It's often said that Rome wasn't built in a day - and after playing Sid Meier's Civilization: Revolution, you'll understand why. Despite being birthed in the land of the keyboard and mouse, Civilization has finally discovered the ergonomically inferior shores of the console, under the guise of Revolution. Though at first glance it may appear to be real-time strategy, underneath this initial aesthetic it's anything but real-time; if you've ever wanted to develop a nation and take over the world one turn at a time then here's your chance to try.

In what could only be described as a nation simulator, you must govern a newborn nation from relative squalor to the upper pantheons of earthly civilization, whether through military muscle, technological tyranny or cultural clout. Being the best is the only way to win and thus the body politic with the bigger guns isn't always victorious; Revolution offers more variety than just a single street to success. The genre usually leans towards the ultimate annihilation of your opponents' headquarters, but here there's the option to win by other means. The space race is a prime example; the first to explore the vast reaches of Alpha Centuri will win solely on technological merit while those more destined toward domination can capture other cities to claim victory over that nation and successfully overtaking all other nations results in a win.

One thing is for sure though; adrenaline junkies will want to give this game a miss - those expecting the Rambo equivalent of an RTS will be severely disappointed. Civilization has always been a slow, methodical, think before you act turned-based series, meaning that the player with the most accuracy controlling the analogue sticks isn't subject to an advantage. The turn-based nature of the game makes the controls something of a non-issue, simply because you don't have to deal with stifled controls (compared to its PC counterpart) whilst scrambling to control the battlefield; every move and decision can be made (and controlled) at your own pace. However, if playing in a multiplayer game with four players, the slowest player effectively becomes the pacemaker; no matter how quickly you or your allies take your turn, you'll always have to wait for the other players to make theirs, as turn taking is in series, not parallel. Although this isn't so bad when AI stand-ins are utilised, this often makes the multiplayer particularly slow when compared to the campaign; I often found myself vocally encouraging others to 'get a move on', as even by Civilization's standards, the multiplayer feels slow and, at times, uninteresting. A turn timer of 30, 60 or 120 seconds can be applied, giving players a limited time in which to make their move, but this isn't advisable for newcomers because it often pressured me into making moves without time to think, resulting in silly strategic errors. With that being said, this quicker pace of gameplay brought more enjoyment and prevented the game t from becoming stale or overly time consuming.

Players deliberately looking for a longer, more drawn out multiplayer experience have to be willing to set hours aside to get their fix. Longer games could really use the facility to save so you can return to finish at a later date, but sadly not even a feature reminiscent of saving or checkpoints is to be found. This makes what should be the online evolution of an epic Civilization experience feel like a young child playing with LEGO; the sense of importance and scale just isn't there. In this sense, the multiplayer customisation is lacking, especially as no options exist for defining the starting era or indeed any sort of ability to alter the time scale.

Coming back to the single player game, a tutorial is only provided on the lowliest difficulty setting; after choosing the middle one I found no tutorial and was forced to restart. It's somewhat baffling that a tutorial can't be selected independent of the difficulty. I highly recommend the tutorial if you're new to the series, as it is a much welcomed feature that was effective in teaching me the basic game mechanics and, as well as informing me of the controls and interface, it also gave me advice as to how to go about things; which upgrades I should select, the units I could build and the nations I should invade. All this is presented by beautifully drawn 3D avatars that are an effective and simplified replacement for the tried and tested rectangular info-box. The only tangible issue with this interface is its intrusive nature; my companions would constantly appear, engulfing a considerable section of the screen, with seemingly no option to disable them and, after some time, they could be extremely aggravating.

At the campaign's outset (or when starting a multiplayer match) you're obliged to choose one of a large number of world leaders associated with the appropriate countries. Whilst the actual leader simply acts as an avatar to represent your nation in negotiations, the nation you do lead starts with a unique ability, knowledge or attribute. This gives each nation some differentiation, though what they do learn over time isn't something that can't be learnt by other nations further down the line. So, these 'unique' abilities soon become mastered by neighbouring nations, making the land you worked so hard to nurture just another generic population en masse.

Cities, as you might expect, are the crux of your developing empire, single-handedly gathering resources, building units and researching new technologies and sciences. Although initially only a single city is provided, you can expand your empire through the use of settlers, establishing new cities elsewhere on the map. Expansion is vital as it can allow for multiple points from which to attack your enemies, as well as allowing for more research, resource gathering and production to take place simultaneously. If anything, the true downside to more cities means more management - keeping tracking of the happenings in several cities at once can often be a challenging and dizzying task. But the largest source of power comes from such management; any city in your possession can be prioritised for different tasks like unit and building production, science and research or food and population growth. An apt enough commander could effectively build enough cities to cover each category and greatly boost the efficiency of their empire.

Buildings act more as stat or resource bonuses than a physical extension of a city. Like more traditional strategy games, choosing to construct a workshop or barracks speeds up unit production or allows the building of new units respectively but, unlike traditional strategy games, you simply see the city become more visually dense, a representation of that now-standing structure. It doesn't require manual placement and doesn't widen the amount of acres you own. After selecting the building you wish to construct and waiting the specified amount of turns you immediately reap the benefits. It's an easy to manage, fiddle-free system that prevents the need for awkward placement or space management.

Those looking to sidestep the combative offerings almost entirely are going to be out of luck. Whilst the largest army on the planet isn't necessarily going to succeed, some kind of competent military force is definitely required. You might decide to make nice with other nations by meeting demands such as agreements to trade technology, to keep the chance of hostile forces developing to a minimum, but scattered throughout the game world are small camps of barbaric warriors that are willing to attack you at any time; they can't be bought off or bargained with, only destroyed. The developers made sure to reward you with their destruction too; summoning the courage to tackle a barbarian stronghold can bring information on nearby treasures, gold or additional units, as well as bypassing the need to encounter other nations earlier on, as it gives you a taste of the combat sooner rather than later.

Exploration is also an important aspect of any aspiring nation and yet again units come into play. Every unit has a move-per-turns quota meaning that they can only move so many invisible squares per turn. For example, soldiers on horseback have more moves to spend per turn than a single footsoldier. It's a smart system that limits a nation from expanding too quickly, as the greater striding comes later in the game. Units, such as boats, can also carry other units overseas and aeroplanes can explore without worry of land or sea, though they have a limited fuel supply and, if not refuelled, crash and burn. Keen explorers will reap the rewards; discovering ancient temples and structures can provide your nation with rare units, gold, and other goodies.

As your cities continue to grow, your civilization will begin to upgrade through the key stages of development. Unlocking particular research or technology may trigger such an advancement, to say the Medieval Era, the Industrial Era or the Modern Era, each offering their own brand of aesthetic and weaponry; the later era invites nuclear weapons and heavily-armoured tanks while the earlier eras offer riflemen and legions. Keeping your nation in line with the competition is important, because if your military prowess becomes outdated and your territory is attacked then you stand little chance of preventing the loss of your nation.

When an inevitable conflict comes along and battle commences, each unit has a numerical attack and defence rating. So, if you command a unit of warriors to attack an opposing unit then the attack rating of your warriors is compared to the defence rating of your foes - but while the unit with the higher rating will more than likely win, it's not entirely cut and dry, as other factors such as location and unit upgrades may sway the tide of battle. Every three victories or so a unit is granted an upgrade, such as the ability to heal anywhere or an attack bonus when invading opposing cities, making it all the more important not to squander veteran units, as they'll almost undoubtedly beat any upstart units with ease.

As with any strategy game, strength usually resides in numbers and in Revolution a single unit fresh off the production line makes relatively little impact on the military landscape, but when grouped together in a band of three, also known as an army, they make the strongest of the single units seem largely insignificant. The biggest risk with using an army is that of placing all your eggs in a single basket; if that basket loses in a fight then those three eggs will crack and a valuable resource is wasted. If the single unit happens to be ages ahead of the army then it may have an obvious advantage - bringing a tank to a sword fight is an almost guaranteed win!

It's only become a recent habit to play a strategy title for the visuals and in this regard Revolution doesn't disappoint. Its style could just about be described as realistic though with an obviously 'toonish' tint. When not overexerted the frame rate runs at a steady pace, but as your civilization grows, with prettier, more expansive cities, more units and multiple metropolises, the frame rate starts to struggle, and trying to transfer the camera across the map becomes slightly sluggish. The slowdown doesn't ruin the experience but it can become a minor annoyance, particularly when it causes you to overshoot your desired camera position. The presentation is compact; cities don't expand, they just appear more visually intense. Units are also of a similar nature in that an army isn't really an army of hundreds, but represented by nine armoured humanoids, preventing the screen from becoming overcrowded and unmanageable, although this style may remind you of a certain famous strategy board game.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Revolution may not be world beating but in the land of the consoles it's certainly a march in the right direction. It presents a solid, fairly streamlined experience that's accessible to console players while still providing an engaging layer of depth. Playing with friends, as with most games, seems to be its lasting legs, as the standard single player affair is a fairly limited experience. No unique content is provided in the sit-alone sessions - just a shackled sandbox environment. The fact that success is narrowly defined as the soldiers with the sharpest swords is a surprisingly refreshing experience and offers those who love god games a long sought after experience, and one that's impossible to find anywhere else on console.

Reviewed by Adam Meadows for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).