Civilization 3 Review

After several years of waiting and playing poor Civilization clones, we finally have a sequel to the series worthy of Sid Meier's name. Civilization III is, simply put, a fantastic game which preserved all the good qualities of its predecessors and introduced many innovative features. Once you install the game, you can expect to have many a sleepless night before you finally win and dominate your opponents.

The new version of Civilization doesn't only bring graphical improvements; it has a large number of new features, which will attract both the old fans and newer generations of players. You start the game by choosing one of the sixteen nations: Rome, Greece, Germany, China, Japan, India, Aztecs, Iroquois, Egypt, Babylon, Russia, America, France, Persia, Zululand or England. Each of these nations has a characteristic historical leader. Whichever nation you choose, you will get nation-specific gameplay bonuses which will influence your strategy. These bonus characteristics include: Commercial (cities produce more Commerce points), Expansionist (faster expansion and a bonus initial Scout unit), Industrious (workers are more proficient at work and cities bring more shields), Militaristic (faster production of military units and units acquire experience faster), Religious (faster building of religious structures and no Anarchy during revolutions) and Scientific (faster research and science structure building).

Apart from the characteristic bonuses, each civilization also has a characteristic unit taken from their golden age. For instance, the Americans have F-15 in stead of a normal Jet Fighter, Germany has Panzers in stead of common tanks and Aztecs have Jaguar warriors in stead of plain Warriors. All this improves the gameplay and replay value.

Rules of engagement can be customized, and you can determine custom victory conditions: Domination, Diplomatic, Cultural, Space race, Conquest. Each game you play will award you with a certain number of points by the year 2040 which will determine your place in the Hall of Fame. You can continue to play the game after this date, but you will receive no further points.

The gameplay interface is true to its roots. The main screen contains the mini-map, the big map where the whole action takes place and icons for opening advisor dialogues and the Civilopedia, the universal encyclopedia which will help you easily understand every possible thing in this game. The lower part of the screen contains a small info window which contains the data about current date, your system of rule, funds, and current research status.

The entire world map looks great (Civ III requires OpenGL) and the units have been excellently animated. Map appearance will change as you progress through time. Each tile in the game has a certain meaning, and its characteristics will influence both the production and combat that takes place on its territory. Tiles can also change in time; for instance, a tile can start producing less food due to global heating.

Civilization III is extremely difficult even on the easiest levels. It will offer you a choice of six levels of difficulty ranging from Chieftain to Monarch to Deity. Enemy AI is absolutely fantastic; I have to say that my computer controlled opponents made some very realistic and human decisions at times...

There are numerous gameplay novelties. First, the units are no longer city dependant; they will only take a certain amount of gold from your reserves each turn. Military units gain experience in battle and can eventually achieve veteran, elite or even leader status. Leader is practically a hero unit that can lead up to three units in his stack, which means that he uses combined points of all units under his command in combat calculations. On the other hand, you shouldn't rely solely on force to achieve your goals...