Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword [PC]

Even mastering these new elements -- by itself a daunting prospect -- still doesn't exhaust everything Beyond the Sword has to offer. Like Warlords, Beyond the Sword offers a number of mods and CivIV conversions to play between rounds of the main game. Some of them were created by the development team, others are polished-up version of popular offerings from the Civilization mod community. The best of the bunch by far is "Final Frontier." This turns Civ IV into a space expansion game not unlike Galactic Civilizations II (though considerably less complex). More than just a redress, "Final Frontier" creates a very different strategic feel with an elegant "Rock, paper, scissors" spaceship combat model that seems inspired by real-time strategy titles.

The other variants available in Beyond the Sword are equally radical modifications and redesigns of the original game. My personal favorite is "Age of Ice," part of the popular "Fall from Heaven" mod series which adds some RPG elements into the game and turns it into one giant puzzle map. That means it's not really replayable, but it sure is fun while it lasts. There are three excellent new WWII scenarios, a "commerce victory" scenario that challenges players to accumulate wealth rather than conquering cities and the "Next War" mod that adds near-future toys like 'Mechs and cloned armies to the end game. The only real clunker of the bunch is "Afterworld" which turns the game into a simplified squad-based tactical game -- though even that mod gets an "A" for effort and major style points for its super-cool comic-book-style opening. There is, of course, the question of paying for stuff available for free on the 'Net, but as those scenarios are such a small part of what the expansion offers, they're more of a bonus than an actual feature.

One of the game's few weaknesses actually stems from its greatest strength -- the sheer amount of content in the expansion. Civilization IV was already a complicated game but the level of complexity (and the resulting need to micromanage) that Beyond the Sword adds is just unbelievable. When fifty-two factors combine with every move a player makes, there's always the possibility that Beyond the Sword might exacerbate the "Dead Game Walking" syndrome in which a player loses the game but doesn't realize until another 200 turns have passed. Civilization IV fans will love it. Heck, I love it, but I eat strategy games with my morning Lucky Charms. If Civilization IV reminds you more of Microsoft's Excel than a fun way to pass the time, Beyond the Sword will do nothing to bring you into the fold.

A bit more problematic is the game's interface, never one of its strong points. With all the new data the game adds, the UI has become a riot of buttons, numbers and symbols throwing a colossal amount of not-very-well-organized information at the player. Want to find out what's going on with the Apostolic Palace? Don't look on the religion information screens where it would make sense. It's under "Victory Conditions" despite the fact that winning an Apostolic Palace victory is by far the most infrequently used function of the Palace. It sure would be nice if my "Corporation Adviser" and the resource trading screen could be found in close proximity since the location of particular resources and who holds them is crucial in managing them. It's not like this level of information can't be managed well. The hyperlinked elegance of the UI in Galactic Civilizations II is one the Civilization IV team would do well to study.

In the end such complaints are far, far outweighed by the sheer amount of awesome content available in Beyond the Sword. It's easy to imagine a "gilding the lily" scenario where just throwing random additions into the game threw off one of the most elegant strategic titles currently available today. That the Civilization IV team didn't do this and instead gave us some great new additions to the game is remarkable in itself. That these additions make the experience deeper and richer and way more fun can be considered nothing less than a "Wonder."

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