With every new edition of his masterpiece, Sid Meier keeps improving Civilization over and over again. The third opus is no exception, bringing in a new host of features and improved graphs and music

Graphics: 9/10

Civilization III is quite an improvement from Civilization II.

In III, the game is closer to 3D rather than the classical top-down perspective. This makes the overworld map much more detailed: forests are larger and you can see the trees, plains and grasslands have much more realistic colors and you can actually distinguish the coast from the high sea (very useful when you only have a trireme). There is also an (annoying) dose of realism with jungles and flooded plains: they can kill your troops stationed there or make your cities sick and decrease the population (although having a hospital can help alleviate some of the problems).

Resources you find on the map actually serve a purpose now; you WILL need iron to build swordsmen, saltpeter to build musketmen, coal to build railroads, rubber to build infantries and aluminum to build modern tanks and spaceship parts. You will also need to build roads in order to access these resources AND have them within your borders (or trade them); the same thing apply to luxurious resources like ivory, gems and incense.

Speaking of borders, they are now much more well-defined and realistic – whatever’s not inside your territory is obscured by the fog of war. Everything within your “cultural borders” – your city borders but also the influence your cities have over their surroundings – is bright and its borders and clearly defined by dotted lines. This adds a dose of realism; in real life Paris’ influence goes way beyond the borders of the Ile-de-France department.

Military units are also very-well drawn. If you so choose, you can actually see them walk, fight, die and cheer at their promotions. Otherwise, they look very human and you can see major differences among them; early tanks look nothing like modern ones. Workers too have improved. You can see them act when they are working – clearing a forest looks different from clearing a jungle – and they wear coveralls starting at the Industrial Revolution.

Still about military units: every civilization now has a unique military unit, usually reflective of the civilization’s height of might. For France, you will get musketeers rather than musketmen; Russia gets Cossacks rather than regular cavalry and Romans get legionaries rather than swordsmen. They are distinct from their regular counterpart, be it in their looks or their stats (musketeers get 3/3 rather than 2/4).

Another graphic improvement concerns your enemies. You can actually see them in living flesh and you can tell their attitude towards you thanks to three distinctive moods: happy, careful and angry. You can also tell their minimal technological achievements thanks to four different costumes they wear: Antiquity, Middle Ages, Industrial Revolution and Modern Times. The leaders will look their best at the era where they were living; Elizabeth of England looks more authentic during the Middle Ages whereas Lincoln looks better during the Industrial Revolution.

Finally, cities are also better-organized. You can have a building queue – or, if you’re too lazy, you can let city mayors build for you – and you can even build something indefinitely. It’s minor but I found showing how much gold (rather than commerce) a city square yields much easier to “get”. Back in Civ. II I had a hard time understanding that commerce = gold.

Music: 8/10

Another great improvement from Civ. III is the music. Instead of having only a few tracks that you hear through the game, there are actually four distinct eras of music (the same corresponding to the leaders’ outfit). They are all original tracks too.

During Antiquity, the music sounds primitive with its drums and wooden sticks. The Middle Ages feature some flute and quiet guitar tracks that reflect the “quietness” of the era with respect to human achievement. The Industrial Revolution has more complex arrangement, featuring groovier guitar tracks and even some piano. My favorite era in the Modern Times, where music sounds very modern – there is even some electric guitar. Finally, there is a sad track that plays when another civilization dies.

Sound effects, although I usually end up turning them off, are also very good and a great improvement from Civ. II. Forests and jungles have many wildlife sounds, you can hear your boat navigating on the water and combat sounds are even more realistic than Civ. II.

Addictiveness: 10/10

A Civilization game wouldn't’t be good if you couldn't’t get addicted to it, and Civ. III is certainly no exception to the rule. Along with good graphics and music (two essentials for me), the game gets new very interesting features.

As mentioned above, you now have cultural borders. A city with higher culture will illuminate more of the map, pushing your borders further and, hopefully, capture more resources which are vital for the expansion of your empire. If it gets strong enough, you can even convert enemy cities to your borders!

If culture alone won’t work, you can also trying converting it through espionage. The concept changed for the harder – you need to plant it in your enemies’ capital, and unsuccessful attempts will yield discontent – but it’s in a way simplified. Once you successfully implement a spy, all you need to do is give him the order to conduct such or such mission rather than build individual spies all the time. The stronger your culture, and the freer your empire is, the easier it is to convert them.

However, along with culture, the concept of nationality is also introduced. When an enemy city gets into your borders, by force or persuasion, the citizens keep their original nationality. So if you’re not careful enough they will long to join back their mother country. Fortunately, as the city grows the population roster will be filled with people from YOUR empire. They will eventually assimilate the others.

Which empire you choose is now important since they all have two distinctive characteristics. They can be industrious (faster workers and construction times), commercial (less corruption), expansive (a free scout when starting the game), religious (only one turn of anarchy when changing governments), scientific (one free discovery by era) or militaristic (quicker promotions).

I also liked the improvement in combats. Not only can your troops get a promotion (and therefore have more hit points) but they can join in an army. You can “build” it like a regular unit or a Great Person might appear and then can lead your army. With more hit points than regular troops, you’re going to kick some serious butts!

Furthermore, the concept on wonders has been expanded. You have the usual World Wonders, which can only be built once, but now have National Wonders which everyone can build. They usually have prerequisites (the Forbidden Palace can only be built have you have so many cities) but greatly improve your empire too. The Forbidden Palace, for example, creates a second capital and therefore reduces corruption in surrounding cities.

Finally I liked the optional discoveries, i.e. those you don’t necessarily need in order to progress in the game. For example you can forgo Monarchy in the Antiquity and Navigation during the Middle Ages. However, you’re also forgoing World Wonders like the Hanging Gardens and Magellan’s Travel.

