I cannot rave enough about this game. If you like turn-based strategy at all, or even if you don't, you owe it to yourself to try this game out. Though I will say right now that I have not played Colonization, I have played the base game, Warlords and Beyond the Sword, and loved them all. I'll go by categories. AI. Wow. I don't think much more is needed. The AI don't just do things similar to the players, they do the same things, and usually better. The AI all take place in careful negotiating, the raising of an army, the cultivating of culture, the bettering of a city, the expanding of an empire and so on. There are I believe ten levels of difficulty for the AI, the lowest being Settler and the highest being Deity. Anything below the fourth or fifth difficulty gives the player advantages when they start the game, then on Noble difficulty they even out with no advantages, and every difficulty after the player is playing against a better privileged AI than himself. Next are the graphics. Once again I was blown away. I played Civilization 3 for a long time before I even knew Civilization 4 had come out, and when I saw the graphics for Civilization 4, I was simply awestruck. Compared to the other games in the series, Civilization 4 is beautiful, with lush environments, rolling waves, trees moving in the wind, animals walking about carelessly, warriors prepped for battle, and so on, and all of this is from a nearly godlike camera angle, looking down on your civilization. Sound. There's background music, there's environment noise, there's the sound of battle, the sound of horns honking when you zoom in on a modern city and so forth. The music first off, changes with each era you proceed, starting with simple tribal drums accompanied from time to time with rattling beads or wooden wind chimes, and eventually leading to old time rock and roll and beyond. The environment noise, as should be expected, changes depending on what your camera is near. If your camera is hovering over a forest, you may hear birds, over a jungle you may hear chimpanzees screeching or jungle cats roaring. Challenge. I'll simply mention I've never beaten the game on the Deity difficulty, I've never even come close honestly. I've barely ever beaten Noble difficulty, and spend the majority of my time on Warlord or Chieftain, two of the lowest difficulties. No matter your skill level, you'll find a difficulty you can beat, one you can't and one that challenges you just enough that sometimes you succeed in great victory or lose in honorable defeat. The interface is nice, but not all of it is explained. I've owned the game for a year or two now, and I'm still figuring out some things, but all of it is more advanced tactics. At the click of a button you can see your military power, economy, culture, research and espionage compared to your nearest rivals. And constantly on the screen you can see how your overall score stacks up against theirs. By hovering your mouse over one of your opponents' names you can see your relationship with that person, how they feel about your nation, and what deals you currently have. You sometimes may also see if they have a certain extreme relationship with another player or AI (such as a title like "Worst enemy of Tokugawa", meaning if you trade with this person, Tokugawa will become angry with you). By clicking on that AI's name, you can enter a trade screen and haggle to your heart's desire, or just give them gifts to increase your relationship. There is no storyline. The entire game is free-play. Which I think, for the kind of game it is, is PERFECTLY fine. Now to the important part, GAMEPLAY. Sure I've said all these wonderful things about the game, but what I've really said so far is "if you like this game, this is what you'll like about it". Now I'll tell you why you like this game. Here's a simplified version of the beginning of a Civilization 4 game. 4000 BC - game begins, you start out with a settler to se
yes: I recommend this product
