Civilization 3 ; PC/Strategy Game
Civilization 3...an extremely strategic game. The game starts off in an options menu where you have to pick the terrain type, and you pick the other Civilizations you are going to go against (Americans, Romans, English, Chinese, ect.) Once this is in place, the game begins and your journey starts; Be a great leader...or crumble to enemy civilizations...
System Requirements
Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP
Pentium 2 or higher
32 MB Ram or higher
500 MB free on hard drive
4X Speed CD-ROM or higher
Direct X 8.0 Compatible Video Card
Direct X 8.0 Compatible Sound Card
Direct X 8.0
Audio(6/10)
The Audio feel in this game has it�s �punches�. What I mean by this is that there are basically 4 main eras in time, and in each era there are about three soundtracks. So lets say you went from the Ancient Times, to the Industrial Age, the music would change and you would have some new tracks. Alas, if you stay stuck in an Age forever you will probably be able to play the music on your keyboard later that night. So that�s one thing to keep in mind about the sound. Another aspect of the sound in this game is the battle sequences. You send your troops out to fight an enemy in their home city and the music changes slightly - but not much - and when you commence battle you hear this *clink clink* sound. It�s not a cheap cheesy sound you would hear in a black and white pirate movie, but it isn�t the most sophisticated fighting sound there is, either. BUT, this does change, with every new unit you produce (Archer, Rifleman, Cannon, Bomber, Marine, ect.) a new sound comes with it...duh!? So there are a lot of different battle sounds, just some are a little more annoying than others. Last point in the Audio section is the message and popup sounds. This usually wouldn�t be worth my while, but just the fact that when a message comes up, or a pop-up from the game, bongos play in the background. And they keep this constant throughout the game, so you know later on in the game that when you hear those bongos there is something important going on, like a building is complete or you are at war.
Graphics(6/10)
Yea, so you�re playing this game and you say,� What the?! What is this overhead camera angle that you can�t change, unless I zoom into the city?!� Ha well, you don�t actually say that, but you might have been thinking along the lines of,� Why can�t I change the camera angle?� The reason for this is...YOU DON�T NEED TO...EVER. This game is very straight forward, everything you need/want/have to see is always visible, never escaping your eye, and letting the computer sneak a move in. One thing I don�t like about the game is that you don�t really have a good view of your troops. All you see is their little figure on the map and their picture in the right hand corner of your screen. But, it�s not like you cant tell what the unit is, it does have it�s own unique figure, and weapon. So that�s the only downside to the graphics. Ha, good things are that when you build a troop, and fortify it inside a city, it doesn�t just disappear and you lose track of what�s inside which city, oh no. Civ. 3 has risen above that, using tick marks to tell you how many troops are in each city, and it actually leaves the units on top of the cities, so it looks like a Godzilla sized troop is standing on the city (weird, but very useful when under attack, VERY useful). And on top of these two features, if you do happen to lose track of your troops (which happens when you get way huge, like Russia huge) you can just right click on any city, and the computer will go ahead and list all the troops inside that city, along with production, commerce, and happiness of that city. Color is great on this game. They do well in illustrating where there is snow and where there isn�t. Ha that�s a kind of weird statement, but not really if you think about it. Some games, usually older games, but some new ones, just have tiles and tiles of desert, and then BAM!!! A snow tile. And your just sitting there thinking�.wait I was just in the desert and now I hit snow��Civ. 3 does a beautiful job of blending the snow in the right positions, you could be moving a troop in grassland, and you gradually see the terrain turning light green and snow appearing. That really caught my eye in this game. So Civ. 3 did a good job on the terrain aspect of the game.
Story(7/10)
Ever wanted to wage war on the world? Well this is basically it. The story...basically there is no story, just a goal. To be the strongest Nation in the world. The game start where you are at peace with everyone. You gradually build up your Empire/Nation, and eventually you go to war. To win the game, you have to either beat all the other nations, or win the �Space Race�. This game isn�t fast paced and it goes according to you (clicking the enter button to advance time), so there is plenty of time to go from the stone age to modern times, ha.
Control(8/10)
The controls on this game are pretty decent. You won�t have to memorize any hotkeys to be bad ass at this game (unless you take it online, or unless you play the harder setting of the game). In fact I don�t know any of these hotkeys, and I still seem to kick. So if I can do it, you can do it. Troop movement is basically point and click. You get a troop, click on him, point to where you want him to go, and click. BAM! He�s ON HIS WAY over there. The troops don�t just move over to the spot where you pointed, I mean if you look at what you told them to do�.Walk coast to coast over mountains and grasslands�.you just can�t do that in one click. Instead when you point and click a troops to move, a number appears by the cursor. This number is how many TURNS it takes for that troop to move. Turns are basically what makes this game tick. You move your people, then the other countries move their people. You have the option of watching the other countries move their people or not. I suggest that you do watch them move, so you can know their troops placement. So as the turns go by so does time. There are probably 1000+ turns a game. The battle sequences go like this��You get a troop and put him next to an apposing city, each troop has a defense rating, offense rating and life rating. If your defense is higher than the attack you will most likely beat him out. And vise versa. I could go into the other military units, but I gotta let you figure some things out for yourself right? This isn�t a spoiler, just a review. You can also control what buildings you produce. Just click on the city, go to unit production and change the building time, this also is based on turns. So as you can see this game offers no difficulties whatsoever on control, just gliding on through defeating other Empires.
Enjoyment(9/10)
For this category I ask you, "Do you like Multiplayer or Single player games?� Because this game is definitely better off played alone. If you have a friend over, and you want to play at the beginning sooner or later it will just get repetitive to the person who�s not playing (I know from experience). But if you�re alone at home, and are looking for a good single player game that will keep you busy, this game is definitely the right choice. I mean, I stayed on it for about 6 hours straight (And that�s on Easy mode, playing only 6 other countries when you can have up to 12). So I guess you can say that I thoroughly enjoyed this game. If you have a friend over, though, and you want to play a game, I suggest that you don�t pull this game out. But maybe it will interest your friend a little�
Overall(7/10)
Well�it�s a 7. So you need this game. LOL, and now you need it even more, because it has an online expansion, so you can actually play other people, and try to beat their Empires. Man I want that expansion pack now!! Ha, the game runs at about $40, and the expansion I would imagine is probably the same amount. So, this bad ass game has easy controls, some kool beats to it, and looks decent. Ha, I�ll take that. You should too. Go check it out!!
Review by Mario Hernandez
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