Perhaps you’re like me, and want to see the religion feature’s evolution into the modern era complete with religious fervor, zealots, and mass marketing. Likewise, you’ll want to see a better realization of the espionage feature’s potential. You’ll still arch an eyebrow when you see your infrantry units equipped with machine guns lose to camel archers. Such a wildly successful franchise as Civilization is resistant to change, and though Beyond the Sword sprinkles in new features, it’s the underlying gears that need some tinkering. I’m a particular fan of the World War II themed Road to War scenarios that allow you to play as one of many of the world players in several theaters of war. You can play as one of four modern nations locked in global war, or as part of a sci-fi exploratory force, or in a tower defense-like mission that pits you against waves of technologically-advancing enemies. The new scenarios break this mold by introducing gameplay with unique restrictions, units, and plots. While all of the previously discussed elements add more content to an already deep game, they don’t add anything that fundamentally alters gameplay or changes how you play the game. These provide some moments of chaos and can tip the outcomes of close games, but generally they can be regarded as amusing distractions that help make the highly-formuliazed game seem more random.
You can discover new resources, engage in diplomatic marriages, or recover from terrible natural disasters. The game also re-introduces the “random events” element of the original Civilization game. How much fun would it be to send in a spy to detonate the tactical nuke your enemy has been keeping in his capital?
You can sabotage production, poison the water, steal, gather intel and ferment unrest, but I want the ability to assassinate units, raze buildings, and detonate nuclear weapons. I like that having your spy get caught will negatively affect diplomatic relations, but the spies seem so limited in their abilities. Yet I still found the espionage system clunky and not as well integrated as some other elements. The spy unit will evolve from being a masked person of mystery to a James Bond-esque agent later in the game. While corporations provide another layer of complexity to the game and can net a clever leader some easy funding, the majority of players will find their time and resources better spent on scientific and military investments.Įspionage is introduced earlier in the game, allowing the player to spy on and disrupt foreign countries during earlier time periods of history. Mercantilism and the state property civic models can affect corporations, much as religions can be affected by adopting a state religion or freedom to practice. Your company can be spread via executive emissaries to other cities (even foreign ones) and each branch will net the player additional gold.Ī corporation is a hungry beast, eating some of your resources and then granting you other ones and gold. You need a specific technology, resource, and Great Person to found a corporation’s headquarters and then the company itself. Players can create corporations that specialize in certain resources and need to be spread throughout the world. You’ll be introduced to the corporation feature of the game, an element that behaves much like the “religion” aspect. The most obvious new features to the game happen later, when you’re in the modern eras. New players should cut their teeth on the basic game elements and the early periods of history before they even attempt to get to the modern age and Beyond the Sword’s considerable additions.
Beyond the Sword isn’t an expansion pack that I’d recommend for new Civilization IV players.