Series: Sid Meier's Civilization Publisher: Infogrames, Hasbro Interactive Developer: Firaxis Published: October 30, 2001 Category: Strategy Players: 1 I wanted to review my favorite game and I finally am going to do it. This game will keep you on your computer table stuck for hours as game is highly addictive, after it’s predecessors it’s back with a hit perhaps a big hit. This is a sequel to one of the greatest game Civilization released 10 years ago, lives up to the standards made up by its ancestors. Civilization has always been tagged with unlimited replayability, attractive look and waging war with your rivaling nations. In short, you can say that this game is a triumphant game that will keep you busy with your computer. This game stands on its own and doesn’t feel any backup from its previous games. At the start the game looks very boring and no different from Civilization II but assure that this feeling will wash out of your minds. Many of the factors are taken from Firaxis Games – national borders and the map. Many of these are taken from Firaxis’s Alpha Centauri; still many things stand out quite differently from the game. The game starts while you choose your particular civilization or even make up your own but each specific civilization has two unique strengths. Firstly, specific civilizations start unique military strengths which are not available to any other civilization. E.g. the Persians have Immortals instead of normal swordsmen. As, you progress and you ascend into more powerful ages these unique units go out of use as they are no match for futuristic weapons. Secondly, each civilization starts with their own scientific properties, which will affect you in the future. Just think for instance, you are Babylonians this civilization has “Scientific†and “Religious†strengths which means you pay half the money for scientific and religious structures. As you progress to newer ages you get free technologies and you can change your type of government with the period of anarchy much like civil wars in reality. During periods of Anarchy, you can’t build anything and you might have suffer from some resistance. With your decision of choosing a particular civilization you have to be careful of everything. The concepts of national borders and living map have been made smoother than its introduction in Alpha Centauri. Each country gets culture points accumulating of how strong your infrastructure is and number of monuments you have built. Like, a 1,500 years old city has an open – end architecture will have much cultural value which cannot be compared to a village which barely has a temple. It depends on strong your culture is that determines the widening of your empire. If your national borders continue to grow, people of other countries might adore your culture and overthrow the governor of the opposing city and hand it to you. The Tech tree, much more smoother but still a bit complex Another new feature in the game that has a lot of importance in the game is the map which has more uses than its last games. The map decides the city’s strategic location, for instance you have located in mountainous regions which help in defense and artillery attacks will not affect much whereas for cities located near the oceans help in trade and connect the cities out of the continents. Later in the game, you can build railways, roads and airports. This time Sid Meier has utilized even the empty land patches, as technology continues to reign over the civilization; the geography of the world will change and people will start using iron, gold, coal etc. In Civilization III managing your resources is as important as managing your government. The computer in the game posses a major role and is a very good challenge. Though computer can get mad at times and wage useless war against us but still computer can’t beat the human intelligence. If you were near any enemy border you would see units uselessly circling around a city as if they are guarding it. Same goes for non-combat units which also do some unusual things. Computer is a tough challenger as its strategic location is very good and always keeps an eye on the resources. It attacks in numbers and takes good support from its allies, supporting the new feature of Mutual Protection Pact which allows dragging other countries to wage war against the remaining countries. The histograph that could give you a victory. Civilization III also introduces a well-suited scenario editor that lets you do anything to the scenario. This feature keeps the never-ending experience of the game truly alive. Allowing placing resources anywhere and also allowing you to make your own terrain, there is also the auto-mode generates scenarios. On one hand, Civilization is quite smoother and easier to play on than its predecessors but it still does not bring much success from its new gameplay mechanics on the technology section. The technology tree is very much improved from Civilization II but still has a confusing layout. The technology tree includes a one way street and a two way street that gives you many scientific bonuses while the one way street leads you to the next age leaving the player with less variety in scientific achievements. Though it has some complexity but is still a wholesome improvement from the previous tech trees. Airplanes, trading, and many more things are made more efficient. The gold is made more in use than in its predecessors. As Espionage is made more costly, you can also