| Ever since the first Civilization was released in 1992, Sid Meier has set a gold standard for empire-building games. Through five major titles and two scenario collections, this has been the one to look up to. It still is.
There was plenty of confusion in the Civ world when Civilization II came out. Check the ESC Magazine archives for reviews of Alpha Centauri, Civilization: Call to Power, and Civ 2: Test of Time. Instead of following the money, all you really had to do with those titles was follow Sid Meier; the real treasure of that bunch was his classic Alpha Centauri. The rest weren’t that good.
This time around, there’s no rush to production, no competing corporations battling each other and getting sloppy in the process. Sid is back, and he’s made a lot of changes. All seem to be for the better. Combined with a sleek new interface and major tweaking in the winning strategies, you will not be disappointed.
On sheer elegance alone, this game is beautiful. The sans serif font employed for the lettering is crisp and simple, and completely legible. The muted color schemes are pleasing and the graphics are excellent. The music is tranquil and easy on the ears, and the copious information is reasonably flat, available with very few mouse clicks. Plus the manual is clear and well written, equal to or better than the excellent Prima strategy guide.
But the gameplay’s the thing, and as you’d expect, this game plays nice. For the third time around the block, CIV3 is still as addicting as ever. The tried and true methods experienced players are familiar with still work more or less, but there’s a lot to learn for veterans and newcomers alike. So much has been added or subtly changed that veterans will want to keep going just to see the Next New Thing.
Let’s start first with the important stuff. In addition to assembling a spaceship and exiting spaceship Earth, there are four new ways to win: - Cultural Victory, by amassing the most Culture Points
- Diplomatic Victory, by getting elected to head the United Nations
- Domination Victory, by expansion of territory across the map
- Histographic Victory, by having the highest Civilization score
Thus if you aren’t going to get your industry into gear, but you’re out in front on points, you can still coast into a checkered flag. Sometimes, a win is a win!
Some notable features have been discarded: - Science and entertainment funding levels are only limited to what you can afford;
- The Zones of control feature is gone;
- Engineers are replaced by workers;
- Caravans and freight are removed. You set up trade routes using diplomacy, and you can’t speed up Wonder production by parking 16 caravans on the outskirts of town;
- No more diplomats or spies. Bribery is gone, but you can still capture workers;
- Fundamentalism — basing a government on religious fanaticism — is as obsolete as the Taliban mullahs of Afghanistan; and
- The Senate is no longer able to stop your nice, efficient war. The concept of war-weariness is introduced.
For all those surgical incisions and nips and tucks, play is still familiar and well balanced. You can’t ignore the military by specializing in science; you’ll be mowed down. I tried repeatedly, and the AI consistently loaded up on swordsmen and kicked my butt. I thought my musketeers would scare them off, but it didn’t work, even when they were fortified. Cannons weren’t as much help as I thought they’d be, either. I got most of them captured the first time I used them.
What worked much better is just churning out armored divisions. The tanks and mechanized infantry didn’t exactly sweep the battlefield, but they came close. And since the populace tires quickly of war, the best attacks are done Desert Storm style, with a big buildup and a fast dash.
Pyramids and the Colossus are still around, but 10 Wonders of the World have been added: - Battlefield Medicine
- Forbidden Palace
- Heroic Epic
- Intelligence Agency
- Iron Works
- Longevity
- Military Academy
- Strategic Missile Defense
- The Pentagon
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- Wall Street
Battlefield Medicine comes in handy when attacking, as with this Wonder you are better able to treat casualties away from the city. Then again, each Wonder has its strengths, and it’s hard to pick the best one. If you’re fighting an economic battle, Wall Street earns your treasury some interest on every turn. And what rock-ribbed Republican can turn down the chance to build a Strategic Missile Defense?
Also, there are new city improvements: the Hospital. The spaceship has new additions: Cockpit, Docking Bay, Storage/Supply, Thrusters, and Planetary Party Lounge.
There is a stronger ecological theme to the new game. Pollution seems nastier than ever, even with solar plants and recycling centers. Global warming turns grasslands into prairies and is not helpful. It makes you wonder if subsequent games will require men in haz-mat suits to clean up battlefield damage. The 12 new scientific advances are as follows: - Ecology
- Education
- Free Artistry
- Integrated Defense
- Military Tradition
- Music Theory
- Nationalism
- Printing Press
- Satellites
- Scientific Method
- Smart Weapons
- Synthetics Fibers
Militarily, there are 24 new units, many peculiar to one tribe. Worth noting: modern armor, F-15s, radar artillery, Panzers and tactical nukes. Once you get to a certain point in time, it’s fun to save your game and then play from that point several different ways. Naval power, air power, rolling thunder — each branch has its strengths.
New features: - Home cities are abolished — it’s all one big happy empire
- Gold standard — concentrate on the precious metal, because you don’t need shields or food for unit production
- Upgrading obsolete units turns them into mechanized infantry eventually
- Settlers do one thing — found cities
- Workers for irrigation, roads, mining — hit the ‘A’ key and they know just what to do automatically
- Bombardment option for artillery and ships
- Your noncombatants are vulnerable — scouts, explorers, workers and settlers can be captured
- After many victories you produce Leader units, which can group armies together and assist with speeding up Wonders
As I mentioned, I was counting on "out-sciencing" the opponent, but he consistently beat me with muscle. In fact, even the Iroquois just plain kicked my sorry behind all over the continent when I skimped on swords. In one scenario I had twice the number of cities, and I had the enemy hemmed in on the far right side of Pangea. I’m out irrigating and building roads and mines while he’s massing on the border.
Suddenly, the diplomacy started to go sour. After a few games you could tell when those storm clouds on the borders were for real. The AI is generally just spoiling for a fight. The minute I got a little snippy in my diplomacy, like rejecting a straight-up map swap, war was declared. Pretty soon my cities were smoking and rogue bands were ripping up my improvements.
In fairness, the game warned me. My city governors kept insisting on building bombers, but I was trying to add solar plants. Later, when I misjudged the diplomatic nuances of the Aztecs and blundered into another war, I witnessed bomb run after bomb run across my cities. Ouch. I learned that lesson the hard way.
Is it perfect? Alas, no. On the Windows version, it crashed my machine twice once the years got over 2200. I had trouble with the production queue, and every time I finished something, I had to adjust it. I’d like to see the default be to make more of the same unit, without going into the production queue. The advisors keep complaining about things that aren’t true, like lamenting "we are a backward people" when we are off the charts ahead of everyone else. They asked for cathedrals when we took care of that turns ago. I found a typo in one dialog box where I was informed, "The Aztecs is admirers of our culture." A leader once huffed diplomatically that "the arrangement is not longer good for our people."
In a game this complex, those are nits indeed. Besides, living up to expectations is never easy, and for once someone has done it and I’m not going to gripe. This is what we expect from heroes, and here we have it. Far be it from me to come off as a curmudgeon, complaining in any way, shape or form about this gift from Sid Meier. Here’s a guy so sure of his abilities that he lent his own face to the science advisor. You have to admire someone who lets his features get morphed into painful contortions.
There is no other score possible. This, right now, is as good as it gets. |
