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Civ, Civ2, SMAC... and now CIV!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 30
Date: October 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

civ was and still is one of my favorite all time turnbased games. civ2 continued in that tradition but with better eyecandy. SMAC was just as addictive (but i still think that Civ and Civ2 were better). For turn based, world building, blood letting (in a pg2.. yes 2... sorta way), comercial/diplomatic cutthroat, all out addictive sorta game.... well it takes the cake. NOTHING before or after (or between) has been as good and you can bet this one is just as good. Sid Meyer is a genius and I am happy he decided to use that genius towards games.
Now enough of the dry comments..... Yes I got oil to trade.
How much? What about that neat tech youve been sporting in battle recently?
=)

ALL CIVZ AND NOW THE BEST

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 19
Date: October 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

When Civ 2 came out, it was the greatest most in depth game ever made, and I played it for hours on end. Giving people the ability to deal with diplomacy commerce military religeon and city building of a vast empire. The game spanned from 4000 bc to 2020 AD, having the technology vastly change. Creating a giant empire by hand was one of the greatest thrills ever, facing leaders like Abe Lincoln, Gengis Khan, and Shaka Zulu. Unlike most strategy games, the civ series is played like a very very complex boardgame, making it more of a strategy game than simply who can click the fastest. Civ 3 adds many different options too the game. The greatly enhanced graphics will make the game even greater eye candy, along with the new culture system, which will affect how a leader deals with conquered cities and his/her own cities. Another difference i have heard of will be the Unique Units for each civilization. For instance, the german unique unit is Panzier tanks, while the mongols is horse archers, and the Persians have 'immortals'. ALL of these things together promise to make one of the most complex, exciting, game ever made. BUY IT!!

Best Strategy Game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 17
Date: October 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is the most inticipated game of the year, and of my life. I have been playing Civ. II for 4 years and can't wait for Civ. III to be release! I have been reading about this game for months, and if you like strategy games and history in general, you will fall in love with this game. Don't wait, order now.

A real "must have" for civers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: October 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Civ III is the wet dream of all real Civilization fans.
Let's just say that many of us has been waiting for
this moment for years; at least since 1998/9.
I can warmly recommend this game for all strategy gamers,
but I suppose those who enjoy games like Quake III Arena,
should try to find something else. Anyway, ***** (5 stars)
is my rating for Civ III. Strategy fan, try it out!

(...)
-Rasbelin-

Better and better and better ...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 21
Date: November 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Sid Meier and his crew have done it again. I played it three-hours straight the first time I booted it up. It runs flawlessly and has enough tweeks that it is like a whole new game, but with familiar ghosts from past versions scattered here and there. I'd like to write more, but I've got to go play Civ III.

Do not buy the tin version

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: November 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

You get the nice box, sure, but the added stuff is not worth the extra $$$.

Buy the game in a "normal" box, I wish I had.

The Recent Trend...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: November 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The recent trend seems to be that almost every developer feels his product can walk on water and regardless of bugs or gameplay issues... releases it. This product is no exception... in fact it helps cement the trend into almost a rule. Perhaps next year this game, after being patched and repatched, will live up to 1% of the hype. Civilazation 3 from "The Great Sid Meier", bah... perhaps when he was innovative and spent time on his products! This game is nothing but a testament to his ego and disdain for his customers. Avoid this product like the plague... if you want a good CIV play experience pickup CIV II on discount... you'll wish you paid more for it, because it is what this game should have been.

Civilization III proudly continues the tradition

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Well, having played this game for about a week now (almost to the exclusion of all else, including work. :) ), I can safely conclude that Civ3 has proudly taken up the torch of the Civ games and taken it a step further. For those not familiar with the concept, Civilization games are strategy games in which you start with a tiny group of settlers, and you must build your way to become the dominant empire through the ages. This includes a fine balance between economy, military defense and aggression, scientific advancement, city management, diplomacy, exploration, resource management, and espionage.

Sounds complicated? Well, yes, it is. But no, it isn't either. Sid Meier and friends have simplified the interface and gameplay mechanics so that the game is very intuitive. You are also no longer bogged down with many of the repetitive things you had to do in the previous games (with the help of features such as worker automation, city governors, better advisers, and automatic trade). A few new features such as great leaders, simplified combat, and different but realistic ways to win make this a much more polished, easier game to pick up, yet still maintaining the very deep strategic elements that have always made the Civ games stand apart.

Civilization 3 is highly recommended to any computer game fan. The only thing missing is a multiplayer component (which probably is a good thing, as the turns can take many, many minutes, especially in the latter stages of the game). The Limited Edition is a nice gimmick, which includes a fancy box, a tech chart, and an extra CD. But is it all worth the extra $10? Probably not. I got it because I liked the tin box, but the extra stuff are probably never going to get much use. Still, the box is nicely made. It's not like the Diablo II Limited Edition (there's no DVD movie disc), but it's something to think about if you're buying the game.