Story: 8/10

Like previous games, Civ. III makes you create your own story. But with the new improvements, this creation just got more interesting.

With improved diplomatic relations, you can get a better idea as to why your enemy likes/hates you. For example, a foiled attempt to plant a spy has your foreign minister say “X is not pleased/threatens with retaliations.” Your foreign minister, when you have an embassy, can even tell you about your might relative to your opponents. This way you will know whether they have more troops than you do.

Your might will likely tilt negotiations in your favor. In a position of inferiority, your opponents will become more aggressive if you don’t acquiesce to their tributes request or ask for more when you ask to trade for resources. Likewise, even if you’re in a position of superiority, they will resent (but acquiesce) to your threats.

Speaking of which – it’s the only one I noticed – if Mao believes you aren’t a threat, he will compare you to a paper tiger, once of his most famous quotes.

Furthermore, like previous civilizations in history, you will have one Golden Age too. It can be triggered by you unique unit’s success in combat or by building a World Wonder corresponding to your leader’s characteristic. For example, England (commercial) might get a Golden Age by building Adam Smith’s Trading Company while Russia (scientific) might get hers by building Copernicus’ Observatory.

Finally, scientific discoveries have an even bigger impact on gameplay. With sanitation, you can stop your cities from being affected by flood plains and also make your cities grow beyond 12. You will need Navigation to make your small boats navigate the high seas (as opposed to regular seas, which still yield a few resources) and, as I said earlier, you will need certain resources in order to build units and improvements, so obviously you will need the appropriate discoveries to have them pop up.

Depth: 9/10

In addition to a better story, Civ. III also goes much more into deep with many other concepts.

For starters, citizens’ mood has become much more elaborate. No longer will your Senate keep you from waging war under Republic or Democracy. However, since these regimes allow great freedoms to your citizens, they will freely protest should your wars go on for too long. They will also remember their mistreatments since you can sacrifice population to speed up production under Despotism.

In addition, as said earlier, conquering a city isn’t enough to keep it under your rule. First, using force will likely cause citizens to resist your rule at first (their faces look very angry) so you will need troops to quell the resistance. Then, if a war against their mother country drags on or if your opponent’s culture is strong enough, they will likely revert back/be converted to your opponent’s empire.

Furthermore, your political regimes are now more realistic. Republic and Democracy now have corruption and waste, albeit at lower levels than other regimes. The freedoms in Democracy even makes your workers do their work faster. Communism now has corruption too, reflecting the severe weaknesses of that political system. Under that regime (and Despotism), you can use “slavery”, i.e. sacrifice people in order to accelerate production – the others require cash payments.

Finally, there are more ways for you to win the game than just conquer all other empires, win the space race or get the most points by 2020. You can also have a city with legendary culture or be elected Secretary General of the United Nations. However it’s a popularity contest; since it’s one civilization, one vote, make sure you have others’ support or you will lose.

Speaking of winning and losing, you get a round of comments from your enemies at the very end of the game. They will praise/vilify you if you won – and even integrate some pop culture by saying “D’oh, I thought we needed to quick your people out of the planet” – and look completely beaten up if their civilization was destroyed. But if YOU lose, YOU will look beaten up and your opponents will smile and mock you.

Difficulty: 7/10

With so many new concepts to master, the game can get pretty difficult.

The main one stems from natural resources. Unless you are blessed by chance (or commerce), not having resources will play against you big time. Without saltpeter, you won’t be able to get more modern units like musketmen/musketeers; you will have to wait for Riflemen to come as they don’t require a specific resource. You will also be unable to build engine-driven units like modern boats and tanks without oil nor will you be able to build railroads without coal and iron.

Not having luxurious resources is also a huge difficulty you can have. While your cities can grow quickly – you can yield agricultural yields just by building a railroad – the people get more and more discontent as the city grows (“It’s just way too crowded”). And if you’re in a war, it makes matters worse.

In addition – it’s both a blessing and a curse – your troops are now supported directly by your treasury. It’s good because your cities won’t suffer from production losses by supporting too many troops, but it can get pretty expensive when you’re in a democracy/republic, neither of which give you free troops.

Furthermore, the combat system is still imperfect. More than once did I see an elite warrior (from the Stone Age) get the better out of gunpowder units. Also, unlike Civ. IV, veteran an elite status only give a larger health bar; they don’t seem to gain any strength.

Finally, Barbarians have lost their “Mister Nice Guy” attitude. If they reach your city, they will pillage it without giving you a warning. It comes as a surprise in the first few times.

On the plus side now, scientific research has become much easier as you don’t need to have it up all the time like Civ. IV. When you only have a few turns left for a discovery, you can lower your science rate (and increase taxes) temporarily without having your overall research slow down. It’s very practical in the early game when you’re struggling for money. And when you reach your Golden Age, you have 20 turns during which your wealth increases, making research even easier.

I also like the fact that Leonardo’s workshop carries the unit’s experience level when it gets an upgrade. This way, you can build an entire army of veteran phalanx (spearman?) in the Stone Age and see them being promoted to Mechanized Infantry in the Modern Age in an instant – providing you have the funds, of course.

Finally, the go-to function works much better and (especially when you have railroads) your units move as fast as your CPU allows you. I hated those “infinite loops” of moving back and forth in Civ. II or when they would hit a coast and stop moving rather than move around.

In short, Civilization III is a must-try for all you emperors wanna-be. The graphics and nice and well-improved, the music is decent and there’s plenty to explore and master. Like real life, whatever is outside your borders is obscured so don’t assume it’s safe even if you were just there.