Likely worth it. Reviews lean strongly positive.
At $19.99. It has been as low as $3.99.
- Gameplay: 35 reviews raised it, mostly praise
- Graphics: 30 reviews raised it, mostly praise
- Interface: 11 reviews raised it, mostly praise
- Combat: 13 reviews raised it, mostly criticism
- Crashes: 11 reviews raised it, mostly criticism
Based on 4k player reviews · updated 20 hours ago
What players think
The recurring themes across 300 analysed reviews: what players praise, what divides them, and what to know.
Sid Meier's Civilization IV, released in 2005 by Firaxis Games, stands as one of the most defining entries in the grand strategy genre, refining the turn-based 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) gameplay that the Civilization series helped pioneer.
Better experience over graphics any day would happen to be the Bias i Shine like a Motto at. the Tier list war amongst the Franchise Playerbase has convinced me thoroughly that Civ 4 is the Best Civ Game. if it wasn't for that i would have never come to know that IV was the Final and Apex of Sid's work; Akin to How Final Fantasy 9 was Composer Nobuo Uematsu's Final Game (where he composed solely, he was passing 10 to a successor concurrently) and in his own words "Magnum Opus" though i Consider FF6's Soundtrack to be the Best.
Though not cutting-edge by modern standards, the visuals were a vast improvement at the time, with dynamic unit animations, zoomable terrain, and a more immersive interface.
At least Civ IV had a Better soundtrack for this from it's own Ancient tracks and Antiquity down to the Rennaisance and Medieval Pieces from Public Domain.
I think diplomacy in general is at it's best in IV, the characters feel like more of a presence and I love the little mini-window so it feels like they're just dropping by instead of dominating your whole view while you're trying to do something.
Despite its solid age, Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a great starting point for getting to know the series, especially if you're not interested in online multiplayer.
Theme by theme
Every theme is scored by what reviewers actually said about it, not just whether they recommended the game.
No themes split opinion in this sample.
Ranked by how many sampled reviews mention each topic. A topic sits in a column by what reviewers said about that topic; the percentage beside it is how many of them recommended the game anyway. 3 more themes were each raised by fewer than 6 sampled reviews and are not shown.
Should you buy it now?
Crit’s read on the price, from Steam price history.
Currently $19.99. The lowest we've tracked is $3.99.
The data behind the verdict
For the players who want the receipts.
We’ll surface hours-played once playtime ingestion ships.
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