Freeciv

Freeciv was created by a group of students who were massive fans of Microposse’s Civilization game. These game players came to the conclusion that civilization should be a free game for all and set about creating a similar version themselves.

After several meetings the team ended with only three people creating the game. One created the graphics without no training that area. One created the game engine and the other created client / server architecture.

Freeciv allows the player to use most of civilizations features and also allows the player to add personal enhancements. The game supports up to fourteen players over the internet or local area network (LAN). The game supports prebuilt scenarios and maps as that of civilization. The player has the choice of forty four nations to choose from with forty seven different units to control in the rise to become the superior civilization.

Another feature that the game allows is the ability for configuration. The player is allowed to configure almost every aspect of the game. Another good feature of the game is the ability to change the source code yourself. Of course this is only possible if you know what you are doing. Which I do not.

The player takes control of a tribe leader and has to guide their people though each of the centuries. As time passes technological advances are discovered, which allows for construction of newer city buildings and deployment of new units.

During the building process of the city players can wage war on the other players or commit diplomatic relationships with other or all players

The game ends when the other tribes have been defeated by the player. However if there is more then one tribe remaining when the playtime runs out the tribe with the highest score wins. The highest score determined by the size, wealth, cultural and scientific advances of the tribe.

The graphics of the game are pretty good for the time of creation although they are not a match for those of Micrposse’s Civilization and Civilization 2. The graphics themselves are of good standard as they produce a similar setting to that you would expect from that particular genre.

Although this type of game genre is not what I would normally play I found that the creators had put a lot of time and effort into producing this game. As this game is a copy of Microposse’s Civilization game I decided to do some research of Microposse’s Civilization.

I found that the two games are not that far apart. The only thing really noticeable between the two is the graphics. But this is something that is not really important as the original game as a lot more time and money to produce a better game. But for those of you who are wanting to know what Civilization is like or can’t afford the game then I would recommend this game to you.

For anyone wishing to play or at least try the game Freeciv the web address for the download is as follows.

http://www.freeciv.org/