When I first heard that Sid Meier’s masterpiece series for the PC was being recreated for consoles, I was skeptical. How could they possibly fit such a complex turn-based strategy game into a PS3 or an Xbox 360? Imagine my confusion then, when I learned that a DS version was also in the works. How much would they dumb it down? Would it even still be the same game?

In Civilization: Revolution there are four different ways of winning: Domination, Culture, Economic, and Technological. For Domination, you have to capture all the other civs’ capital cities while Culture requires you to recruit 20 Great Persons, world wonders, and converted cities, in addition to building the United Nations wonder. For the Economic Condition, you need to have 20,000 gold in your coffers and have built the World Bank wonder. Finally, the Technological Condition requires you to be the first civilization to launch a ship into space and reach Alpha Centauri. The game also offers ten scenarios that differ from the regular gameplay. Blitzkrieg offers endless war, while Age of Imperialism begins during the Industrial Era with an emphasis on naval warfare. Meanwhile, Attack of the Huns requires you to capture the neighboring civs’ capitals before the barbarians.

Unlike its big brother PC versions, you can’t customize the size of your world map. Therefore, you’re stuck with a small map, which means that you run into other civilizations a lot sooner, accelerating gameplay. A smaller map isn’t the only factor that speeds things up—fans of the series will find that many familiar features have been simplified. Instead of building workers to build roads or other land improvements, you simply pay a few pieces of gold to do so. You have immediate access to all governments, while the various forms of religion found in Civilization IV have been removed. Most technologies are still discovered the old fashioned way, through research. However, some have been incorporated into milestones. For example, if your civ earns 250 gold, you gain knowledge of Currency, and you gain another economics-related tech when you reach 500 gold.

War is an inevitable part in any Civilization game. Perhaps Cleopatra envies your endless supply of plutonium, or Genghis Khan is feeling nervous that you’re more successful than him? Then again, maybe you’re feeling a bit cramped being surrounded by three other civs and wish to give yourself some room by taking a few of their cities? There’s always a reason for war, and in the case of Civilization: Revolution, your rival civs will start a fight for any reason. Even while playing at a relatively low difficulty, I found that the neighboring civs were quick to anger and are merciless extortionists. In later stages of the game I was often in one war after another, which can be frustrating for beginners who prefer to take a more peaceful route.

If you go to war for whatever reason, then you need units to defend your cities and attack enemy ones. Each unit has an attack and defense rating, so you’ll need a balanced combination of units in the field. If you have three of the same unit, you can combine them to form an army, which is more powerful than any single unit. You can then send your multiple armies to attack an enemy city. Sadly, you can’t move stacks of armies at the same time, and it’s incredibly frustrating to move ten armies one at a time. As in the PC versions, your units can obtain veteran status after winning a fight or two, and can even earn bonuses, like faster healing in the battlefield or better city defense.

Civilization: Revolution for the DS does a remarkably good job in retaining the best features of its PC predecessors. It may be a distilled version of the game but its addictive nature remains. When I started playing it, I couldn’t put it down. I was struck with the “Just One More Turn” disease. Granted, veteran players of the game who live for micromanagement may balk at the simplified, hurried gameplay. However, it can be a great game for those new to the series, or for those who don’t wish to spend hours agonizing over and tweaking each city’s production rate.

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