FreeCiv is a turn based strategy game much in the mould of the Civilization series of games. After downloading the game and opening it the first thing that struck me was how many options were available to edit before you started playing. Whilst having a large variety of game options is a good thing, I found myself swamped with stats and figures to tweak, such as “food required for a city to grow” and “Chance for conquering building destruction.” Many of these options seem superfluous to the actual game experience and I decided to leave things as they were for now.

After selecting my nation (Slovenia) from an impressive array of possible countries, I began the task of playing the game proper. The in game action is viewed through a window taking up roughly half the screen. The rest of the screen is taken up with information letting me know the year, game time and other tidbits of data necessary for a ruler bent on expansion and conquest. The game itself is relatively easy to play. You simply select one of your units and drag the arrow to wherever you want your unit to go. There are several functions your units can serve, ranging from telling settlers to form a city to telling your warriors to attack units from another player.

It was while using one of these functions that my main gripe about FreeCiv popped up again. After my settlers had created a city I was bombarded with a plethora of information, figures and statistics, making the game seriously heavy going and taking away some of the enjoyment and pride you should get from expanding your empire.

When expanding your nation you would expect some stirring music to accompany your gaming, perhaps your chosen countries national anthem to whip up some patriotism, or some kind of fanfare to accompany your army’s unstoppable march to victory after victory. There is no doubting music greatly enhances an in game experience but sadly FreeCiv lacks any music or sound effects at all, which is a shame as the game feels a little hollow without it.

Attempting to fill over these holes is the sense of involvement you get with the game. With the amount of options and advancements there is no doubting that it is YOUR Empire and things get done how you want it. The war mongerers will want to build barracks to get your warrior units out there as soon as possible. The more peace loving players can choose to develop more technologically first, perhaps build courthouses and make your nation a lawful one. You could expand through trade, establishing trade routes with other cities and making your cities one of the “wonders of the world.”

Overall FreeCiv is a slow burning, gentle paced game that will give you hours of relaxed gameplay. The replay value is almost limitless due to the several ways you can expand. This game is like a jar of marmite, you love it or you hate it, there is no middle ground here.