Sid Meier's Civilization IV®: The Complete Edition

Although the Civ series has many great entries, this is the one that I believe to stand out. It offers various ways of winning the game, and within those ways, various ways of attaining your goals. This, along with the possibility of almost extreme micro-management (you can automatize these if you prefer to do so), various types of maps, random seeds means an almost unlimited replayability, which is further enhanced by the challenges the game poses: the easiest settings are extremely easy (great for beginners or people who want to experiment with various tactics), the medium ones are challenging (particularly on larger maps), while the most difficult are extremely punishing. This means that CIV IV offers both a quick, leisurely game, as well as a long and grueling campaign, depending on which you prefer. Although the later Civ games are fun, this is the one that offers most, is most meticulous and well-though through. I've been playing CIV IV on a regular basis since it originally came out. Colonization, while somewhat less polished, is a great game in its own right, with an overhauled UI to better suit the atmosphere of the game and gameplay just somewhat less addictive.

I started with Civilization I, it was great back then. The Civ II - even better, but for me the 3D map was a bit hard to read and navigate. The Civ III was a good improvement. But the 4th was the best possible - with Beyond the Sword expansion. Great 3D engine, LOTS of units, civilizations, buildings, wonders, new concepts as religions, espionage (corporations didn't work form me, don't know why). It is wanderfully complex... well, maybe not really so complex to became difficult, but gives a lots of possibilites, I still play it after so many years and cannot get bored. The Civilization V was... maybe not poor, it had some good ideas, but the idea of one unit on one tile was too strict, it drastically simplified the wars, the AI was just stupid, cities developing was unreallistic (in XI century I have to decide FOREVER what will be my town), half of the leaders, cililizations, units, concepts was taken away. Civilization VI is a slight upgrade of the Civ V, with some major flaws improved, but with hideous graphics, and still very poor and simple comparing to the Civilization IV Beyond the sword, the best Civ so far. Now I have to buy Civ IV again, because the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.s from MS made it impossible to run Civ from CD on Windows 10. But I will gladly pay once more, it is worth every dime.

This is the peak of the Civilizations "PC games" where Firaxis even had to add an in-game alarm because they knew how addictive their game was. Unlike the most recent Civ game with it's cartoon characters and tiny maps this one really had a feeling of epicness once you reached a certain point and zoomed out on the world map to see all you accomplished. I wish they had continue the path of keeping PC Civ games and Civilization Revolution for consoles separate instead of making those generic feeling, DLC infested, focus group designed "multiplatform" games.

I played it to death, in it's final form, with Beyond the Sword. I played it so much that one day, I decided to uninstall it so I could finish my PhD. It had the best flow, the best cycles/phases succession over a game, the best game loop, best frontiers system, the best religion system, the best pollution system, the best resources system, the best discontent system, and even (for me) the best music... Then came Civ V, inferior in so many things, better at so few, even after (the excellent) Brave New World... But Civ V was better at war. FOR ONE REASON. No more piles. No more 80 unit piles. Once you started playing without piles, you couldn't go back. I never could. I tried so many times, because of the nostalgia for the so many qualities of the "final Civ IV", and each time, I stopped playing. War had become atrocious, irritating, obnoxious, excruciating. I was totally unable to play and enjoy a game I had been loving so much, so blindly for years and years. It's a shame : I wish I could enjoy Civ IV once again, but V killed it for me.

In my opinion, the best civ in the series and therefore one of the best strategy games of all time. Before firaxis became over obsessed with graphics, bells and whistles which add nothing to the game, and in a lot of cases, detract from it. Software developers need to remember the old engineering adage, if it isn't broke, DON'T "FIX" IT!