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Civ3: good, but a rushed overreaction to problems with Civ2
Civ3: in some ways great, in some ways pointlessly frustrating. The game can best be understood as an overcompensation for some of the real and perceived weaknesses of Civ2.
* Anti-ICS. It has made very rapid expansion impossible for the player while making ICS the favored tactic of the computer players in the early to middle game (at least, on King-Deity). I have no problem with this, as it's a relatively cheese-free way of making the game tougher.
* Leo considered too powerful: so let's make it pretty much useless and really expensive. 550 shields? Why not just take it out of the game? Same with U.N., so we'll make it totally useless by giving it one power (diplomatic victory) that many people disable before they even start the game since it's so arbitrary and sudden.
* Human players rushing wonders in Civ2 game them a big advantage over hapless AIs. It's a real problem. But Firaxis' solution has just added masochism to the game without adding much that is strategically compelling. In one of my games I was one turn away from building Hanging Gardens only to have the AI build it -- okay, that's tough, but in the next turn I was about to discover Theology and put my shields to work on Sistine Chapel, except that just before the "You have discovered Theology" screen came up, I got the "Your 395 shields have all been coverted from Wonder-building to Courthouse you sorry son-of-a-b!tch" screen instead. Anyone who thinks that's wither fun or reasonable must also enjoy stabbing themselves in the hand with a sharp pencil. First of all, this should never have been allowed to happen in this case since I discovered Theology in that same turn, but even when it does happen, Firaxis should have thought of something to convert shields to that didn't make human players want to quit the game in frustration -- how about a big boost to tech research, or divide that city's excess shields across the empire and pretty much finish building everything in all your cities in the next turn?
As to the game being rushed, is it me, or does it seem like Diplomatic victory and the wonder movies are clearly items that Firaxis simply ran out of time to do? The diplomatic victory is insane: who is going to play a game for three days just to have it end in one turn on something arbitrary whose inner workings are totally invisible to the average player? Firaxis includes beautiful wonder movies in Civ2 and SMAC but suddenly decides that "Wonder Movies are too disruptive to the game experience"? And the Palace (which I also like) isn't? Come on guys, if you're going to lie to us, at least don't insult our intelligence. And I won't even go into how MP was dropped.
Last edited by randomturn; November 5, 2001 at 12:19.
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