|
my REVIEW of Civ3
I've been playing Civ3 since I got it 2 days ago. For around 30 of those 48 hours, this is the only thing I have been doing. When I first started playing, I found it extremely difficult. I would say that the game is much more in depth and realistic, and the AI is no exception. The game is so hard even at the beginning at the easiest levels. I still haven't been able to win at Chieftan. The game AI expands rapidly, building cities very quickly. If you do not consistantly build nothing but workers and settlers you will find yourself the smallest civilization on the planet.
When I first started, for around the first 4 hours of gameplay, I found the game heinously annoying, but I am now realising this is due to my total lack of governing ability for my civilization. I had no concept of the new rules. The game has been updated for realism. After around 8 hours I finally figured out how to add things to the building queue and perform more complicated tasks. The thing about this game is that its so hard and challenging to an old Civ2 player, that it is totally addicting. Right now as I type this I want to go back and try again..
I won't even go near the Deity level, I am pretty sure I would be obliterated... What impressed me was the game map size and number of Civilizations you can have in one game. It is possible to have a gigantigon map with all of the civs in the game playing on it, but I found this to be very slow. I found that disabling animations on my standard game often increased the turn times, but I didnt try it on the gigantigon map (by the mid 1200s on the giant map I found the game AI taking almost 60 seconds to complete a turn... this map is massive)
The game is overall alot of fun, it has its interface problems but this is in many ways a very new game but at the same time Civ2.. when looking at it and thinknig about it, its almost like they incorporated the best parts of the original Civ, Civ2, and CTP (yeah I know CTP sucked), but finally they did it right.
If you liked Civilization 2 you're going to like this game, but the learning curve is massive. I can't see myself winning this game any time soon. I found some humor in the game as well. Like when you go to overthrow the government, your advisor says "So you say you want a revolution" you can pick "You know it's gonna be alright" (Beatles song?)
On chieftan it was funny, my nearest neighbor the egyptians threatened me. When I told them to shove it, they said something like "Yeah well I would declare war immediately but we seem to have lost hte paperwork" or something like that :P It was funny because I knew if I was playing on any difficulty setting besides this I would be destroyed right now...
Anyway, its highly recommended. There are some things that could be fixed. I was sorta disappointed about no MP and no scripting... but this is Sid's beast. I can see them improving on this game with new versions for years to come.
|
