Civilization: Call to Power 2 unofficial preview Trailer (2000, Activision)
4Activision made a decent try of it. The Call to Power series is definitely worth a try if you ever have the chance.
Call to Power II is a PC turn-based strategy game released by Activision as a sequel to Civilization: Call to Power, which itself was a successor to the Civilization series by Sid Meier; this game could not have "Civilization" in its title because the license to the Civilization name was lost.
In October 2003, Activision released the source code, enabling the Apolyton gaming community to debug, improve, and add new features.
Call to Power II had a number of differences from the previous Call to Power. Chiefly, the first game was criticized for its user interface, which prompted a redesign for the sequel.
Call to Power II also included several gameplay differences. Maximum army size was increased, some balance adjustments were made to avoid the balance problems from the original Call to Power, and the economic system in Call to Power II was reworked so that controlling good terrain became more profitable. Another difference is that the player can receive bonuses for certain achievements, if they are the first to perform the action (recapturing a city, sailing around the world, etc.).
The diplomacy model in Call to Power II was improved, with more agreements available for negotiation. Players could, for example, ask the AI controlled civilizations to stop researching some technology, or to reduce their nuclear weapons arsenal.
Space colonization and the space layer were removed from Call to Power II, along with the "Alien Life Project" victory condition. This was replaced by a new victory condition which requires the player to cover most of the planet's territory with Gaia sensors and build the Gaia controller wonder, winning the game.
One significant feature of Call to Power II is its support for mods. A large number of game rules are stored in text files, along with many AI scripts. Even more importantly, Call to Power II had a fully documented scripting language called SLIC, with a C-like syntax, through which many things about the game could be tweaked. The game came with 3 mods (Classical/Medieval, original Default and Samurai/Mythical Creatures). The sole released patch for Call to Power II enhanced the functionality of SLIC, allowing creation of mods that change the game play significantly. The game's community created many mods, with the primary goals of fixing the AI and balance issues that were in the original game. Later, new game play features were incorporated through mods as well. These mods allowed the community to enjoy the game more, as they fixed at least some of the worst problems in Call to Power II.
Call to Power II received mixed reviews. GameSpot awarded 7.2 out of 10, highlighting the improved interface, animations and sound, and the game's replay value. Criticisms included the lack of feedback during diplomacy, lack of tactical control during combat, the shift from city micromanagement to army micromanagement, and weak AI.