Sid Meier's Civilization III: Limited Edition Tin

by Atari

Product Features

• Sid Meier's Civilization III is a turn-based strategy computer game by Firaxis Games, the sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization II. It was followed by Civilization IV. Also called Civ 3 or Civ III for short, the game is the third generation of the original Civilization. The game offers highly evolved gameplay in terms of both mechanics and strategy.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005QB4E
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 31, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,597 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Civilization III Limited Edition Tin includes the Civilization III game, an exclusive video chronicling the making of Civilization III, a video celebrating game designer Sid Meier's induction into the IDSA Hall of Fame, designer notes from Sid Meier and Jeff Bridges, a foldout tech tree, and the Civilization III game manual.

Sid Meier's name is synonymous with outstanding games, particularly turn-based strategy games. From the original Civilization to Colonization to Alpha Centauri, Meier has been behind some of the best games ever made. Now we can add Civilization III to the list. The third installment in Meier's signature series offers all the outstanding gameplay featured in the first two games while including new features and refinements that keep the series fresh and engaging.

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

Pros:

• Enemy AI is very impressive
• New additions really add to the experience
• Very addictive gameplay

Cons:

• Some unit imbalances
• Endgame is a little long-winded

Product Description

This software is BRAND NEW. Packaging may differ slightly from the stock photo above. Please click on our logo above to see over 15,000 titles in stock.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a good game, but doesn't live up to the hype, November 4, 2001

By 

"dldante" (NYC, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civilization III: Limited Edition Tin (CD-ROM)

Everyone talks about what a great improvement Civ-3 is over Civ-2. Well, I've played the game almost non-stop for the last 4 days and have realized that it's pretty much the same friggin' game with just a few tweaks. A quick patch could have made Civ-2 into this same exact game, but then they wouldn't get our ($).

But the game has some good aspects to it. First of all, the graphics have gotten a huge face lift. They aren't groundbreaking visuals, but they're a welcomed upgrade. Also, the animations for the units is done just right. Certain sound effects though are a little wierd (why the hell does a riflemen sound like he's firing his gun when he's just walking?). The music isn't unbearable as with most strategy games. In fact, some of the tunes are pretty nice to listen to. The addition of culture is nice as well, your boarders can expand simply by having a high culture rating. This allows for some huge and productive cities and it also lets you conquer enemy lands peacefully (your culture can spill over into neighboring territory).

Now the gripes:

The diplomacy system was supposed to be a big improvement over Civ-2 but it feels like the same system just with new leader portraits. You can request things like access to lands, trade embargos & mutual protection acts... so that IS new. But the system is generally pointless. The CPU players will always make heavy demands, often wanting to make trades heavily in their favor and rejecting anything reasonable. If you play on the easier levels, diplomacy is useless because you will surpass the other civilizations to the point where they have nothing to offer you. And if you play the harder levels diplomacy is STILL useless because the CPU players will surpass you and not want to hear a word you have to say. I also noticed (and this is on all difficulty levels) that nations that you haven't pissed off have no problem giving you their entire treasuries. Every game I played I would contact another civilization every few turns, demand a tribute of all of their gold, and they ALWAYS just hand it over. Maybe it's a bug, but I've yet to be rejected.

On the harder levels, the game will seem more like it's cheating rather than giving you good competition. You'll notice that no matter how quickly you work on that wonder, somebody ALWAYS beats you to it (and always by like 2 friggin' turns!). The computer musters up troops by means totally unknown. In a game as America, I was at war with neighboring Aztecs and they kept sending in hordes of their special unit guys. This wouldn't have seemed strange except for the fact that they had NO gold in treasury (they kept giving it to me when I asked for it) and all of their cities were size 3 and smaller, which means SLOW production. So how in the world do the Aztecs keep raising all these troops? The world my never know.

