Got my copy of Civ III. Well, it’s a great game. A GREAT game. Here are some of my first impressions (those of you who have never played Civ won’t understand a word of it.)
The introduction of borders makes for much more interesting city placement and territorial planning. The fact that borders expand depending on the influence of your culture has to be planned for, too. One of my few problems with Civ and Civ II was that territory meant very little; an empire was just a collection of cities and territorial borders weren’t important. Not now.
The diplomacy is much improved. You can trade anything for anything else, in huge combinations if you want. Want to trade 300 gold, Warrior Code, and a world map for a city? Make an offer. Enemy AI seems much brighter, too; they want to make real deals.
Some of the streamlines are excellent. Units are no longer supported from individual cities with shields; they’re supported with money from your treasury.
Nice interface.
Resourcing adds a whole new element to the game. If you want to build Horsemen, you need to have access to a square with horses. If you want Swordsmen, you need iron. It really makes the issue of territory all the more important, and adds an element of historical realism (absurd as that sounds) to the game. You can trade resources, too, which is neat. All in all it really adds depth.
You can play with up to 15 (!!!) opponents at once, which is awesome.
Neat little upgrades in other areas.
All in all, it’s a classic. The more I play it the more I like it.
What about graphics and the music? I heard that all the graphics in the game look like a “Tower of Babel” painting, or something like that. Does it look good? Is the music insipring?
The graphics are very good. I love the animated units, although I had to turn it off to avoid major slow downs. (Man, I can’t wait 'til my new computer arrives.) Sound and music like wise quite well done. I second all of the points RickJay mentioned, especially the resourcing.
Still, it needs some tweaks. I’m in the middle of a game right now, Huge map w/ 4 opponents. I’ve got an entire continent to myself. Only problem: not one single iron deposit on the entire landmass. I hope to hell I can get to another continent before the other continent gets to me.
Also, I’m really sick of spending seventy turns on a Wonder only to have another civ finish it while I’ve still got five rounds to go. Argh!
My only other gripe is very minor: when playing on the Earth map, starting locations are still randomized. My first game was as China. I started in South America, competeing against the Zulus. :rolleyes:
Darn, I thought I was going to be the first one to start a CIV III. This is definitely a worthy successor to the CIV games. Brilliant diplomacy. I’ve convinced two cities to abandon the Persians and join the Potheads. All that culture, don’t ya know. Great AI. I haven’t had anyone declare war on me yet. They leave me alone for the most part. Don’t have to worry about caravans and diplomats anymore.
The first game I played (I abandoned it after a while) I didn’t get monarchy until the 1880s. Some of the paths to certain types of knowledge have changed. Philosohy doesn’t give you that extra knowledge. A lot of the Wonders seem to be weaker than before, which I like.
Only thing that has bothered me is you still have to watch the other cultures go about their business. When they move units between cities no where near your civ, you still have to watch them do it. Kind of annoying in a large involved game. But that’s quibbling. And they don’t seem so willing to trade knowledge for knowledge straight up. They seem to want some gold along with it.
One last rave: Resources. There’s resources to trade, resources to build things, but they don’t do both. Wine is tradeable but doesn’t bring extra money. You can trade it, though, and it makes your people happier.
Gotta run. The Potheads have pressing diplomatic overtures to be made to the Chinese. They have Ivory.
Ok, I got this game on Tuesday, and it is a lot of fun. Very addictive. But I have a question for everybody playing the game re:embassies. When you first get Writing (I think that’s the right development)you are given the option to set up embassies in any foreign capital city that you are aware of. Of course, later on you run into other cultures. Now the manual says you have to click on the Foreign Ministry button on your capital city to bring up your Foreign Minister and build more embassies.
Excuse me? Where would that be? I can’t find that anywhere. Please help me establish embassies with all the other nations. Arrgh! Frustrating.
