The Sioux don’t seem to want you around. Dealing with rival civilisations is a key part of the game

If tweaking science rates and draining swamps makes your heart go pitter-patter, then get ready: the king of the strategy games leaps from PC to PlayStation.
Jason Bates

What the heck is Civilization anyway?
Go and read the last two issues of Future Gamer for a bit of history. For those of you who’ve just joined us or who’ve never heard a PC gamer prattle on about this one, it’s one of the better strategy games around. Basically, you take a small tribe from the Age of Sticks and Stones to the era of global thermonuclear warfare and beyond, one turn at a time. The original was put together by a chap named Sid Meier, and its success helped make him and MicroProse a household name among computer gamers. But Sid Meier isn’t involved with this version, which is an Activision port licensed from MicroProse.

So if this is Civilization II, where’s the first one?
Well, that one never actually made it to the PlayStation. But the sequel is very close to the original, mainly adding new units, building types, and opponents, as well as bumping up the graphics and adding multimedia flash, so you’re not really missing anything.

Yeah, yeah, but what do you do in the game?
Better to ask what you don’t do. You have to keep track of everything from monitoring your scientists’ progress to making sure all your citizens are well fed and happy. You must also build up your army, explore nearby continents, improve the landscape, and keep an eye on your neighbours, who are liable to come a-conquering. It’s a dog-eat-dog world in Civilization, so hang on to the manual. Even better, read it.

Sounds like a bit of a pain in the arse to learn.
Actually the game has a snappy tutorial and five different difficulty modes, so with a little practice and a lot of patience even we were able to figure it out. Smart cookies like you should have no trouble.