Combat itself is also a little unbalanced. How in the world a Russian Cossack (a guy on a horse) can slay a German Panzer (a friggin' tank!) is a mystery to me. But all to often you'll see archers beating riflemen or cavalry slaying tanks. I don't care how good of a horseman you are, you're not beating a tank! Not only that, but the special units are unbalanced. Some civs, such as Aztecs and Zulus, get their special units earlier in the game. This gives military dominance to the player who wants to use these civs. But then you have civs like America and Germany who get their guys later in the game, making them the dominant force in the end. So if you wanna play the Zulu, you'll get your little super-warrior guy in the BC times, but that won't do you much good against the American F-15 or the German Panzer later on the game (although it seems as though a Cossack is quite the match!).

Anothet thing, the Civlization characteristics are useless. I saw no difference in the speed of workers with an industrious nation. As for militaristic civs... I was playing as Germany (who is militaristic & scientific). Not only was I behind in technology to non-scientific civs, but non-militaristic civs would whoop my but in battle with the same units. Meaning that if my swordsman fought an American swordsman, I'd lose the battle although Americans aren't militaristic. The only real difference you'll notice is that Religious civs never have anarchy and Scientific civs get a free advance with every new technology age. Other than that, the other characteristics offer no real edge or personality.

All in all, the game is good only because it's the same thing as before. The new additions aren't necessarily good ones (such as not being able to rush Wonders), but I guess they had to make SOMETHING different. A lot of the streamlining takes away from the game (such as getting rid of spys, now you just pay to do espinage activity) but it's still fun. Is it better than Civ-2?It really should be, but in the end it seems as though Civ-3 is just lacking that fire that Civ-2 had. It has the ingredients of a good game, but that's because it's basically just Civ-2 with an extra layer of icing on the cake.

But you'll notice that the game doesn't quite grip you and keep you playing like Civ-2 did. You won't be able to put your finger on it. You might never really understand why this game isn't addictive when it very well should be. But as you play it, you'll never be able to escape the feeling that Civilization III is just missing... something.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as much fun as hoped, November 13, 2001

By 

Michael J. Wood "Flight Surgeon" (Kaneohe, HI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civilization III: Limited Edition Tin (CD-ROM)

I've been playing Civ (in one version or another) since the original came out long ago. I've been looking forward to playing Civ3, well, ever since Civ2 came out. I've been disappointed. Overall, lots of nice new features, but several items make this game unplayable. The killer flaw, to me at least, is the new role that corruption has in the game. No matter what kind of civilization you have, once your society gets big enough, and no matter what improvements you have, you will have overwhelming corruption. Playing a democracy, will all Wonders, and all city improvements, and 50% of the people in the town as entertainers, still have revolts and 98% corruption in dozens of cities. Not fun, and not realistic. I'm hoping that a patch will fix it, but considering they already have a good chunk of my money....

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the masterpiece I expected, May 13, 2002

By 

"the_crimson" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civilization III: Limited Edition Tin (CD-ROM)

I have followed all the hype surrounding this title long before it was released. I have played every previous Sid Meier title to exhaustion, insatisfied if I had not mastered every trick. So, once Civ3 appeared in Amazon, I readily preordered it and set aside a week of my time for it.

Civ3 is certainly a great game. It is visually beautiful, its AI is impressing, and it is certainly a lot better that Civ2. However, I found several disadvantages:

* the immense corruption forces you to play with a max of 12 cities (unless you start hacking around in the editor, as I did).

* There is no unit workshop.

* As the focus of the game is now much less combat and much more empire management, you may play several games that are boringly peaceful all up to the modern age - and perhaps to the very end.

* The tech tree has a few modifications, but nothing original here. No original unit abilities, either. Apart from the culture idea, no significant changes to the old successful formula.

Now, I am not saying the game is bad. It simply does not have this extra little something that made Civ2 an excellent game and Alpha Centauri an excellent sequel. I expected more - what, I cannot really say. But I know I didn't find it in Civ3.