Everything Civ II, finally with other people
Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition arrived in December 1998 and answered the request fans had been making since 1996: real network play. One disc bundles Civilization II with both scenario packs — Conflicts in Civilization and Fantastic Worlds, editors included — and rebuilds it all as a native Windows 95 application with multiplayer for up to seven rivals.
It began life a year earlier as "Ultimate Civ II" at MicroProse's Chapel Hill studio; by the time it shipped, MicroProse itself belonged to Hasbro Interactive. It was the last box standing of the classic Civ II line — and for most of the world, simply the Civ II.
What's in the box
- The complete collection
- base game, all forty-plus official scenarios from both packs, and the Fantastic Worlds editor suite in one install.
- Multiplayer
- hotseat, LAN (IPX and TCP/IP), modem, serial cable and internet play, including Microsoft's Gaming Zone in its day.
- Up to seven players
- with timed turns, password protection, and dynamic joining: a friend can take over an AI civilization mid-game.
- Human diplomacy
- trade advances, units, gold and treaties screen-to-screen; the negotiation table is far more dangerous with people behind it.
- Tempo options
- optional double movement and production rates, because seven-player Civ is long.
- A meaner AI
- the Gold Edition's computer opponents run a documented, noticeably more aggressive diplomacy model than the 1996 original.
What it isn't
Two corrections to the record. First: multiplayer is sequential, not simultaneous — everyone takes turns in order, which contemporary reviewers timed at five-to-six times the pace of a solo game (a simultaneous mode was planned, and a tutorial entry for it still sits abandoned in the game files). Second: despite its "definitive edition" reputation, Civ II has never been sold on a digital storefront — after the 2006 Civilization Chronicles box went out of print, emulation became the way to play it. Veterans also remember one infamous quirk: in hotseat games, the AI negotiates on behalf of absent human players, with predictable betrayals.
Reception and afterlife
Critics in 1999 saw a great game wearing dated clothes: GameSpot's 7.3 called the multiplayer "a welcome bonus" arriving too late, and Computer Gaming World's three-star review — written entirely in mock-Chaucerian English — blessed the bundle ("it's still Civ II… you get the excellent add-on packs") while cursing the aging engine. The German market, which received its Gold edition earlier, was far warmer: scores there ran 85–92%. It went on to sell over 171,000 copies in the US by 2000 — outselling the newer Test of Time — and stayed in print through compilations for nearly a decade.
Playing Multiplayer Gold Edition today
Play Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition in your browser — the complete Civ II with both expansions, plus synced save states across your devices. Sharpen up first in the Civ II encyclopedia: civilizations, all 51 units, the tech tree and wonders.
