A Review: Civilizations III: Conquests, PC 2001
Civilization III Complete is the third game in the bestselling series of 4X grand strategy games, developed this time around by Firaxis Games and published by Infogrames Interactive. It was released in 2001, followed by Civilization IV. Unlike the original games, Civ III was not designed by Sid Meier but by Jeff Briggs and Soren Johnson. Much like in the first two games, the player takes control of a budding civilization and leads them from the primitive age all the way through to the space age. The player must construct cities, train units, manage diplomatic relations with opposing factions, and balance the needs of their civilization with the needs of the world at large.
I liked this game a lot and can remember it being one of the first games that I ever secured a copy of to play on my then-dedicated gaming computer. I must have sunk at least one hundred hours into this game by the time that I decided to move on to the fourth game, and I can hardly remember having any major issues at all. I personally view Civ II to be the gold standard for the series and a metre stick for pretty much all 4X and grand strategy titles since I played it, and I did enjoy this installment, but I didn't think that it improved on the second game in any huge way. There were, of course, subtle improvements here and there, and the gameplay was much more refined, but there was nothing amazing added or changed. I still had issues with the AI beating my units with primitive ones of their own, and I found that the barbarians were much more annoying in this game. They would appear a lot more often and seemed to be almost favoured by the battle system. More than once, I lost cities to a random low-level unit, and having to repair the improvements that they destroyed could get very frustrating. I did like the improved diplomacy and thought that the new relationship system that the computer opponents had was a lot better than it was in Civ II. I liked the new diplomat functions and spies that could be employed; this added some new elements to the game that could be explored, I thought. The AI was a lot sharper and seemed to do better at predicting the player and then getting in the way or stopping your plans. I liked the balancing overhaul that most of the units had and enjoyed that Firaxis left the space race end goal in the game. It was nice to have an overall target, and this time around, the computer actually tried to beat the player rather than just building certain parts and then stopping for some random reason.
Visually, Civilization III was a steady improvement over the second game and looked very nice when compared to its older brothers. Firaxis retained the slanted partial 3D view from the second game but added more depth to the worlds. The tiles were much better blended at the edges and looked more like they fit in with one another than being actual tiles. The resources had improved sprites and were a little larger to help them stand out more from the world. Hills and mountains were much more individual than in Civ II and had more variations and differences in their textures. Roads, railroads, mines, and the like looked much better, were much more rounded, and again had a partial 3D appearance over the 2D looks of Civilization II. The city's looked great, and the different spites used for them as they grew in size were superior to Civ II's. The city view screens were also much better than in the second game and had little 3D models for the houses and civilization wonders. Units had improved models and had their own animations for the various commands that could be given, which I feel really brought them to life. The colour palette chosen was softer on the eyes, and the more muted textures made long play periods much easier on the old peepers. I loved the throne room screen, and the computer-generated images for the improvements were much better than in the previous game as well.
Overall, this game wasn't so much an improvement over Civ II, but more of a refinement and much more attractive reskin. I liked this game, but I didn't feel that it added anything of major worth or import from its older brother, and while a good game, it wasn't a huge leap forward in my opinion.
7/10 – Nearly There!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
I liked this game a lot and can remember it being one of the first games that I ever secured a copy of to play on my then-dedicated gaming computer. I must have sunk at least one hundred hours into this game by the time that I decided to move on to the fourth game, and I can hardly remember having any major issues at all. I personally view Civ II to be the gold standard for the series and a metre stick for pretty much all 4X and grand strategy titles since I played it, and I did enjoy this installment, but I didn't think that it improved on the second game in any huge way. There were, of course, subtle improvements here and there, and the gameplay was much more refined, but there was nothing amazing added or changed. I still had issues with the AI beating my units with primitive ones of their own, and I found that the barbarians were much more annoying in this game. They would appear a lot more often and seemed to be almost favoured by the battle system. More than once, I lost cities to a random low-level unit, and having to repair the improvements that they destroyed could get very frustrating. I did like the improved diplomacy and thought that the new relationship system that the computer opponents had was a lot better than it was in Civ II. I liked the new diplomat functions and spies that could be employed; this added some new elements to the game that could be explored, I thought. The AI was a lot sharper and seemed to do better at predicting the player and then getting in the way or stopping your plans. I liked the balancing overhaul that most of the units had and enjoyed that Firaxis left the space race end goal in the game. It was nice to have an overall target, and this time around, the computer actually tried to beat the player rather than just building certain parts and then stopping for some random reason.
Visually, Civilization III was a steady improvement over the second game and looked very nice when compared to its older brothers. Firaxis retained the slanted partial 3D view from the second game but added more depth to the worlds. The tiles were much better blended at the edges and looked more like they fit in with one another than being actual tiles. The resources had improved sprites and were a little larger to help them stand out more from the world. Hills and mountains were much more individual than in Civ II and had more variations and differences in their textures. Roads, railroads, mines, and the like looked much better, were much more rounded, and again had a partial 3D appearance over the 2D looks of Civilization II. The city's looked great, and the different spites used for them as they grew in size were superior to Civ II's. The city view screens were also much better than in the second game and had little 3D models for the houses and civilization wonders. Units had improved models and had their own animations for the various commands that could be given, which I feel really brought them to life. The colour palette chosen was softer on the eyes, and the more muted textures made long play periods much easier on the old peepers. I loved the throne room screen, and the computer-generated images for the improvements were much better than in the previous game as well.
Overall, this game wasn't so much an improvement over Civ II, but more of a refinement and much more attractive reskin. I liked this game, but I didn't feel that it added anything of major worth or import from its older brother, and while a good game, it wasn't a huge leap forward in my opinion.
7/10 – Nearly There!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
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