' supports mods that customize game graphics or mechanics. "Scenarios" are preset game files that emulate historical, fictional or other situations.

Differences from ''Civilization''

''Civilization II'' is similar to its predecessor ''

Civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

'', with some changes to and additions of units, civilizations, world wonders, tile "specials" and technologies. Entirely new concepts include diplomatic reputation and production waste. The world map was changed from a top-down view to an

isometric The term ''isometric'' comes from the Greek for "having equal measurement". isometric may mean: * Cubic crystal system, also called isometric crystal system * Isometre, a rhythmic technique in music. * "Isometric (Intro)", a song by Madeon from ...

representation. The

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

for the human player's opponents was also improved.

Development

''Civilization II'' was designed by Brian Reynolds, Douglas Caspian-Kaufman and

Jeff Briggs Jeffery L. Briggs (born March 10, 1957) is the American founder and former President and CEO of Firaxis Games, a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States. He was previously a game designer at MicroProse but left that com ...

. Following the success of ''Civilization'', the ongoing development of a sequel was kept secret for years. The game was publicly announced when the team was in the final stage of tweaking and balancing. The game's working title was ''Civilization 2000''. Asked about

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is an American businessman and computer programmer. A programmer, designer, and producer of many strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series, Meier co-found ...

's involvement in the project, Reynolds replied, "We sat down and brainstormed about it and hashed out ideas, that's about it." Emulating the recently released ''

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'', Reynolds implemented support for

modding Modding (from "modifying") is the act of modifying hardware, software, or anything else to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specification or appearance. The term is often used in reference to vid ...

despite Meier's fear that customers would blame the company for poor-quality mods. Meier commented, "''Civilization'' greatly favored the military approach to achieving victory. We've now adjusted the balance to make trade and diplomacy a more integral part of the game". On the PC ''Civilization II'' was developed for

Windows 3.1 Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series run as a shell on top of MS-DOS; it was the last Windows 1 ...

and later using the

WinG A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

API. The later released ''Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition'' required

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

, and no longer ran on Windows 3.1.

Release

Re-release

The game was re-released on December 9, 1998 as ''Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition'', which bundled the two prior expansion packs and added options for multi-player games, among other tweaks with the disadvantage that it required Windows 95 and later, while the original Civilization 2 version worked in Windows 3.1. The ''Multiplayer Gold Edition'' was included in the ''Civilization Chronicles'' box set released in 2006.

Expansion sets

There were two expansion packs that slowly added more features to the game. The first, '' Conflicts in Civilization'', included 20 new scenarios: 12 created by the makers of the game, and eight "Best of the Net" by fans. It also added an enhanced macro language for scenario scripting with advanced programming features such as variable typing and network features, which was considered widely unnecessary. Due to a programming bug, the ''

Encarta Microsoft ''Encarta'' is a discontinued Digital data, digital multimedia encyclopedia and search engine published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available online via annual subscription, although ...

''-style Civilopedia was disabled from the game. The second expansion was ''Civ II: Fantastic Worlds''. It also added new scenarios that had many unique settings such as one scenario dealing with colonization of Mars, and one scenario called Midgard that had Elven, Goblin, Merman, and other civilizations from fantasy. There are also some scenarios based on other MicroProse games such as '' X-COM'', ''

Master of Orion ''Master of Orion'' (abbreviated as MoO) is a turn-based, 4X science fiction strategy game in which the Player character, player leads one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing techn ...

'' and ''

Master of Magic ''Master of Magic'' is a single-player, fantasy turn-based strategy, turn-based 4X, 4X strategy game in which the player plays as a Magician (fantasy), wizard attempting to dominate two linked worlds. From a small settlement, the player manages ...

'' "Jr." scenarios. ''Fantastic Worlds'' also contains a new scenario editor that allowed users to edit the statistics and icons used for units, city improvements, terrain, and technologies, as well as creating event triggers and other enhancements to the game.

Remake

The

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

'' Civilization II: Test of Time'' was released in 1999, following ''

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri ''Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'' is a 4X video game, considered a spiritual sequel to the ''Civilization'' series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the plane ...

''. ''Test of Time'' has a new palette and user interface, and new features such as animated units, a playable Alpha Centauri to settle and new campaign modes.

Reception

Sales

''Civilization II'' placed second on

PC Data PC Data was an American market research and point of sale tracking firm founded in 1991 and based in Reston, Virginia. Its founder, Ann Stephens, had worked previously as the head researcher for the Software Publishers Association. Initially, th ...

's monthly computer game sales chart for April 1996. The game secured position 3 for the next four months, before dropping to No. 5 in September. It exited PC Data's top 10 in December, after remaining there for an additional two months. In the United States, ''Civilization II'' was the third-best-selling computer game of the first six months of 1996, and the fifth-highest seller of the year as a whole. Worldwide, its sales surpassed 400,000 copies by August, reached 500,000 in September and topped 600,000 by November. In the United States alone, it sold 482,522 units and earned $21.1 million by the end of 1996. By mid-January 1997, global sales of ''Civilization II'' had surpassed 720,000 copies. It finished 20th on PC Data's monthly chart for March, and was the United States' 17th-highest-selling computer game of the year's first half. The game had topped its predecessor's 850,000 sales that August, and continued to sell "over 20,000 units a month" by November, according to Microprose. ''Civilization II'' reached 1.2 million units sold by April 1998; Terry Coleman of ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' wrote that sales were "still going strong" at that time. In the United Kingdom alone, the game sold 160,000 units by 1999. It also received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) in August 1998, for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. ''Civilization II Gold'' alone sold 171,495 copies in the United States by September 2000, according to PC Data. In August 2001, Jeff Briggs of

Firaxis Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They we ...

estimated that ''Civilization II'' had sold "about 3 million" copies. Meier said that he was "wrong on all counts" about opposing mod support; "The strength of the modding community is, instead, the very reason the series survived".

