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#47 REBUTTAL: FROM BW, TO PCGAMER BlueWaldo has something to say about a particular group of reviewers. #48 CIVILIZATION COMMUNITIES Derek hopes that gaming companies will soon give back something to the fans. COLUMN ARCHIVE

I have often thought about writing a column about what I thought about CtP. I held off in the early months because I was so burned by the game I couldn't control my temper. But I'm better now. I have installed CtP on my sluggish system and am beginning to appreciate the game, slightly.

Firstly, let me start off with my own Civ experience. I have played Civilization, Colonization, Civ2, SMAC, and now CtP, and I look forward to ToT and Civ3. I was introduced to the series by Colonization, and then I progressed up the normal timeline of civ-like games. I remember going berzerk at the announcement that Civ2 was out. It was everything I had hoped for, and more. How could I not be nearly as extatic when CtP came out?

Well, I was, and I will tell you the experience of the actual game felt worse than I a ton of bricks falling out of the sky on you. No disrespect to the Activision team, they obviously tried their best, and did fairly well for a first attempt at modifying a legacy. CtP though, more importantly, is a victim of the modern gaming community. I will explain in my pros and cons of the game in the next few paragraphs.

THE PROS

Great Graphics: Like most games of today, graphics have to be hyped, and call to power has no shortage of beautiful art. Animated units and all. It surely excels the industry standard here.
Great Music: Yes, I do like the African rituals that sound like Tito Puente gone mad. They cooperate well with the game to produce a more relaxing atmosphere than Civ2. I think we all had our fair share of Guhatama ponders (or however his name is spelled). I would have liked a war theme here or there though.
Multiplayer: Wow, right out of the box multiplayer... it took Civ2 two years to pull this off (much thanks due to one competing 'CivNet' title). I haven't tried this feature yet so I can't say how well it works.
Stacking: Here's where I step back and say wow. his was a truly great feature in this game. I was a little sad though that there was a limit on the size of the stack.

The following are all the problems I found with the game, hardly any of these can be blamed on Activision, but the gaming community at large. I will explain...

THE CONS:

Bloatware: Yes, Call to Power is indeed a resource hog. The Pentium-133MHZ requirement on the back of the box (or bottom) is a cruel joke. The fact is that it crawls on a system like that. The full install takes up nearly 600 megabytes, and the normal install takes something like 250MB. This is not Activision's fault though. With the introduction of ever quickening computers and expanding hard drives and memory, game companies in particular have been able to totally forget about limits when it comes to computers. I bet there are programmers out their who remember having to stay within a 640kb memory limit. No such thing today, companies frequently disregard lower-end systems, because something better does exist in the market.
Vapourware: Now the first patch was a long time coming, but the second is just plain ridiculous.

Example...

Customer: Uh, yeah I have a bug...
CtP Team: Sure, we'll fix it in the next patch
[Three months pass]
Customer: Where's that patch?
Crickets: *Chirp Chirp Chirp*

It has become a favorite policy of companies to realize that their game is flawed and run for the sequel instead of adressing the problems in the old game.

Bugs: And this has something to do with the online community. We pester and bother the companies to come out with their games as soon as possible, and we raise holy terror if they push the date back by even a few hours. But then, when the game comes out on time as promised, it has bugs, and lots of them. The community goes, "well why couldn't they spend the time to work out the bugs?" Well hmmm.... could it be that you were pressuring them to release a shoddy product? But the CtP team also left out critical features to save time as well, which is completely unacceptable...

"No" Mods: Now they are working to fix this, but its still pretty difficult to create a scenario or modpack. It is also completely unsupported. I screamed when I realized that CtP was first shipped without scenario capability, which was to be added latter. I also went out of my mind when there was no Earth map, just a random map. Also, you can't possibly tell me that SLIC is easier to use than the Civ2 scenario language.

Unrealistic Play: Also something that the first patch "addressed", the Phalanx (or Pikeman) could win against a tank (or war walker), or even an airplane. This completely unrealistic possibility was a throwback to the old days of Phalanx Vs. Battleship of Civilization. Which, if you don't know, involved the phalanx sometimes killing a bombarding battleship (but it was rare). Activision was pressured here by the multiplayer market, opting to give players the ability to "comeback" if they fell down the tech tree. I have heard some people say that technology shouldn't be as important as it is in the game, maybe this is what affected Activision's decision here. In any case, it should not be a punishment to move up the tech tree. And for a good funny time, you should pull up Activision's "official" explanation of how a Fighter could lose to a Phalanx or Pikeman.

Diplomacy: This was a truly sad effort in this department. CtP was obviously only meant to be a war game. Even though there is an Alien project as an alternative ending, there was no economic victory of any kind to be found. Civ2, SMAC, and my personal favorite, MoO2 (Master of Orion II) all give CtP a big horse whipping in this section. CtP reverts back to the good ol' Civilization method of having the tag of At War/Not at War for diplomacy. I can't come up with an excuse for this, but I imagine it has something to do with the rush to get the game out the door.

Possibly what irritates me the most about this game is Activision's "put on a happy face and act like we didn't make that mess" attitude. Patches are few and far between, and playtesting is shoddy at best. It really got me angry when Activision boldly announced that it would be working on "Call to Power 2" in only the second or third week of sales.

So, I think CtP presents possibilities, but hastily implemented. There are a few points for future redemption I see for all companies planning Civ-like titles:

1) Don't pretend that programming is a democracy. If an idea is no good, don't use it. Real-time and 4X games DO NOT MIX (examples... Outpost 2 and SW: Rebellion).

2) Finish the game before it is sent out the door, even if your users are threatening to raize your office building.

3) Listen to your users much more AFTER the game is done than BEFORE, moving quickly to fix the problems. Remember, you should be patching, not creating modpacks.

4) Announce a sequel only AFTER the game has been deemed a hit. (Two or three weeks at the top of sales does not qualify). Especially announce it only AFTER you have finished patching. If you announced it before you have finished, you will give the impression that you are abandoning your users.

5) Document support utilities extremely well. Give the users open-ended capability with the game. If there is something you can do that they can't (like create scenarios or maps), they will get very irritated.

If the mistakes of Call to Power can be heeded, and all of the goodies included with the game picked up for the upcoming Civilization III, and eventually Call to Power 2, the 4X genre should witness a new rebirth like has not been seen since the good ol' days of Civ II.

The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.