Sid Meier's Civilization III (PC)
	Developer Firaxis Games Publisher Infogrames Reviewed by Christopher Lipski [Feedback] [Author Bio] Review Date December 7, 2001

Rating (out of 5.0) 3.5 out of 5.0*

Judge for yourself

Strengths AI Diplomatic options Weaknesses Interface Sound There are no scenarios

* Notes Gaming Voice ratings are based on the technical and/or gameplay merits of a given product as well as the developer's choice of features and delivery of same. Our rating is not an endorsement of the thematic content of a given title. Gamers and parents are cautioned to determine if such content conflicts or coincides with their values and beliefs.

Normally, I do not care for the music that ships with games, and Civ3 is no exception.

While the object of this version is the same, there have been new innovations. One of the things that is noticeable right off is that terrain affects visibility. Your units can see further into the shroud of darkness if they are on a hill or mountain. Additionally, line of sight (LOS) is blocked by hills, mountains and forests.

This time around the barbarians have the names of minor tribes. So it may be that the Huns give you trouble when their horsemen come calling. You can ransack their village, but if you don't take control of the terrain there may be other AI tribes that pop up nearby. The settlers and workers in this release are handled quite well. Settler units can only found cities, and require two population points to build, while workers require only one. Both these units are supported from your general fund instead of food from the city that they came from. They are, however, vulnerable to capture by enemy civs, or being killed by barbarians.

Pathfinding has been significantly improved. No longer will a unit on a world-spanning continent attempt to head in the opposite direction rather than cross the international date line. Your port cities can be counted as sea squares, allowing ships to automatically take a shortcut if it bridges an isthmus.

The graphics have been improved upon and there are many extra animations. Ships rock in the ocean, point in the direction that they sail in, and deliver broadsides to the enemy. During battle, a losing vessel is shown broken in two as it sinks. While some naval vessels have the additional ability to bombard units, combat is still kept simple, so you may lose an attacking nuclear sub to an ironclad, even though that civ may have no idea what anti-sub warfare is. I would have liked to see high-tech units to make a much bigger impact in combat.

The AI is very aggressive. So much so, that combined with the low world resources leads to a steep learning curve for new players. Much welcome is that the AIs will attack in force. In addition, there is extensive diplomacy with mutual protection pacts, granting rights of passage, trade embargoes, and military alliances. Realistically, you can no longer be at war for hundreds of years -- your citizens will grow weary of it.

Pathfinding has been significantly improved.

There are many options that can be negotiated with your neighbors and Civ3 includes some nice feedback with your trade advisor and the other civs so that you can better balance your trades. In one game I was able to almost avoid war altogether, becoming a powerful trader and won with a diplomatic victory instead of a military one.

Normally, I do not care for the music that ships with games, and Civ3 is no exception. I turned it off very soon after play. I thought that the ambient sounds were good, but that the naval movement noise is too loud. There is something disconcerting about your ships making that much noise crossing an ocean.

Resources are something new to the series. You will need one or more types to build many of the units and city improvements. While there is at least one source per player -- to encourage trade and exploration -- it can get difficult to find something you need on a large map. Allowing a player to determine some or all of the resources to be increased or reduced when generating a planet, even if that affected their score, would be something that would be most welcome.

While some games try to make things simple and allow the mouse to be used for everything, this one takes a step backward and requires the keyboard to be used regularly. Thus the player will find themselves fighting against the interface at times. In one game, I built the United Nations, both to have the wonder, and to prevent a diplomatic victory by the AI. A small window popped up at the end of the turn asking if I wanted a vote for Secretary-General with the default being 'yes'. I had to select no, and then a close window button, or attempt to double-click the small no button. This same screen popped up almost another 50 times before I won a cultural victory: No one liked me, but they liked the culture of my capital. I can't imagine a playtester not complaining about this window. A lot of game registrations ask only three times before giving up, and then will tell you how to activate it again. Likewise, a count or a third choice of "Do not ask again" and then allowing one to click on the UN building or a diplomacy screen to hold the vote would be an improvement. Finally, attempting to exit the game with a double-click or click and confirm brings up another window that you have to double-click or confirm. So in some cases you have to confirm your confirmation. Single clicks on radio buttons would be most welcome, but the interface needs much more work than that. A great deal is counter-intuitive, and many commands and screens are inaccessible without the use of the keyboard.

Wait until everything is fixed before picking it up.

The screen tends to scroll slowly and others have reported having video problems. If your default screen resolution is less than 1024x768 then the Windows task bar may appear somewhere on the screen. The ability to play with an additional eight civs was added late in development and the information and diplomacy screens therefore show only eight at a time. Playing on the larger maps with more civs may result in you waiting quite a bit for your turn to come around, even without seeing the other civs move. There doesn't appear to be many problems if your display is set to at least 1024x768x16 and you play the standard size worlds.

Before the game was released, the Mod community was excited by the announcement and screenshots of the editor. One of the things that gave the second game in the series such longevity was the ability to modify the game and create scenarios. While casual players can change the rules to suit themselves, the editor shipped is a big disappointment. Therefore creating such scenarios is just not possible in Civ3. If you do change the rules, it warns you that it may be unstable. It looks like a lot of time was spent animating units and not enough was left for the editor.

In summary, I think the frustrating interface followed by the steep learning curve are the things that will spoil Civ3 for most players. Very rare iron deposits in some games and the lack of a real editor will just add to this disappointment. My advice would be to wait until everything is fixed before picking it up (a patch is slated for release as soon as this weekend -- ed.). I am hoping that there will be extensive fixes rather than just a later add-on with a couple of new scenarios added.