Civilization III

"Even Sid Meier has his bad days."

Civilization III is a fairly nice game. Even though it's not as good as Civilization II or Alpha Centauri,
the game is still a welcome addition to the series that Sid Meier has brought us. He gives us yet another addition to the Civilization family, but it is arguably the worst game in the series so far.

Story- 8/10 The story is the same as the other Civilization games, Your once nomadic group has decided to stop be being nomadic. They have chosen you as their leader. And you are expected to build a thriving civilization to ''stand a test of time.'' The fate of the Civilization is in your hands and if you screw up, well, your Civilization will be a hunk of burning ashes.

Graphics- 10/10 This is how this game impressed me, the graphics are excellent. The detailed environments that this game provides look amazing too. The uncharted deserts, the low grasslands, and the high snowcapped peaks of the mountains in this game all look somewhat realistic. Even the units look better than they ever have before. The cities look like cities and in the view city screen the layout and design of the city look simply amazing. Overall, this is basically, the only shining aspect of the game.

Sound- 5/10 The sound of the game is one of the darker aspects to this game. The sound effects are very nice but I find them annoying after a while. The battle sound effects are very nice though. But others downright suck. Movement sounds being one of them. Unlike Alpha Centauri, there is different background themes that change from age to age. But each of these is annoying and repetitive. The sound of Civilization III is not the greatest in the world, but still is somewhat good.

Gameplay- 4/10 An aspect that past Sid Meier releases have thrived on is pathetic in Civilization III. They took very few of the good aspects and many of the bad from Civilization II and Alpha Centauri and threw in some more just to make it really bad.

A new aspect in the game is culture. Culture is basically how your customs, arts, and philosophies effect the world and its impact on the areas surrounding your cities. This also creates sort of a boundary line separating your country from another. This is a fairly nice addition and is the only half good addition.

Another new addition is the fact that civilizations have two major strengths. These strengths are being Religious, Industrious, Commercial, Militaristic, Scientific, and Expansionist. These civilizations specific abilities will allow you to do certain things better.. For example being Scientific will allow you to make scientific city improvements faster and start with a scientific advancement at the beginning of the an age. What Firaxis didn't think of is that some of the things that these civ specific abilities give are useless. This is good in some aspects but horrible in others.

This game also boasts a new trade system that is indeed the worst aspect of the game. You must connect to that resource by road, by air or by sea in order to use. Its more realistic but it takes a lot of the fun out of the game. And unless you are lucky, you probably won't even get all of the resources and will have to haggle with another for them. A bad addition to this game, indeed.

This game also kept a lot of the aspects of past games including the movement system, customizable settings, wonders, city improvements, and many other things. You can wage war in a conquest style strategy, go to space in a space race in order to win, or win diplomatically. But much like other games like this, it gets long and boring toward the end of the game.

The gameplay of this game could have been better, but it could be worse.

Replayability- 6/10 There are a lot of civilizations to choose from but the game is long and boring and could make you not want to play it again.

Pros

- Excellent graphics
- Good story.
Cons
- Bad Gameplay in some departments.
- Sound effects
- Lower replay value
- Same story as Civ I & II

Overall- 6/10 Could be better, but its still a good game in many aspects.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/02, Updated 07/26/03