Do you want a quick Run through? (Call to Power 2 (PC))

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Product:	Call to Power 2 (PC)
Date:	08.03.01 (279 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great strategy game

Disadvantages: none

Call to Power 2 like all the other games in the Sid Meier series of Civilisation is a superbly thought and crafted game. I have all the Civilisation games and I rate all of them very highly. I will now give you a quick run through of the themes and points of the game.

First of all, you must know that Call to Power is a turn-based game. This basically means that you have a go and move all your units and then the computer has its go. It's not simultaneous. I think this is the best way to do a game like this as people with slow reactions (like me) can take the game nice and slowly at their own pace. As this game is turn based it means that everything you make in your cities and the actual time of the game revolves around the number of turns something takes. For example in the early years of the game (BC) one turn equals about 100 years. Later on in the game this value decreases and one turn may equal 1 or 2 years. Also when you build either a unit, city improvement or a wonder of the world it takes a certain number of turns for the unit, building or wonder to be created. Having more production shields, which can be achieved chiefly by building a city in a mountainous area or by mining the land in that cities city area, decreases this effect.

The main aims of the game are winning either scientifically or by war. If you want to win at all however you need to have either the best researches for implements of war or you must strive towards the Gaia Controller which is what you build to create a utopia, this is when the game ends. You must increase the size of your empire by building settlers that you can then use to build cities. Cities built on rivers are best at the start because they give an even amount of food and production shields. You must also attempt to build your empire in a reasonably small space of land because attacks can be fended off more easily. An isolated city is more at risk than a whole conurbation.

It is
best to start researching as much as possible at the start so put taxes down a bit and also public works down as you don't need public works at this early stage. Attempt to get as many wonders as you can especially the pyramids and other important ones like the Appian Way and the Chitchen Itza. Wonders give you special bonuses like they make your people happy or reduce crime or give you money, so it's always good to have them. Remember always keep your people happy because if they go against you it is very difficult to regain power completely. As you travel through the ages you will be given the option to build city improvements for your city, it's also good to do these as all improvements improve that city by e.g. less crime, happiness etc.

With the game comes a research tree and using this you can choose which researches are of most benefit to you at that moment e.g. if you are under attack and the research for musketeers or infantry comes up you should take it.

As you explore you will encounter "strange new worlds" and you have the option of diplomacy, to discuss treaties, embargoes, and declarations of war and alliances. There is only one hint here make pacts with strong nations pressurise weaker civilisations, unless some people are really annoying you, then you just take them out later on in the game with say………….. Nukes?

There are many different government types you can choose to run your government and you obtain new governments by researching them. They range from the monarchy, communism, democracy, republic and ecotopia and many others. You must choose which suits you best. They all allow a maximum amount of cities in your civilisation and if you're at war don't choose democracy because the blasted senate will overrule your declarations, however if you're lucky the Hawk Party will mess this up and you are free to declare. It is always best to be fair in your trea
tment of other civilisations as your rating tumbles if for example you attack without declaring war.

Later on in the game you will experience a lot of pollution due to your cities being too productive there is nothing you can do except reset the square and start it again.

On your screen you are given a huge map of things, land, sea, civilisation boundaries, trade routes, cities. This is very useful and big and you can easily navigate this map by clicking on the bit you want to go to.

Trade plays a large part in the game and you can only create trade routes in cities that have natural resources inside their city radius. You can trade these with other countries by going to the trade tab and pressing trade but each trade route needs a number of caravans to take them there and you have to build them. The caravans are a unit and can be built by cities.

As you use public works for roads, mines, irrigation and fisheries your city derives benefit from this and obtains increased food, movement points, production shields. This enables your city to grow and in time your city will increase in size as the population gets bigger; this in turn provides more land→more food→more people→increase in city size and then the process keeps going. It is within your interests to have a larger population as it fills jobs.

If you are finding life tough you have the option to put your city in the trusting hands of a mayor. Don't do this unless you really need to because the mayor is rubbish.

As time passes and you get more new technologies and units you can build under water and use under water unit's etc and this is unlike any other civ game. This is superb as it gives us an insight into what life could be like in the 3rd millennia.

At the end of the game you have either killed all civilisations or won the race for Gaia but the satisfaction of winning or taking part is superb. It even gives you
an incentive because you are given a score of how well you have done taking into account all the things you've done.

This game is easy to use and comes with a very thorough manual and there are different levels you can play on depending how good you feel you are. There is also a scenario game that you can play scenarios of what happened in history, great fun, all the work's done for you.
If there was one downfall it would be its lack of Internet features. You can't play over the net but in fairness it would be very long.


This is the best game I have ever played and if you're into strategy games I strongly advise you get this, as it is so in-depth and enthralling.

Summary: