"Civilization III disappoints"

This game has looks and feels more like CIV 1 rather than an evolution of CIV II. As such, it is a step backward in many ways, despite a few attempts at improvement. Features that are particularly annoying include:
- Unrealistic combat simulation. I have seen swordsmen and samurais destroy tanks. It is not just once or twice, it is almost a regular occurrence. I have seen spearmen successfully defend cities against musketeers and other advanced units. This throws realism out of the window.
- Attitude of population turns sour quickly during wars, regardless of whether it is a war of conquest or a ''just war''. I would imagine that if you are attacked by two nations with no prior provocation, then the citizenry rises up to the occasion and produces more, puts up with hardship, etc... No such luck. While you are busy battling the rascals, you have a civil unrest. I can imagine a righteous society rising up against war if it is a war of conquest, but the indiscriminate unhappiness regardless of the cause of war just plain sucks.
- Resource development is quite laborious. I thought CIV-II and Call-to-power were moving in the right direction by making these decisions at the national level, and doing away with the busy and rather silly workers swarming around and distracting you. Also, putting the workers on auto-mode will mean that they will clear all forests and accelerate global warming. This sucks.
- The switching of sides due to culture is a controversial idea, but regardless of what you think about it, it is not done right. For example, with a huge army garrisoned in the city, you would imagine that they will keep a lid on such sentiments of switching among the citizens. No such luck. After the switch, the units just vanished, as if a bunch of barehanded citizens looking for a temple can throw away an armored division out of the city and take it over. Get real.
- Poor interface. Too much time was spent on graphics, although nobody ever complained about either CIV II or I. But the interface took several steps backward. Now messages flash quickly and you cannot easily get them. This affects game playing.
- In defeat or in victory, the attitude of the citizens does not change. This is unrealistic. Victories should have a temporary happiness effect, while defeat should have either a positive reaction (like England 1941), or total disintegration (France 1940). In no way should either produce riots in the streets with no purpose.
- The diplomacy AI stinks. If anything, I can guarantee a stream of modest income by visiting each civ and sell them my map every turn. Of course, this takes some keystrokes, but the AI does not seem to mind rebuying the same map over and over again.
- Game slows down on a 1.2GHZ AMD processor with 1GB of memory as we move toward the modern age.
- It crashes every now and then, and sometimes the pictures get corrupted, which tells me they have plenty of memory leaks.

Overall, I regretted the $50.00 I threw on this one. I think they fell victim of their own success. If they will go with a CIV IV, please don't waste resources on graphics, and focus more on game playing. this is what we pay the $ for.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/02, Updated 01/10/02