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There are four victory conditions for the player to aim for: Domination, Technology, Cultural, and Economic. Of the four, it’s been the easiest to win through gaining culture. Culture is gained through building world wonders, gaining great people (philosophers, painters, musicians, etc.), and converting nearby cities to your civilization. The hardest of the bunch has to be Domination as it’ll take many rounds to completely wipe out your opposition as they’ll have many units to fight.

Multiplayer has always been an integral part of the Civilization franchise so it’s no surprise that Civ Rev stays true and delivers a fun experience. Up to four players are eligible to join in a match online with the option to play a team-based match or a free-for-all. For the most part, the online is lag free. The best feature of the multiplayer component is the ability to have private chats with your opponents to negotiate an alliance.

Although Civ Rev is significantly thin in the scope of a strategy title, the complete ease of playing the title is the relative draw of the game. Users will have no trouble figuring out how to play Civ Rev and completing a full-length campaign to annihilate their competitors. Playing with either the PS3 or 360 controllers, Civ Rev should rejuvenate developers in investing their time to creating their own turn-based strategy experience for the consoles. It’s even easier to use the new option to merge three units into an army. Having them do so will allow them to become a much more worthy adversary in battle.

If you aren’t a multiplayer type of person, the single-player modes are worthy enough of your time. There are only two game modes in total, but it’s more than enough to occupy your time. The first is the basic pick-up-and-play mode where players will choose their favorite civilization and then duke it out with the computer AI. The other is Scenario mode which allows players to enter the game with a different structure of the rules and setting each time. Firaxis even is uploading more Scenarios via DLC for players to complete and show their strategic genius by uploading their score to a leaderboard.

Hopefully Firaxis can take what they learned with Civ Rev and continue to build up on a sequel that offers a more in-depth experience on top of the console-friendly gameplay they have provided. If you are a hardcore Civ fan, you might scoff at the sheer limitations Civ Rev has, but don’t let that drag you away from experiencing the thrilling online multiplayer. Newcomers should enjoy Civ Rev thoroughly, provided they have time to micromanage a civilization from tiny village to a gigantic world power.