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Civilization III offers 16 playable civilizations, and each has its own strengths and bonuses. The game begins in the year 4000 B.C., when your civilization is nothing more than a primitive tribe, and each turn progresses the game forward in time. You manage growth, military production, city development, diplomacy, and scientific research as your civilization grows from a single village to several towns to a continent-spanning metropolitan sprawl. The fun is in deciding whether to research writing or the wheel, whether to build a musketeer to take out an encroaching enemy pikeman or direct your city to work on the culturally significant Sistine Chapel. There are five ways to win the game, ranging from wiping out the other civilizations with military power to defeating them through cultural dominance, which is one of several new victory conditions.
Fans of Meier's other turn-based games will find the same addictive gameplay present in Civilization III. Building off the gameplay are several new additions, specifically the new cultural rating and the new resource management options. Every turn, each civilization earns culture points based upon how many wonders and other culturally significant structures are built within its cities. The higher the culture rating, the faster your civilization's borders grow. If your border extends to an enemy city, it's possible to capture that city without shedding any blood; the city's citizens will be attracted by your culture and willingly rebel.
The other big change is that you must collect raw materials in order to build certain units. For example, oil and rubber are required to build modern units, and if those resources aren't within your territory, you'll need to negotiate with other civilizations for them. And because the game's negotiation process is very deep and involved, you may find yourself cut off from key raw materials if you're at odds with other civilizations, which, in turn, will weaken you militarily.
The AI powering rival civilizations is quite good, and is capable of negotiating complex arrangements with both your civilization and other civilizations. These negotiations run from simple trade agreements to complex mutual protection pacts, and it's not uncommon to find an enemy civilization taking steps to isolate you from the rest of the world.
There are a few minor issues with the game, most notably with unit imbalances and the tedious endgame, which can drag on forever. These are minor problems, however, and don't detract from the overall experience. Fans of Sid Meier's other games, or anyone looking for a fun and challenging gaming experience, owe it to themselves to pick up Civilization III. --P. Meyer
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Game Of The Year?,
This review is from: Civilization 3 Game of The Year Edition (CD-ROM)
This "Game of the Year" edition includes an extra CD that includes a few extra maps, a "making-of" video, a few chapters from the strategy guide, and frankly is worthless.Civilization 3 itself brings a few new ideas to the mix with culture, strategic resources, and civ-specific units as well as revised units and wonders. The graphics have been updated and the map is very pretty if not always useful. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish terrain types without reverting to right-clicking on the square. Units now feature animations that are entertaining at first, but you'll soon tire of seeing cavalry attacking musketmen for the 100th time. The scale of the game has grown and it is not uncommon to have a civilization of 20 or more cities at the larger settings. Luckily there are now governors to automate some of the more routine tasks of city maintenance. The combat model is changed with the air arena being much different than previous versions. However, some combat seems to have taken a step back and it isn't uncommon to see older units defeat newer technology. You'll need new strategies to win here so don't expect your Civ 2 experience to guarantee success. With version 1.29f, the game is relatively stable and most of the bugs/issues (rampant corruption) from early versions have been addressed. I personally believe this game is inferior to Civ 2, but the price of this new version certainly makes it more attractive.
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great, but too time consuming,
By Johan Skog (Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Civilization 3 Game of The Year Edition (CD-ROM)
When reading another review of this product I felt obliged to write something more balanced. If you are used to playing Civ you might get a little annoyed with this game at first, since it is so different from its predecessors. The economical system is quite much remade and the first thing you're going to notice is that the corruption makes most of your cities useless, even under higher forms of government. Since only a few of your cities are going to help in the scientific research, this makes the game a lot more even. Also smaller civilizations get a fair chance to keep up in the science race. But after playing a while you'll find out that having lots of cities is not such a bad idea after all. The most important reason why you need'll all your cities is because all those neat resources you find around the map now have become essential to your whole civilization, instead of just being a bonus for the local city. The more luxury resources you have snatched, the happier your people will be. And you'll need the strategic resources like iron or oil to be able to build certain units. The culture adds a completely new dimension to the game. Now it is possible to win the game without ever having to attack your enemies, just focusing on the welfare and glory of your empire. But don't forget the defenses because your enemies are very likely to get jealous on your prosperity! The only disadvantage I find in this game is that it is far too time consuming. Of course, that is a part of the all strategy games, but in my opinion it is a little too much administration. Of course you can have your advisors to do this for you, but since I'm a perfectionist, I want everything to be done exactly as I had intended it. OK, I guess I have to blame myself on that point, but still it reduces my overall mark of this game to a 4.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
CivII + I,
By
This review is from: Civilization 3 Game of The Year Edition (CD-ROM)
I am sort of amazed at the complaints I read here. First, the diplomacy is not the be-all, end-all of diplomatic relations, but the system does allow for more varied trading than what CivII had to offer. I consider this a plus, even if it isn't quite as in-depth as it could be. Second, the addition of culture really adds another dimension to gameplay. No slash and burn here, you'll lose your cities. A strong culture is a win-win scenario for your own cities, it makes your citizens happier and can cause other nations cities to defect to you. Third, the resources also add significant depth. Luxuries and strategic resources both are very important for success. Fourth, back to diplomacy. Its touch of realism becomes more obvious now, you have to be bartering from a position of authority, either in culture, resources, or power, in order to get good deals. This can be difficult if you're not in a position of power to begin with, but once you're there, keep dealing. Having an advisor that basically tells you when a foreign leader will accept a deal really helps. Other civs must respect or fear you, otherwise they will sell you down the river. Frustrating? Maybe. Realistic? I'd vote yes. Fifth, I can't say much yet for military battles since my strategies have always been based on science. But since Fundamentalism is gone it seems the military might is harder than it was in CivII, which I think is a good thing. Though the leaders obviously give you an advantage, I'd have to say that anyone relying on leader production probably doesn't have a very good grasp of strategy in the first place. Consider leaders like stumbling upon a vital resource: count yourself lucky. Sixth, "small wonders". Some wonders are not limited to one civ building them. For instance, the Apollo program, exposing all the world map, requires that each civilization builds it to gain its benefits. I think this is a much better addition. Seventh, the so-called "tedious" end-game. Um... no kidding? For me, end-game was where I finally pulled everything together. It wasn't tedious at all, but sure it takes a long time to take a turn. What else would you expect from a very large civilization? You've been growing it all these years, you have so many cities and units to manage, of course it will take some time. All in all, I find this to be a welcome improvement over CivII. With intriguing modifications, most of my strategies from CivII carried over well. I'd recommend it without reservation if you enjoyed CivII. 2115|R20CR2CLEVHMFB;2115|R3RF2VNXFVBZHO;2115|R2W37FJ5O7A1JH;
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