"Civilization IV" received universal critical acclaim with an aggregate score of 94 on Metacritic and an aggregate score of 93.36% on GameRankings. Critics such as GameSpot's Andrew Park praised not only the improvements in the turn-based strategy genre that carried over from other installments in the series, but also noted the game's more advanced 3D computer graphics, difficult AI opponents, and multiplayer feature. "The Times" praised the improvements of the 3D engine used to generally build the game, and GameGuru appreciated its ability to zoom onto individual squares. IGN commented that the game AI was much more intelligent than it was in "Civilization III", which designer Soren Johnson stated was thanks to their "secret pre-beta group" testing the game before release. Game Revolution remarked that "the multiplayer... actually works this time" and GameSpot added that both "single-player and multiplayer options have been improved in "Civ IV"."