Civilization 3, continues in the rich tradition of its predecessors and promises gamers highly addictive and epic gameplay. You get to control one of the dozens of civilizations, which include the Indians, the British, the Americans, the Aztecs and so on. You are then locked in a battle with the other civilizations, to build the ultimate empire, which will stand the test of time. Well the game installed smoothly enough and wasn’t difficult to configure. The graphics, though much better than the previous games, will be a bit unnerving for a first timer. The view consists of entire continents and so you see only the basic terrain (tundra, forests, jungle etc), the cities and the different units within your range of sight. The citizens of your cities produce food as well as shields. While the food helps in the sustaining and growth of the population, the shields enable you to produce your different units, city improvements, wonders etc. The gameplay is truly brilliant! There are so many things to do. First you have to research basic technologies that your civilization doesn’t have, that range from agriculture to nuclear power. As you develop more and more technologies your civilization develops from it's backward state to the industrial and modern ages. Then in the meanwhile you have so many wonders to build ranging from the Pyramids to the Appolo Space Program. These wonders increase your cultural rating, which has several implications, from people defecting to your side to you gaining more land area. They also offer certain distinct advantages such as faster movement rate for ships, lesser unit upgrade cost, higher unit experience etc. The diplomacy is excellent and lets you trade, create military alliances, exchange technologies and world maps, declare war etc. Within your own civilization you may have to face civil disorder, riots and possible defections. There is also a really cool spying system, which lets you steal world maps, initate propoganda, etc. Each civilization has a basic trait like religious, militaristic, commercial, expansionist etc. Each civilization also has a unit unique to it, for example only the Indians can build the War Elephant while the Russians have the Cossack. You also have luxuries and resources in the game : Luxuries like ivory, dyes, silk, furs etc can be used for trade and the more luxuries you have the happier your citizens will be whereas the resources like oil, iron, coal, aluminum etc let you build advanced units and structures and wonders. There are a lot of units in the game and advanced technology and resources lets you build more and more advanced ones. You start off with the humble but effective warrior, archer, spearman etc and then move on to tanks, infantry, destroyers, stealth bombers etc and the grand daddy of them all - The ICBM. You also have the option of upgrading your obsolete units when you require at a certain cost. The sounds are good and realistic and the background scores really pack a punch. This is as close as you can get to actually ruling an empire(until Civ4 comes along) and the realism is unbelievable. With so many different civilizations at hand you wont get bored of this game for a long time as each civilization offers a whole new perspective to play with. All in all this is the best strategy game out there. Hasta la vista baby, I have a civilization to raise!
Create an Account
Member Login
