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Macintosh : Civilization 3 Reviews

Below are user reviews of Civilization 3 and on the right are links to professionally written reviews. The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Civilization 3. Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column. Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.



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User Reviews (1 - 11 of 27)

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Good ideas. Poor execution

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 45 / 50
Date: February 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This sequel enhances both the good and the bad of Civ II. The graphics and sound are both far superior toCiv II, as would be expected. And the new concepts, suchas allowing cultural domination, diplomatic victory (taken from Alpha Centauri, no doubt) are good touches. Making trade a high level decision is, pehaps, ahistorical, in that rulers rarely became involved in the details of trade until AFTER a particular item was proven critical, but I won't quibble over this particular interpretation of economic history. New minor wonders, a few new inmprovements, all good. BUT......

There are several flaws that make the game frustrating to the point of being unplayable. The most significant is the rampant, uncontrollable corruption and waste in the cities. As with the earlier version, the further you are from the capital, the worse the corruption and waste. But this version takes this to an unworkable extreme. "Distant" cities on the same continent waste almost all product and steal almost all trade -- and forget cities off continent. The court and police improvements do next to nothing to stop it, even under Democracy. No historical society could have survived the levels of corruption and waste that regularly exist in the game.

Trade is another problem. It quickly becomes apparent that the AI will accept nothing less that 1/3 of your income in return for next to nothing. Don't even bother trying after you get into the A.D period.

Speaking of the AI! The A stands for artificial , NOT AMORAL. The cheating was often bad in Civ II, but it's stunningly disappointing in Civ III. AI Warriors consistently knocking off tanks!?! Yes low-tech may triumph occassionally in the real world, but not nearly as often as in Civ III.

The Mac version shipped without a terrain editor, but one has been promised by the MacSoft website. I hope it is as versitile as the Civ II editor, and that, unlike the Alpha Centauri editor, we'll be able to score the maps that are user made. The Alpha Centauri editor didn't allow this: I guess the developers thought too many users might be "cheating."

Which brings me to my last point. I get a very strong feeling that the makers of this game think there is a "right" way to enjoy the game. PLEASE! It's a game, a toy. Some days gamers want a challenge, on others we just want to kick (...). Given the quotes from Kant and Keirkegaard in Alpha Centauri, I wil assume that there are at least some philosphy readers on Meier's team, so I implore you to remember your semiotics. Linguistic utterances that are closed and allow few interpretations are like technical manuals, those that offer multiple interpretations are like poetry. Civ II was, for the most part, poetry. Civ III feels like a big, slow technical manual.

And how often do you re-read technical manuals?

Great game, even better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 20
Date: March 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As a game, Civilization 3 is a much more sophisticated game than its predecessors. Rather than trying to provide a detailed discussion and evaluation of each change, I'll just note that the most improvements have taken place in the real of diplomacy and economics. Specific changes worth noting include: much more sophisticated diplomatic interaction; three different categories of resources exist (bonus, luxury, and strategic), each with its own purpose; national boundaries (like exist in Alpha Centauri); national identity of citizens (i.e. if the French conquer a Chinese city, the population remains Chinese and may still have strong ties to the Chinese empire); trade routes/networks that are based on the existence of roads and navigable waterways rather than caravan units; historical resource discovery (i.e. you don't see where strategic iron resources are until you discover Iron Working; you don't see where oil sesources are until you discover Refining); etc. Also new-- and quite crucial to CIV3 is the idea of *culture*. Temples, libraries, cathedrals, universities and cultural wonders (like Shakespeare's Theatre) give 'culture' points to your civilization. If you have a high culture, cities from rival civilizations may voluntarily and peacefully choose to join your civilization.... or if you don't have a respectable culture, your cities might revolt and join another civ! It is also possible to win the game by having a 'cultural' victory, in addition to the traditional 'military conquest' and 'space race' victories. There are of course plenty of other changes I could mention, but hopefully this will be enough to show those familiar with the previous versions of the game that Civ3 is a major leap forward.

So much for CIV3 qua game-- let's talk about CIV3 qua software product. I've heard a lot of complaints from folks about how *slow* this game is on the Mac-- but I haven't seen this at all on my G3 (running 8.6) at all. Perhaps those folks who are complaining about long delays are running this on System X? Or maybe they're playing this on the *max* level, with a "huge" world (rather than the normal standard size one) and with all 16 possible civilizations at play (rather than just the normal 7)? I just haven't seen any problems like this at all. Complaints about the relative unhelpfulness of the manual and of certain aspects of the user interface, however, are dead on. The manual is awkwardly written with crucial information hidden away in appendices. The online 'Civilpedia' is a much more reliable guide than the manual... although even it falls short in some ways. Some things, like the establishment of embassies and the conduct of espionage require very specific-- and rather unusual user actions to activate... and it's almost impossible to figure out how to do them etiher from the manual or the civilpedia. (Thank goodness for fan sites telling how to do these things!)

