Freeciv's premise is much like its inspiration. Your goal is to lead a tribe of humans throughout the course of history. If you have played the Civilization games, you will immediately catch on to Freeciv's premise and interface and settle right in without a hitch. The major selling point, though, is that Freeciv is based on what many consider to be the best Civilization game of all time: Civilization 2.

Starting out, much like any Civilization game, you seed your world according to how you want things to be. Amount of landmass, how it is clumped together, ocean levels, climate, and many other options are available to you. It's highly customizable with just the default package, and that's not counting mods or tilesets. If you like to customize your game, you're going to love Freeciv. But I'll talk about that later.

The game itself plays much like Civilization 2 does. You start off with a scout and a settler, and your goal is to find a good starting place to place your first city. Great places to find are ones that have lots of resources and greenery to support the population, as well as plenty of room to expand. As your city grows, you can assign a governor to automatically run it for you, or micro-manage it yourself. It's very much the civilization that you know and love.

Network play is one of the major drawing points, as playing online is seamless and easy. It's loads of fun to lay the smackdown on another civilization online, and since the game is heavily modded by all, it's rather easy to set up a game in a universe besides the one the main game inhabits. And that sort of control is always very nice.

The most enjoyable part of the game, though, lies with its boundless customization. The player can use everything from custom tilesets, sounds, or even entire gameplay modes seamlessly with the main game. It has possibly the most amount of customization out of any game I have featured on Freeware Friday, and it very well deserves it. You can check out the database of customizable objects on the Freeciv wiki.

There's not really much more to say about Freeciv. You can't describe Civilization adequately in 5000 words, much less 500. If you like Civilization, you'll love Freeciv. If you are a fan of freeware games or strategy games in any form or fashion, you'll love Freeciv. Treat is as a wrapper, holding together a game that you've never truly experienced. The default game, and the mods that the community make for it, are things that really have to be played before a judgment can be made. In the end, though, Freeciv is an amazing game and a jewel in the cap of the freeware and open-source gaming scene. You can download it through Big Download in PC, Mac, or Linux versions, or from the official wiki.

For another look at freeware games, take a peek at Joystiq's Free Game Club weekly feature!