No bones about it, Call to Power II as a game is completely derived from Sid Meier's Civilization series. Thus, it should be expected that it'd be held to that high standard, even to a seemingly unfair degree. Just as any fantasy series evokes Tolkien, any turn-based history of the world construct conjures "Civ." But first, a little "history" is in order.
Released back in late 1998, Civilization: Call to Power, was, in many ways, simply a mediocre sequel to the celebrated Civilization II. Microprose had been sitting on the series since Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds moved on to greener pastures. Activision snapped up the name Civilization from board game maker Avalon Hill and figured they'd made the steal of the century, the Civilization name is pure gold in the PC strategy business and there was a void to be filled. Microprose countered effectively by purchasing tiny Harland Trefoil, a little Euro developer who originally developed the board game Civilization (no real relation to the computer titles) for Avalon Hill and, incidentally, was the company that really owned copyright to the name. Later Hasbro swooped in and bought Microprose (and thus Harland Trefoil) and Avalon Hill, thus securing the name for the forthcoming Civilization III from Sid Meier himself. Anyway, Activision came to a settlement that they could use the "Civ" moniker once, which is why Call to Power II lacks the Civilization name.
It may lack the famous name but the gameplay and concepts are almost 100% intact here, and so are most of the additions Call to Power added to the mix. Most notably Activision correctly abandoned the mouse-driven movement interface of its first effort. Units are moved with the familiar Civ2 keys. This cuts down on errors like when you'd mistakenly move a unit across the board simply because you didn't realize it was blinking. They've improved the graphics by making animations smoother and icons sharper. The layout is better, particularly with the way they handle menus. The result is a much smoother interface that feels much less cluttered. Admirably, they tweaked the information screens and the layout is much easier to keep track of during a long and complicated game. For the most part, AI sliders like the city planner and mayor work as well as you can expect from a computer game. All this cuts down on the micromanagement necessary andallows you to concentrate on your goals, daunting unit management and dealing with your opponents.