One other thing I should mention is the extraordinary degree to which this game is really being *supported* on the Mac. The company is putting out regular patches to fine tune errors, and even to make minor revisions in the game due to fan suggestions. As a Mac gamer, I have to say I really appreciate that.

Anyway, all in all-- excellent game, if you like empire-building strategy cames that have both military and economic development to them (e.g. previous versions of Civ, Alpha Centauri, Masters of Orion). I don't know if this would appeal to folks, however, whose main gaming activity is to play first-person shooters like Quake and Doom. I'd give it a solid 5 as a game, although I was tempted to lower it to a 4 due to the weak manual and clunky user interface. But the game itself is so good, that I think it more than makes up for those problems-- so a solid 5 it is!

It does not match up to its predecessors.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 25 / 29
Date: June 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Civilization III is a great game, very in depth and enjoyable. However, it is NOT a civilization sequel, by no means does the game continue the legacy of the undisputed best game series of all time.

To start off, the game is built for a windows interface, which makes the game simply a windows' game that runs in a Macintosh, even the instructions have commands that make use of the right click. This makes the Mac version user-unfriendly.

Furthermore, to mention a few flaws, the game lacks the details that had made the previous versions so enjoyable. Details such as the male/female civilization leaders, among others.

The game does not have a world map, something I personally enjoyed. I liked running the Spanish empire from the Iberian Peninsula, not from... wherever. Also, there is no longer a Spanish Civilization as well as many other loved civilizations from Civilization II.

Multiplayer games are not available, fact that simply put my copy into the closed closet.

There are many other things that are not to my liking, but I do not feel it is necessary for me to write a 1000 word review about them.

I have heard a Gold Edition is in progress, I can only hope that they make this version specifically for the Macintosh and that they use the game foundations from Civilization II, which are by far better.

In few words, Civilization III is a dissapointment.

Great fun, but with two HUGE flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: March 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is, of course, an evolutionary step above Civilization II. It provides basically the same gameplay, but with the addition of nifty features like resource-dependent production, negotiable deals, and spheres of culutral influence. Also, the largest maps really are HUGE now, making it unlikely that you will ever reveal the whole thing without lots of map trades or the deployment of satellites. Lastly, the terrain generation algorithm has been refined to the point where the "random" geography finally resembles what you see in the real world, with distinguishable jungles, deserts, and mountain ranges.

However, there are two massive, glaring flaws here. First, the user interface and subsequent documentation is attrocious. Only the most basic commands are available on screen; everything else must be done through command keys, and those are given only in a tiny appendix in the back of the manual. Furthermore, there is no consistency in what is and is not clickable on any of the city or advisor screens. A real step back from Civ 2.

Second, the AI is a real jerk. In diplomacy, it often makes irrational demands, and in combat its units regularly win impossible battles. Also, I simply do not understand how the various AI nations can make these huge technological leaps and maintain these massive standing armies, all without doing any landscaping or building any improvements. In a word, the AI cheats, so plan accordingly.

(I used to have an additional paragraph here, describing how much of a dog the Mac port is. Slow and buggy. However, with the 1.21g patch, most of the outstanding performance issues have been resolved, so I've edited this review to remove the complaint and add a star.)

Really Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 25 / 30
Date: April 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Civilization III in a word is simply a dissapointment. Measured on its own, its an OK game but compared against previous masterpieces like Civilization I, II, and Alpha Centauri, Civilization III pales in comparison. First off, the new graphics are quite impressive, however one cannot enjoy them because the game does not seem to be optimized at all for the Macintosh or PC. Whereas, the games' response in the three previous versions was snappy and quick, Civilization III plods along. Second, the AI is very poorly done. Though the whole diplomacy concept has been redone admirably, the AI is very one-dimensional and more often than not, a cheat. Alpha Centauri I believe had the most refined AI to date in a Sid Meier game. The AI of Civilization III is simply frustrating. I cannot tell you how annoying it is to have lost battles to units which are light-years behind in technology. That is, to lose a modern tank to a warrior or a phalanx unit. It happens too often. Third, the game seems to follow a trend now being set by software manufactures, especially those for the Mac OS. The game is incomplete and unfinished. One has to download two patches, PC users probably more, to correct major flaws in gameplay and stability. I really do not think it fair to pay on the order...for a beta-quality software product. Also, the editor does not ship with the Macintosh version. Also, the great elements of Civilization I, II, and Alpha Centauri were not incorporated into Civilization III. For example, the feature of Alpha Centauri whereby you had over 32,000 possible unit types was omitted from Civilization III. Definitely a step backwards. Also with Civilization II, it was, in practice, truly possible to win the game other than through war and conquest. Civilization III in practice forces you down one track. Expand feverishly, and conquer, conquer, conquer. Finally, my biggest qualm with the game is simply the replay factor. Civilization I, II, and Alpha Centauri kept me up for hours and sometimes days at end. This is especially dangerous for me as I am currently in college. Civilization III however does not do it for me. I have surprisingly played the game only 7 days and then put it back on the shelf. Civilization III's underlying concepts and ideas have enormous potential to provide an unprecedented challenge and yet still be addictively fun. The actual game itself however becomes boring due to either frustration or banality. I hope Civilization III is not a sign of things to come from Sid Meier.