Critical reviews

On release, a reviewer for ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' ventured that ''Civilization II'' "may be one of the most balanced and playable games ever released." He especially praised the added depth of the combat, diplomatic relations, and trade over the original ''Civilization'', which he said was one of the best games ever released for PC. ''

'' gave it the Strategy Game of the Year award, and ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' named it the overall game of the year, calling it and its predecessor "perhaps the finest strategy games ever made." ''Civilization II'' was nominated as ''

Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' 1996 game of the year, although it lost to ''

Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise i ...

''. However, it won the magazine's award for the best turn-based strategy game of the year. It also won a Spotlight Award for Best PC/Mac Game. ''

Macworld ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

'' Michael Gowan wrote, "Hard-core strategists will enjoy this game's complexity." ''Next Generation'' reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "Overall, ''Civ II'' remains one of strategy gaming's finest hours and is a welcome addition on PlayStation. For those who are willing, it's a game of limitless possibilities." In 2007, ''Civilization II'' was ranked as third in

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

's list of the 100 greatest video games of all time, having previously rated it at number 15 in 2003. In 2012,

G4tv G4 (also known as G4TV) was an American pay television and digital network owned by NBCUniversal and later Comcast Spectacor that primarily focused on video games. The network was originally owned by G4 Media, a joint venture between the NB ...

ranked it as the 62nd top video game of all time. Polish web portal

Wirtualna Polska Wirtualna Polska (WP ) (lit. Virtual Poland) is a group of companies operating in the media and e-commerce sectors. The WP Group owns the Wirtualna Polska horizontal portal founded in 1995 and known for being the first internet portal in Polan ...

ranked it as the most addictive game "that stole our childhood". The journal article "Theoretical Frameworks for Analysing Turn-Based Computer Strategy Games" deemed it "significant and influential". In Ted Friedman's essay "Civilization and its Discontents: Simulation, Subjectivity, and Space" from the collection ''Discovering Discs: Transforming Space and Genre on CD-ROM'', he argues that the game "simultaneously denies and de-personalizes the violence in the history of 'exploration, colonization, and development". ''Computer Shopper'' deemed it a "worthy successor" to Civilization, and "arguably the finest multiplayer game ever created". In anticipation to the launch of ''

'', ''New Straits Times'' described ''Civilization II'' as "the best turn-based empire- building strategy game". ''Baltimore Afro-American'' was "obsessed with the game". ''Tribune Business News'' deemed it an "old favorite". The game was the fourth bestseller in October 1996 and the 3rd bestseller in December 1997. ''PC Games'' argued that the game "cemented the franchise's place in videogame history." In 1998, ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' declared it the 2nd-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "intelligent, engrossing and entertaining beyond compare, it's one of the finest artistic achievements of the last decade". In 1996, ''

GamesMaster ''GamesMaster'' was a British television programme which originally aired on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998. In 2021, it returned for a new series on YouTube and E4. It was the first UK television programme dedicated to video games. Dominik Di ...

'' ranked the game sixth in a list of the top 100 games of all time, writing: "''Civ 2'' could well be one of the world's most addicting games."

Legacy

Several other games have been heavily inspired by ''Civilization II''. In 2006, an

N-Gage The N-Gage is a mobile device combining features of a cellular phone and a handheld game system developed by Nokia, released on 7 October 2003. Officially nicknamed the ''game deck'', the N-Gage's phone works on the GSM cellular network, and s ...

version of ''Civilization'' was released, based on ''Civilization II'' and its successor '' III''. The

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

game ''

Freeciv ''Freeciv'' is a single-player video game, single- and multiplayer video game, multiplayer turn-based strategy game for workstations and personal computers inspired by the proprietary software, proprietary ''Civilization (series), Sid Meier's ...

'' has a "ruleset" that is virtually identical to ''II'''s mechanics. In 2011, researchers at the

MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is a research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) formed by the 2003 merger of the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) and the Artificial Intelligence Lab ...

and the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

published the results of a machine learning system playing ''Civilization II'', in its ''Freeciv'' implementation, which used the text from its official game manual to guide its strategy. The linguistically informed player outperformed its language-unaware counterpart, winning over 78% of games when playing against the built-in AI, a 27% absolute improvement. The same group also showed that their "non-linear Monte-Carlo search wins 80% of games against the handcrafted, built-in AI". In June 2012, the

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

user "Lycerius" posted details of his decade-long ''Civilization II'' game, since dubbed "The Eternal War". The viral story spread to many blogs and news sites. The game closely mimicked social conditions in the dystopian novel ''

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

'' of George Orwell, with three superpowers engaged in perpetual multiple-front total warfare.

Notes

References

External links

Official website

''Civilization II''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

''Civilization II''
– entry on the Civilization Wiki, a non-Wikipedia-affiliated

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...