Found a civilization and either lead it to the stars or wipe out every other civilization that dares to mess with you. That's Civilization II in a nutshell. But the strength of this game is in the details.
A follow-up to Sid Meier's Civilization, Civilization II is beefed up with dozens of new units, new civilization advances, new wonders, and a new perspective. Where the old Civilization looked at the world top-down, Civilization II has a 45° angle view.
Old unit depictions have been massively re-worked, as have the ambassadorial pictures. The ambassadors are now 3D-rendered, and it is still easy to tell them apart. In addition, six new Civilizations have been added to those you can play, and the colors of the old civilizations have been mixed up.
New options allow you to set the size of the world, the level of barbarian activity and the form of the lands, from Continents to Archipelagos. A new level, Deity, has been added to challenge those jaded at the highest old level, Emperor.
The old advisors have been replaced by small QuickTime movie clips of advisors that change as your civilization advances from the classical era to the modern era. The gist of their comments appears below as text.
Despite all these changes, Civilization II will still appeal to newcomers to the Civilization game family. There is a tutorial to explain the game, and the huge manual goes into detail about the units, as well as the expanded Civilopedia.