Not quite Civ II

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: January 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It hurts me to say something bad about a civilization game, but to be honest, this one just does not measure up to it's predecessor. I owned, played and LOVED both the original Civ. and Civ II. This game however leaves a LOT to be desired. Wile it DOES give the much needed diplomacy / trading option upgrades that are so desperately lacking in Civ II, the game play tradeoffs are not, in my opinion, near worth it.

The new interface is nice looking, though it is not intuitive, and is really clunky. For example, in order to establish an embassy with a foreign power, (diplomat and spy units no longer exist) one does not go to the foreign relations advisor, but instead clicks on a star that is attached to ones own capitol, every other foreign ministry action is carried out through the foreign relations advisor. There are other examples.

Much of the information that was previously available to the player in the main play screen is no longer available in the main screen, and some of it seems to be completely unavailable. An example would be terrain information. In Civ II the game would automatically give you the terrain info for the square the active unit was situated on. This is really helpful in a lot of situations, if for instance you are trying to build a road to someplace, and you cant see if a road exists in the square (because your unit is blocking it) and you have forgotten if you have built a road in that square or not - looking at the window that says definitely one way or another is nice. In Civ III in order to get the terrain info you must Cmd-Click on the square - and the resulting window still does not tell you if there are improvements or not. Again, there are other examples.

All of the interface things would be bearable if it were not for one glairing fault with the game. It runs SLOWLY. There is no other way to say it, gracefully or not. It is a dog. I have a relatively new computer, purchased about the time the game was released... and the game is painful to play. There is an excruciating pause between each units movement. For example: If you want to move a unit three steps down a road, you direct the unit, and it moves, then you wait, then you get to direct it again, and it moves again... then you wait again... then you get to move the unit a last time, it moves for a last time, and then you get to wait again... until the game locates your next unit and the process starts over. Moving units has always been problematic in Civ games, and this just makes it excruciating.

The way combat is carried out is improved a bit, but there was nothing drastically wrong with it before. On the whole there seems to be something of a liberal "Anti-War" agenda undermining the entire war making process, as the entire enterprise of going to war has become much more difficult. The main improvements are in diplomatic and trade negotiations - which are MUCH needed improvements.

On the whole, this edition is not an improvement over the previous edition so much as it is an entirely different animal... If I had never played the previous two versions I would likely not be the least bit unhappy, but having played the previous versions this feels like a half effort to me, like the funding ran out before it was finished and it had to get to market or die. In my opinion, Civ II is a much better game, with more thought included, if less eye-candy.

An excellent Sequel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: January 31, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Being an absolute Civ. II maniac, I obviously approached Civ. III with a little bit of aprehension and fear that this latest sequel would not live up to its hype. I was wrong. Civ III successfully incorporates all the great elements of Civ II and adds on a whole new level of diplomacy, trade, strategy unparalelled in the gaming world. All in all, an excellent buy!

Yes, the AI cheats!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: November 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First, this game is extremely fun. I've owned it for years now, and I keep reinstalling it and playing it again.

I think it's a huge step up from Civ II, but there are still huge flaws. The game is made for limitless possibilities, yet the designers obviously didn't try any of them. I had once conquered a huge map before, and had to shut down the computer because the game insisted on popping up the exact same text message for all of my cities (literally hundreds of them - around 300) for about 3 seconds each. 300x3/60 = 15 minutes. - If anyone is curious, it was the message stating "we love the king day" had been cancled, due to my excessive warring in Democracy.

