I’ve got Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome. I really like this game. I play it all the time. I’ve been thinking of getting Civ II. It sounds like the same game. I’m not opposed to getting very similar games. I got AoE because it reminded me of my PlayStation WarCraft.
Does anyone know what the major differences are between these 2 games? Is the gameplay exactly the same. Should I buy Civ II?
Contrast and compare.
Civ II is more interesting. The technology tree is more detailed. There are lots more units. There is not the dune2/command and conquer idea of mining resources. In Civ II the resources are cities that you build and they more or less autonomously gather resources. There is some tweaking you can do but not so much that it gets boring. Also Civ II is turn based instead of real time.
many differences actually:
AOE is more like a “conrtol your uints and attack the enemy game” yes there are resource mining and research portions but the goal is “destroy everyone or build a wonder”
Civ is more like micromanaging, you could destroy everyone or try to create a spasheship for colonization or simply just retire after 2000 years.
I like AOE a lot when i’m in a “seige” type mood. (If you like age of kings get Age of Kings and the Conqueror’s expansion lots of nice updates)
I like Civ2 when i want to play “ruler”
They are both excellent games for strategy.
Civ 2 is a classic, but you may want to wait until the end of the month when Civ 3 comes out.
I’m getting Civ2 because Civ3 is coming out. The price has dropped significantly. I can’t bring myself to pay more than $30 for a game.
Civ is beginning to sound more like my cuppa. My favorite thing to do in AoE is build a big wall around my city so that I can build it nice just the way I like. And I always start with one nomad. It’s just funner that way.
AoE is a real-time strategy (“RTS”) game. In my experience, these are better known as “build up a huge army and rush your opponent first” games, and a single scenario can usually be played to completion in two hours or so.
Civilization, OTOH, is a turn-based empire-building game. The goal is to begin in 4,000 BC with a simple primitive tribe who have the knowledge of irrigation, mining, and road-building, and grow and learn, mastering your planet and your civilization (hence the name), eventually building the first faster-than-light starship to travel to nearby Alpha Centauri. Good luck - you have 6,000 years to do it.
A successful game of Civilization is likely to last several weeks. Once you master it, if you have purchased Civilization II: Test of Time, you can test your skill by braving the futuristic Lalande scenario or the fantastic Midgard setting.
Of course the big difference is that Civ is a turn-based game. No mad click click click. The trouble is that a game takes hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. But Civ is sooooo fun. I would rate it superior to AOE.
If you like Age of Empires, you should get Age of Kings. The same idea, but done better, with lots of little improvements to make things easier. For instance, if you press the “,” key, you immediately jump to an idle villager. I wouldn’t be able to play without that feature.
But Civilization is probably the best computer game of all time.
Damitol!
I was so phyched after reading the responses in this thread. I saw Civ2 for twenty bucks two days ago at the Staples near me. For 20 bucks! I went after work today-- no more Civ2s. I went to the Office Max, then I went to Software Etc and then I went to Circut City. Nobody had it.
P.S. My nabe is a consumer paradise. Or an over-yuppie-ized materialistic den of iniquity. Take your pick.
If you can’t find Civ 2 some similar games to AOE are Warcraft 2 and Starcraft (gameplay wise, its actually set in the future with 3 very different races)
I saw the original Civilization II (as opposed to the Gold version which has multiplayer but is otherwise the same game) in jewel case only form at K-Mart for $9.99 last night. You might want to try hitting the discount software rack at places like K-Mart, WalMart, Target or wherever.
BG,
Be forewarned, CivII addiction makes heroin look like a passing fancy. I LIKE a turn based, I can think and plan, rather than react. I await the 30th for III, but it looks a little touchy-feely,politically correct. (In CivII there is also a leaning, it is much easier to reach Alpha than conquer the world, IMO).
If that dinner you spoke of comes about (that 10% rebvate to the restaurant people?) I will go into an hour on why Civ is a great game. Heck, I have the original on 5 1/4" floppies (2).
Oh Lurk, about that dinner. It was last Thursday. My husband thought it would be a good idea for our family to go out to dinner together-- alone. I agreed. I guess I’m whipped.
By the next DinnerDope I will (hopefully) be already addicted. You can give me all that good advice then (I like gaming, but I’m not terribly good at it.)
Even though there is an obscene amount of shopping choices in my area Jophiel, there are no WalMarts, K-marts or Targets within walking distance. But I’d brave the subway into Manhattan for Civ at 10 dollars. And with the state of the subway system these days, that’s saying a lot.
OK, BG, I wouldn’t want Houseman mad at me. Hope you had a good time, and I’ll talk Civ the next time I see you. Maybe check the CompUsa around 38th and 5th or so. Bought Baldur’s Gate for liek 20 there a while back.
If you don’t want to risk going out there and returning empty handed, let me know and I can pick one up for you and mail it off. No hassle, honestly. I pass the K-Mart/Target/Meijers triad of discount buying power twice daily and am often popping in for diapers and stuff. Wouldn’t take but an extra second to walk over to electronics and buy one and I already own the padded shipping envelopes from my eBay selling days 
If you’ve never played Civilization or Civilization II, Biggirl I would advise against purchasing a jewel-case-only version of either game, especially the latter. They are extremely complex, and unless you’ve been playing that kind of game for years (and those two particular games for months), you’re going to need the instruction manual and technology tree map handy to have even the slightest prayer of enjoying the game the way it’s meant to be enjoyed.
Packing the docs onto the CD in PDF format just doesn’t cut it, IMHO.
I haven’t played CivII, but I can tell you that Alpha Centauri, CivII’s semi-sequel, is 100X better than AoE. But there different games. You need more patience for AC than AoE.
I would definitely rank CIV II as the better one. But make sure you get the Call to Power version. Even more technologies, nations, options, units and stuff. SOOOOOO addictive. I’ve spent hours and hour and hours playing Civ. Basically, you say something like, I’ll stop after this turn and go do something else. Then something’ll happen and you’ll say, ok, after THIS turn I’ll stop. And the vicious circle keeps going until its 3AM and you have to get up in 3 hours.
No, no, no, do NOT get Call to Power! Call to Power is a completely different game which, IMHO, sucks.
The beaty of CivII is not in the graphics, not in the bells and whistles and animation, it is in the gameplay.
Alpha Centauri is very good too. I play that nowadays when I want a dose of Civ. I’m just hoping the Civ3 will be good…
Thanks for the offer Jophiel, but I like wandering around the software aisles. Maybe I’ll be able to get to CompUSA. While I’m there I can see if they have the memory card for my other new toy --my mp3 player. (I LOVE my mp3 player. If I can get that memory card I can put up to 6 CDs on it. More than 6 hours of music. I’ll never have to listen to my co-workers ever again!)
O.K. Civ2. I’ll need the instructions, so unless the jewel box is really half the price of the big ole box, that’s what I’m gonna get. I’m all excited. Thanks guys.
If you decide to get AoE, make sure you get the Kings version. The one big plus in my mind is the fact that you can automatically set the villagers to build farms when their farms get exhausted (provided you have the resources). In the other AoE it seems that you are forever telling villagers to build farms and that is a big pain.