Sid Meier's Civilization II

Civilization II , or Sid Meier's Civilization II, is a turn-based strategy game, the sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization. Brian Reynolds was the lead designer. It was released in 1996 for the PC and later ported to the Sony PlayStation. It is also called Civ II for short.

Civilization II is very much like the first Civilization, with some changes to the units and civilizations and additional wonders, units, tile "specials" and technologies included. The graphics (greatly improved with clickable links and movable windows) have been changed from top-down view to isometric representation.

Rivers no longer occupy the whole of each tile along its length. The river is just part of each topography square it flows through, adding productive value and movement ability. Rivers now act much like roads- moving one square along a river will cost only 1/3 of a movement point.

The game features entirely new concepts, such as firepower and hitpoints (meaning phalanxes cannot so easily beat battleships), and changes some units' abilities and strengths. For instance, engineers and settlers can be automated to improve surrounding areas, but no longer ignore enemy zones of control. Legions cost more and have greater attack and defense values; some new units are added such as stealth bomber and stealth fighter.

One memorable element in the game is the ability to consult the "High Council" for advice (as long as the player still has the CD in the drive). The council consists of film clips of young actors portraying advisors in the areas of the military (a brawny man, often drunk, angry or both; he becomes a stereotypical American general when you reach Modern Age), economics (a snooty and suave businessman), diplomacy (a saucy Femme Fatale with a vaguely Eastern European accent), technological progress (a stereotypically nerdy scientist), and the people's happiness (an Elvis Presley lookalike). They often argue with and insult one another, as each advisor's department demands a different set of priorities. The counselors' costumes change with each new era. In many ways, the 'High Council' constitutes a bit of comic relief. Amusingly, when the player is experiencing anarchy, the characters begin talking at the same time, interrupting each other, and finally beginning to fight, with all counselor windows shutting down and turning into the "A" symbol of Anarchism.

There are two paths to victory in this game: to conquer every other civilization, or to build a spaceship and reach Alpha Centauri. The latter can be much more difficult because there are a limited number of turns in the game, ending in the year 2020. If the spaceship does not reach Alpha Centauri by then, the game will simply end. The player can continue playing after all civilizations have been conquered, the spaceship has reached its destination, or the year 2020, but there will no longer be any scoring. The sooner a player conquers every other civilization, or the space ship arrives, the better as far as scoring is concerned.

There is a scoring system which will measure how well one did. Each happy citizen contributes two points, each content citizen contributes one point, and each unhappy citizen contributes zero points. This means that the higher the population of your civilization, the higher you can expect your score to be. Corrupt players may increase the luxury rate to the maximum (depending upon their government type) right before the very end of the game in order to inflate their scores. Each wonder of the world will also add 20 points to the end score. Each square with pollution deducts ten points. The final score will also give a civilization percentage. The higher this percentage is, the better. Finally, a title will be given to the player. Particularly good ones include "Lion-Hearted," "the Great" with the greatest obtainable title being "The Magnificent."

Sound effects used during combat come from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.