In this way, the game keeps you on your toes, but never forces you into repetition needlessly. Though the controls are intuitive, the map itself feels a little gimped for the console. The world is not nearly large enough to occupy much of your time with exploration, and things would be more interesting if there were more to find in the barren world. There are a handful of barbarian locations to take over and the occasional relic to discover, but it is a mostly small, desolate world with too many of the spaces allocated to other civilizations or water. The game runs decent enough, with the occasional hiccups along the way when moving from one space to another with certain characters. The caricature-like art style and silly mumbled dialogue gives the game a unique tone that feels like a cutesy parody on world history.
The single-player side of things also features a 'game of the week' mode, with a new, specific scenario available for download and competition against the rest of the community via leader boards. Those looking for more than one challenge a week will find solace in the deep scenario mode, where the game has a decent set of game situations to play through. The difference between the two is really the wealth of choices on the scenario mode, where you pick the civilization you play as. The game of the week mode is set up for you to play through things as a specific civilization. Still, neither of the modes adds much to the mix, outside of forcing your hand as to what kind of victory you aim for; with some options ruled out based on the background story.
If you think all this makes Revolution sound like a fantastic candidate for a weekend rental, you are right. As a result, the Live multiplayer should push it over the line to a 'buy'. Sadly, the multiplayer has a nasty case of the 'shoulda-coulda-woulda'. While the single-player mode goes as fast as you would like, things over Live run at a snail's pace. The main difference between the two sides of the game defines a 'turn'. While a single-player turn is over when you have assigned orders to all your non-busy units and cities, Live handles it as a set amount of time. This would be fine if there was a setting to adjust the turn clock based on where you are in the game, but instead you must choose one timer for the whole game. As a result, you are stuck with turns that feel like watching paint dry in slow motion for the first half an hour of the game, or over far too quickly once you have a handful of personnel to direct later in the game. If you end up in a game set to long turns, you will need three things in order to play - time, patience, and No-Doze. Those who can stand the unbalanced timer issues are only rewarded with a few modes. Up to four players can go head-to-head or team up in teams of two, with the computer adding in other civilizations as needed.
Civilization Revolution is a solid game that deserves your attention, but the lack of depth makes it a more likely candidate as a rental than a purchase. Thanks to a slow, unbalanced Live experience, the game falls well short of delivering the kind of replay value that the price-tag demands.
