FreeCiv is (as you might have guessed) based on the popular Sid Meier's Civilization series. You are the leader of a new civilization, and as such you get to control every single thing about it. Starting off with just a group of settlers and an explorer, you have to build a city, construct improvements and train new units, research technology, build more cities and spread around the land, explore, build up an army, defend your territory from barbarians, find other civilizations and either ally with them or crush them, until you becomeâ?¦ the greatest civilization! You reach this either by Conquest: crush all the other civilizations so you're the only one left; or Space Race: being the first civilization to launch a space ship to Alpha Centauri.

The project started around the time of Civilization 1 and has ever since been constantly improved. Thus, now you have an awesome strategy game that will surely please any Civilization fan and even attract strategy fans. The game is packed full of features and improvements over the Civilization series. You've got better AI, production queues, better and easier to use UI, estimated turns for everything, a much better research system, non-intrusive messages, improved Auto Settler, Auto Explore andâ?¦ well, find out for yourself. Plus it's constantly under development, so keep an eye out for updates.

Also, the game is fully customizable. You can change any of the game's settings, create your own civilizations, your own tilesets, even your own rulesets! (buildings, units, tech tree, etc.) The game includes:
- 85 civilizations: any civilization in the world, even fictional ones like LOTR races!
- 3 tilesets: flat view (Civ1 style), isometric view (Civ2 style) and hexagonal view;
- 3 rulesets: Civ1, Civ2, and default (based on Civ2 ruleset).

Finally, the game is translated in 83 languages, so you're bound to find yours here. Some are incomplete, so either the game updates too fast for the translators, or some are just plain lazy. The game automatically detects your language, if you don't like it, check the documentation on how to change it. Speaking of documentation, there's also more of it than you should need. The Civilopedia is more than enough if all you want to do is play and have fun.

The game's graphics are mediocre, but in something like FreeCiv, that doesn't really matter. There's also no sound or music, but again, there was hardly any in Civilization, and you can easily play your own music if you prefer.

To conclude, if you're a Civilization fan, or just a strategy fan, this is a must-have. FREE Civilization. What more could you want?