pay to increase workforce on any particular thing and gold proficiently used in making deals with other countries. The combat system is made smoother – presenting a lot of options and things to do. Many new gameplay features have been introduced such as air superiority, retreats if you fall in difficult positions, unit experience and many more. Over the game is easy and the learning curve lasts just half an hour. This game has lot of positive content and part being an epic-strategy game it’s also an educational game. This game is a try for gaming fan has this game is easy and will make every body love this genre. This game works like this for a few days at the start, as your country grows, large population settles it becomes more complex and a bit difficult to handle. You’ll have hordes of workers and units to garrison and work. Terrain improvements, pollution checks become wider problems for the workers but to solve this problem there is an auto handling button that helps them do things without doing any works. There is a problem with auto building units that sometime creates too many units and you’ll end up with wasting money on their maintenance. Each unit has a single turn which he utilizes to do certain functions, but you’ll have to overcome your patience as computer takes about a minute or two to complete its turn. Your country overview. Victory has been made more interesting and variable. Including six victory types – Space Ship to Alpha Centauri, Dominating your rivals, dominating the world, diplomatic triumph, cultural victory, histograph victory. The graphics and artwork is presented really well, which are charming and attractive. The map is made with an aim which remains distinct while zooming. Animated battles between units look really realistic. Cities, your advisors or even you might change your attire – these are updated as you progress through different age. The graphics really show off different ages pretty well with old brick buildings to super tall skyscrapers. The Civilopedia is really helpful if you want to know anything about the game basics. Civilization might be a path to confusion – you might forget where have placed a unit? And which city you can’t find? Though there are both these functions but they are not much accurate. Their was a rumor that Firaxis wanted a multiplayer support also included in the game but later the multiplayer mode was added in its expansion packs. So, this game stands as a backbone to the Civilization series bringing as many as new features as they could. This game executes its every new feature in an exciting display though there are not many flaws to complaint on. At the end, this game is exciting and probably for everyone to try. More Information Expansion Packs After the original game release their were two more expansion packs for the game including some surface features and the multiplayer mode which wasn’t their in the original game. These expansion packs also went as well as the original game. Civilization III: Play the World This was first expansion pack to the game, adding many irresitible features including – The multiplayer mode, new Wonders of the World , new units and three new game modes elimination, regicide, and capture the flag. Adding the Turnless Based System was good but not so efficient and rose to some problems in the multiplayer. The multiplayer system was very nicely impleted, instead of challenging with computer players you can compete with normal players online from all over the world. Civilization III: Conquests This is second and the last expansion pack of the game including some trait features – bringing 31 playable civilizations from all over the world (Adding from all the expansion packs and the original game). Presenting many more wonders of the world, Feudalism and Facism- two new goverments, many more natural resources in the world around us e.g. Oasis in deserts and volcanos that might erupt. However these are not the most important features, they have introduced a new scenario mode that allow you to play certain scenarios. Presentation – 10/10 – This game has been very well presented with 3-D graphics and strong features to help you plug in to the game. This game has made the Civilization series a huge hit. Gameplay – 10/10 – Strong gameplay features have made it a wonder and I always warn you about the game’s addictive-ness. Graphics – 10/10 – The special artwork and design is all well presented in this game and correct all the flaws from its previous games. Sound – 10/10 – SFX is brought up pretty well merging well with the war-like environment and sometimes hearing this music gives you the feeling to provoke wars. Replayability – 10/10 – Highly addictive that’s what I have to say. Total Score – 50/50 – The score says it all, what else can I say. “Warmongering fool! Know that your invasion of your territory constitutes a declaration of war against Zululand! Send your soldier’s home immediately or they will be destroyed – and YOU will be held for the bloodshed†-Zululand Chief, Shaka.
Great review, Vince! I just had some trouble understanding the second sentence, and a bit of punctuation here and there is missing, but that's all. One question: in the review are you including the expansion packs or not?
I LOVE this game! I would play long enough games with my friends that I would have 4 or 5 ICBMs ready to go. for some reason they would always attack each other and not me so I pretty much scrapped my military at some points.