Another FATAL flaw is the combat system. It will literally have you ripping out your hair, or throwing your monitor across the room. The AI cheats badly. In the long game I had played, only on the second difficulty, I lost hundreds of "Modern Armor" tanks attacking primitive units such as pikemen. And I loved it when the little cave-man row-boat destroyed my battleship. Yet the AI could smash my Mech-Infintry (Best Defensive unit) with pathetic units such as Knights and other sword-based fighters. These things don't happen in the real word. One tank could probably take out thousands of little guys with sticks. And no matter how many times you shoot the tank with arrows, it's just not going to damage it. If it only happened once in a while, fine. But trust me, you will need extreme self control to keep your cool after spending so much time researching techs and building up this deadly beautiful army of tanks, only to have it completely worthless in the end. So it's either play the game on the easiest setting (the AI is basically retarded here, and the game very boring), or stress out.

I'll stop complaining now. And I'll add the fact that I wouldn't be so touchy about it if I hated it. It really is a fun game, especially for strategy fans. Just don't take the end results as serious as I did!

Enjoyable as ever, just not as good as it could be

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: April 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've always njoyed Sid Meier's games, he produces a world with rules and an objective or objectives in the distant future and lets the user figure out how to get there. As a result the user is responsible fo plotting the course of his experience. This offers infinite replayablillity while the game itself rarely gets old. The Civilization franchise has been around for nearly a decade and has included some excellent titles so I was eager to grab up Civ 3, however after countless hours I've enjoyed the game tremendously but noticed a few nasty flaws.

First, the gameplay in Civ 3 is excellent, and the game adds a few new dimensions to the turn-based strategy game and they all work well. Improved borders, more detailed trade and better resource management come to mind. These improvements make the game more fun and realistic by centering combat and strategy around specific areas such as a key road junction or resource area. However these are simply minor improvements and do not make the game unique. However for some strange reason my Civ 3 games seem slower and more monotonous than previous efforts in other turn-based strategy games. I wouldn't call the game boring but it seems to require more patience than its predecessors.

The Civ 3 interface has been cleaned up and better designed, now you run the game from the keyboard rather than the complex system of menus in previous titles, however the interface, especially in the city screen feels too cluttered it is difficult to figure out exactly what everything is. I prefered the contextual menus of Alpha Centauri.

Civ 3 has good graphics, music, and sound effects which only add to the experience but be warned that most of the sound is disabled by a bug until you install a small upgrade from MacSoft. The Mac version also plays somewhat slower than its PC sibling but other than this the OS X version at least is solid and well ported.

My biggest problem with the game is the lack off multiplayer gaming suport. Sid Meier & co have had plenty of time and experience to make a fun multiplayer game but they simply don't seem to put any thought into it.

In the end I enjoy Civ 3 but it isn't one of my favorite games of all time and unlike past games such as, say Alpha Centauri or Escape Velocity It won't last the test of time.

One step forward, two back.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: March 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Pros:

Aerial view - Shows what is in your city. You build a factory, a factory appears in the city. Really neat.

Leaders - You win a battle, you have a chance of getting one of these. After you take them to your city, They can:

Make an Army - This is great. They turn into a unit which can hold other units making a super unit. They, however, cannot go into boats (I think), so they are pointless on island maps because you need to take them back to your city. Good for protecting your island I guess.

Complete Improvement (Or unit I think) - Rushes an improvement or building.

Battle animation - The animation is nice. I perfer Call to Power's battles, but this isn't bad.

Cons:

Annoying interface - The interface isn't hard tot use.. its just annoying to use.

Slow - Game gets REALLY slow later on in huge maps. This is beyond annoying. Waiting several minutes between turns, a few between unit movements.. Its a mess.

Flat terrain - The terrain is flat. Sure, there are tiles with mountains on them, but its flat. Very much unlike Alpha Centauri, which has very nice looking terrain.

Set units - I know this would be hard to do in a Civilization game, but not impossible. In Alpha Centauri, you can change things around in units. Give them a different weapon, body, shielding, etc.

Espionage Prices - The prices for Espionage things are WAY too high. Impossible to afford on island maps because you can't have billions of cities to give you money.

Unfair AI - The AI never accepts fair deals. Even on the lowest setting. And when you ask what they want for a technology, they usually ask for 4 of yours or 3k gold. Even if its a lousy technology.

Multiplayer - Multiplayer isn't included. Of course, you can buy it for thirty dollars more. Expect to see more of this in future games. Buy half now, half later. Its BS.

This is all I can think of right now. I'm sure there are more pros.. and cons.

In the end, this isn't a bad game. It just.. Isn't very good. Go buy Alpha Centauri and the Alien Crossfire expansion.


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