It's a good game, but doesn't live up to the hype

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 43 / 45
Date: November 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Everyone talks about what a great improvement Civ-3 is over Civ-2. Well, I've played the game almost non-stop for the last 4 days and have realized that it's pretty much the same friggin' game with just a few tweaks. A quick patch could have made Civ-2 into this same exact game, but then they wouldn't get our ($).

But the game has some good aspects to it. First of all, the graphics have gotten a huge face lift. They aren't groundbreaking visuals, but they're a welcomed upgrade. Also, the animations for the units is done just right. Certain sound effects though are a little wierd (why the hell does a riflemen sound like he's firing his gun when he's just walking?). The music isn't unbearable as with most strategy games. In fact, some of the tunes are pretty nice to listen to. The addition of culture is nice as well, your boarders can expand simply by having a high culture rating. This allows for some huge and productive cities and it also lets you conquer enemy lands peacefully (your culture can spill over into neighboring territory).

Now the gripes:

The diplomacy system was supposed to be a big improvement over Civ-2 but it feels like the same system just with new leader portraits. You can request things like access to lands, trade embargos & mutual protection acts... so that IS new. But the system is generally pointless. The CPU players will always make heavy demands, often wanting to make trades heavily in their favor and rejecting anything reasonable. If you play on the easier levels, diplomacy is useless because you will surpass the other civilizations to the point where they have nothing to offer you. And if you play the harder levels diplomacy is STILL useless because the CPU players will surpass you and not want to hear a word you have to say. I also noticed (and this is on all difficulty levels) that nations that you haven't pissed off have no problem giving you their entire treasuries. Every game I played I would contact another civilization every few turns, demand a tribute of all of their gold, and they ALWAYS just hand it over. Maybe it's a bug, but I've yet to be rejected.

On the harder levels, the game will seem more like it's cheating rather than giving you good competition. You'll notice that no matter how quickly you work on that wonder, somebody ALWAYS beats you to it (and always by like 2 friggin' turns!). The computer musters up troops by means totally unknown. In a game as America, I was at war with neighboring Aztecs and they kept sending in hordes of their special unit guys. This wouldn't have seemed strange except for the fact that they had NO gold in treasury (they kept giving it to me when I asked for it) and all of their cities were size 3 and smaller, which means SLOW production. So how in the world do the Aztecs keep raising all these troops? The world my never know.

Combat itself is also a little unbalanced. How in the world a Russian Cossack (a guy on a horse) can slay a German Panzer (a friggin' tank!) is a mystery to me. But all to often you'll see archers beating riflemen or cavalry slaying tanks. I don't care how good of a horseman you are, you're not beating a tank! Not only that, but the special units are unbalanced. Some civs, such as Aztecs and Zulus, get their special units earlier in the game. This gives military dominance to the player who wants to use these civs. But then you have civs like America and Germany who get their guys later in the game, making them the dominant force in the end. So if you wanna play the Zulu, you'll get your little super-warrior guy in the BC times, but that won't do you much good against the American F-15 or the German Panzer later on the game (although it seems as though a Cossack is quite the match!).

Anothet thing, the Civlization characteristics are useless. I saw no difference in the speed of workers with an industrious nation. As for militaristic civs... I was playing as Germany (who is militaristic & scientific). Not only was I behind in technology to non-scientific civs, but non-militaristic civs would whoop my but in battle with the same units. Meaning that if my swordsman fought an American swordsman, I'd lose the battle although Americans aren't militaristic. The only real difference you'll notice is that Religious civs never have anarchy and Scientific civs get a free advance with every new technology age. Other than that, the other characteristics offer no real edge or personality.

All in all, the game is good only because it's the same thing as before. The new additions aren't necessarily good ones (such as not being able to rush Wonders), but I guess they had to make SOMETHING different. A lot of the streamlining takes away from the game (such as getting rid of spys, now you just pay to do espinage activity) but it's still fun. Is it better than Civ-2?It really should be, but in the end it seems as though Civ-3 is just lacking that fire that Civ-2 had. It has the ingredients of a good game, but that's because it's basically just Civ-2 with an extra layer of icing on the cake.

But you'll notice that the game doesn't quite grip you and keep you playing like Civ-2 did. You won't be able to put your finger on it. You might never really understand why this game isn't addictive when it very well should be. But as you play it, you'll never be able to escape the feeling that Civilization III is just missing... something.

You will really have to use your brain to win this game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After winning this game (Civ3) I come to realize this game will challenge your thinking skills even more. For one, unlike the other previous Civilization versions...you must obtain strategic resources in order to upgrade city improvements and military units. That's right...just because you discovered "Ecology" does not automatically entitle you to build a mass transit system. Second, the art of negotiation comes into play with the newly designed diplomacy. If other nations have the resources you need...you can trade goods or even cities! There are lots more to talk about...but its up to you to decide. If I were you, GO BUY IT!!! This game is just that great :)

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