The winning requirements are much more aligned with Civilization IV insofar as you can dominate with culture, military, technology or accumulated wealth, and you get a handy pop-up every so often that shows you which player is in the lead.
You can elect to take out as many other players as you can through force, or simply concentrate on building city structures to increase culture points, gather wealth or research new discoveries. Culture seems driven predominantly by the level of satisfaction of your citizens, but can be amplified by obtaining certain "great people" who allow you to choose a one-off bonus (such as a gift of 400 gold) or a more long-term benefit (+50% gold creation in the host city). You can also build wonders or convert enemy cities - in fact, if you manage to obtain a combination of twenty great people, wonders or conversions, you will be able to build the United Nations wonder and claim a cultural victory.
The quest to reach Alpha Centauri is back - if you reach the end of the technology tree you can dedicate your science to this pursuit. Or if you prefer a more hands-off approach you can just sit back and watch your cash grow. The trick to winning really involves a healthy mix of all victory options, as you never know exactly who will race up the ladder at the last minute and challenge your supremacy.
To get to the finish though does require a solid investment. Even playing on the ridiculously easy "chieftain" setting you'll be chortling at the hapless AI well into the evening, and if you're brave enough to gain the upper hand in a "deity" match you may as well settle in for the weekend. There's always something to keep you amused, from the cheesy combat animations in the early part of the game, to the absolutely stunning scripted sequence when you build the Manhattan Project and launch an ICBM at the enemy. Everything seems to be designed to drive that "one more turn" addiction that was so prevalent in the games of the 90's.
Problems? Sure, there are a few. The attack mechanics will very occasionally generate a bug whereby your troops will dance out into the ocean battling a non-existent enemy for about thirty seconds until the game comes to its senses and restores your control. Also, once you really get the hang of the game and start skimming through the menus there is a noticeable lag while your animated advisers are generated. I'm also not overly keen on the depth of the AI, or lack of it - it seems more aligned with an arcade title, as you can swap technologies with your nearest neighbour for hundreds of years, and yet overnight they'll attack you for no reason other than you're better than them. I preferred the Call to Power system where you had a good bit of notice that relations had turned sour.
The controller, whilst hardly on a level with a mouse for speed and accuracy, performs well and with a slight learning curve you'll be flicking from screen to screen without worrying too much about the extra time it takes. Some aspects of unit selection could be called clumsy, and I really dislike the inability to activate a unit once the "end turn" option arrives. But then, rush building troops will make them generate instantly, so you have to take the good with the bad. Some things will forever remain a mystery though, such as why they didn't include a mini-map.
The multiplayer options available are fairly straightforward - you can have a player match, a ranked match, or play through a system link-up. Unfortunately as we were provided with review code ahead of the game launch there was nobody online to play. If they can keep a lid on the latency and prevent too many disconnections then there's no reason to suspect it won't be a success, but turn-based games are always time consuming in a multiplayer environment.
All in all, Civilization Revolution is an absolutely fantastic game which has lifted all the best attributes of previous Civilization titles, and left behind the majority of the bad. If turn-based strategy games must be ported to the console market then they can't do much better than this, so if you're an old Civilization freak who has made the switch to console gaming, this is an absolute must-play.
