A game that can allow me to rule over millions of people, count me in....Darn, I should stop trying to write introductions
Story-Its the tale you have already heard in your history classes, so really there is no worry about a story. Its nice to read a little of the background in the Civilopedia, but that is about it. You just follow your empire from point A (when they first settled an empire) to point B (modern times), destroying and allying yourself with other empires along the way. There isn't much beyond that, though its nice to talk to yourself about why you declared war on this empire.
Gameplay-This is where the game nicely shines. The menus and and choices really make this section deep and enjoyable. From deciding on what to build in your cities to what religion your empire is, the possibilities are grand. Though some of the mechanics are kind of useless, they can be avoided. Battling your opponents is where this game kind of goes down. Its a bit too random for my taste, to the point where at certain times, my more advance unit was killed by something less advance or experienced. And it isn't about strategy at the least...Its about who has the most units during that war. I could defeat the technologically advanced foes by just making sure I had like 30 some odd soldiers ready. But other than that, everything else is great. Diplomacy is very good to work with, and advancing is simple yet rewarding. The only other qualms are the AI's stupidity, even on higher difficulties, and the online works at such a pace that you would lead yourself to an early grave before you completed the game.
Audio/Visual- The music is nice and easy to listen to. Its nice to hear the waves crashing against a peaceful shore while you slaughter the people of the city next door. The animal sounds and the occasional grunts from the warriors in their native tongue also add to the soundtrack. The graphics are good, but not on my graphics card. Its easy on the eyes, and you can define what everything is from a nice distance.
In conclusion the game is solid, and a must for any turn-based strategy game lover. The games slow pace and long play times may turn a few people away, but if you have the time, the motivation, and the patience, this game could be very fun. Though you should rack up the difficulty a little, since the AI can be on the thick side. And don't even think about trying multiplayer. That time can be spent doing something productive instead, like writing screenplays, drawing fanfiction, or actually trying to conquer the world.

soldiers play gears of war, athletes play madden, everybody else plays civ IV. this game is fun and all, but unless you dont have anybody to play with online, you are missing out on at least half the game.

Totally, freakin, awsome!.... well I could put more words in it but there would be too much. I was lookin' for a good city buildin' game and i found it. this game took me a while to finish but it was worth it. By the time i was done my city looked like ATLANTIS!! They wont even be able to make more games better than this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and I LIKE CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A buddy of mine gave me this game cause his graphics card wasn't good enough. I thought id take it, and sell it(due to me thinking it would be a stupid history game) so i put it in just to test it out. I was hooked in minutes! I have like 543758 game with every civilization. I love this game and you should get it!

Civilization IV lives up to its family heritage. The very night I installed the game, I stayed up til 2.45 in the morning--and it was a work night. Its addictive qualities are very much in evidence as you scheme, build, war, plunder, spy, and convert your way to the top. The latest addition to the Civ series features a few minor changes to the gameplay, mostly in streamlining the amount of micromanaging you have to do in each city. When your city becomes unhappy, instead of production grinding to a halt altogether, you merely drop a few levels of efficiency. The revolutions are handled in a more streamlined fashion--and there's more aspects of your society to revolutionise. For example, you can change the economic basis for your society without changing from one type of government to another. One of the more notable additions to the game is the concept of religion. Religions are parcelled out as benefits of various technological or intellectual discoveries. Your first religion becomes your state religion--unless you decide to convert to a more powerful religion or revolutionise your society by declaring free religion. This religion spreads through nearby cities and you can make missionaries to hasten the process. Neighbouring countries may adopt your religion or try to spread their own, which affects culture, city resistance, and your diplomatic relations. Once you meet up with countries who have their own state religion, you might find that they get a little zealous. I was threatened by Hatshepsut several times for maintaining my pagan Buddhist beliefs. There is also no greater feeling of malicious joy than sending a missionary to the country of some ruler who has just pissed you off and converting his burgeoning populace to your state religion. That said, there is no technological or ideological advantage to the religions--the only difference between them is which technologies are associated with them, AND that DOES affect when in the game they will be discovered. Islam, for example, is discovered with Nationalism, I believe, and is likely to be founded well after Buddhism or Taoism or Confuscianism, which are discovered with second tier technologies in the ancient era of the tech tree. There were some things I didn't like about the new Civ which prevent me from giving it a perfect score. There's no palace appreciation from your loyal subjects--not so far as I've seen. Maybe I'm missing out on something, but I got into the Middle Ages and noticed, "Hey, where's my palace?" One of my carrots-on-a-stick from the prior Civs was developing my palace as my loyal subjects brown-nosed. I had Greco-Roman colonnaded wings branching off from a Japanese terrace and Middle Eastern minarets. My palaces were architectural soup, but I'm sorry to see that they aren't in Civ IV. The Go-To function could be quite annoying--you're supposed to be able to send troops to any tile on the board, a function of the older Civs, but bound by default to the right-click key in Civ IV. I accidently sent troops to various odd locales as I right-clicked on terrain, hoping to bring up the terrain stats. I quickly eased out of that habit, but occasionally I'd forget, and that would be a turn wasted for that particular unit. Also, if you have a dual monitor setup, it's a bit annoying to try and get your mouse back on your primary screen should it wander off. A minor annoyance though. All in all, Civ IV has lived up to its predecessor's legends as a soul-sucking, time sink of a game that will cause you to accidently stand up your boyfriend for a dinner date because you totally forgot because those b******d French snuck in a city when you weren't looking and of course you just had to get it back. Or so I've heard. I mean, I'm not that type of girl. At least in another universe, where they don't have Civilization IV, I'm not that type of girl.