he idea of Civilization III is the same as in Civilization I and the games (both those by Sid Meier and those by others) that have followed it. The player chooses a civilization out of history and leads it from the dawn of time to the space age, trying to do a better job than the computer, which is controlling the competing civilizations. In CivIII, there are 16 civilizations to choose from (Romans, Incas, Zulus, Japanese, Iroquois, etc.), and players not only choose which they want to play, but can also pick which civilizations they want to play against or let the computer pick their opponents for them. Similarly, players can choose the size and type of world they want to compete on: one big land mass or lots of little ones or in between; hot, cold or temperate; wet, dry or mild. Players also get to set which of the six levels of difficulty they want to play at.
CivIII is a not a wargame, although there is war in it. It is not a logistics game, although each part of a civilization's economy can be managed by the player or turned over to the computer. It is not a diplomacy game, although the higher the difficulty level, the more important diplomacy becomes. And finally, it is not a cultural game, although civilizations that neglect their culture will find their cities deserting to civilizations that emphasize it. CivIII is a game that models all these elements; players must balance them to be successful.
The game is a turn-based, which means that its difficulty is not artificially increased by forcing players to make decisions in realtime. There are six different ways to win CivIII, from the direct method of wiping out the other civilizations to the very difficult method of being the first to launch a spaceship. Once the United Nations is founded, it is even possible to be voted the winner by the other civilizations.
A sequel that provides III times the fun
The gaming industry is not like the movie industry, where seeing "III" at the end of a title is nearly always a sign to stay away. More often than not, the third edition of a video game is better than its two prequels, and that is the case with CivIII. The designers have learned the lessons of the first two games. CivIII automatically saves the very first turn and the last five turns. If a player hits the wrong key or if there is a crash (a rarity), the game can be restarted and very little is lost. Or if players wants to start over from the beginning, they can do that, too. Civilization II had more civilizations to choose from, but CivIII keeps the best-balanced ones and gives them much better artwork.
What CivIII kept from its previous incarnations is completely addictive gameplay. What players are doing is building something in a digital world. They want to see how it comes out, and each turn shows off a new stroke on the canvas. The desire to see what happens next not only makes the game nearly impossible to turn off, it makes time spent playing pass at an incredible speed. Players will constantly find themselves thinking "OK, one more turn and then I'll quit," and then that turn finishes and something
else interesting has happened and they think, "OK. Just one more." Before they know it, it is midnight, and their spouse is forcibly dragging them from the computer chair.
Although it doesn't take a very powerful computer to run CivIII, because its graphics, while beautiful, are simple, it is a game that tracks a lot of factors and makes a lot of decisions. The time it takes the game to play out the computer-controlled turns is not instantaneous, and it gets longer as those civilizations add cities and units and improvements. On huge maps, with all 16 civilizations playing, it can take minutes for the computer to complete a turn, even on the most powerful of machines. Players worried about their machine's power should start with small maps and work up. Fortunately, the game is just as entertaining on small maps as it is on huge ones.
Sid Meier's Civilization III is one of those rare games that is more than worth the money. If you're like me and enjoy history and games and watching complex simulations evolve, then buying CivIII will change the way you spend your leisure hours.
— Eric
Back to the top.
