Just one year after the release of Sid Meier's Civilization II, the CIV II: Fantastic Worlds add-on scenario and construction kit offers fans an enormously effective means to expand gameplay and the life of the original title. Not only are more than 15 pre-designed additional science fiction and fantasy scenarios included, but an additional 500 new units and ten editing tools to augment the existing editor are provided to allow creation of new scenarios.
Rather than simply providing the means for creating historical scenarios, users can now design fantasy-based exercises as well. The impressive new unit list ranges in diversity from dragons and dinosaurs to unidentified flying objects and Santa Claus.
Designers like John Possidente, Mick Uhl, and Bob Abe, among others, lend their talents to scenarios with topics including reptiles, Atlantis, Mars, Midgard, Jules Verne, and other games (Master of Orion, Master of Magic, and X-Com). In addition, some "best of the net" scenarios were chosen from the hundreds available for download from the Internet and feature diverse topics such as paradise, the battles of the sexes and mammoths.
The software patches the original execution file to the most updated version (2.42), and the editing tools allow customization of nearly every phase of the game from event scripting to unit types and behavior. The manual is lengthy and informative, but use of the updated Civilopedia is a must for novice (and expert) designers bent on creating scenarios from scratch.
CIV II: Fantastic Worlds takes a highly successful game and makes it even better. Gamers hooked on the Civilization franchise will thrill at the opportunity to manipulate cities, effects, improvements, terrain, tribes, units, icons, and events. Whether interested in creating life on an alien planet (Alpha Centauri perhaps?) or modifying existing scenarios, CIV II: Fantastic Worlds is a must-have for any serious Civilization fan.