Sid Meier's Civilization III
- Atari Collection: Strategie (2005)
- Civilization Tokubetsu Gentei Package (2008)
-
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Complete
(2004) -
Sid Meier's Civilization III: Gold Edition
(2003) -
Totally Strategy
(2003)
-
Sid Meier's Civilization III (Game of the Year Edition)
(2002) -
Sid Meier's Civilization III (Limited Edition)
(2001)
Description official descriptions
Sid Meier's Civilization III is a turn-based strategy game where the objective is to rule the planet with the civilization of the player's choice. Players control one of 15 historic civilizations (Aztecs, Egyptians, Russians, etc). Each civilization has its own particular strengths and weaknesses -- some are more scientific, for example, while others have stronger cultural or military attributes; also, each civilization has its own unique unit, and is more prone to certain forms of government while shunning some others.
Like in the previous titles in the series, the point of the game is to expand the influence of a civilization through resource management, conquest, or trade with other civilizations. As game time progresses from ancient times through the modern era, a civilization will acquire new technologies, which in turn enable interesting new abilities and enhanced power. Since there are several ways to win (military, diplomatic, or cultural), it is up to each player to determine how best to manage the division of labor.
The game includes some mechanics and features which were introduced in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, such as borders between civilizations and the aforementioned differences between each civilization's statistics. The advisors are now present in the upper right corner of the screen in relevant menus. Diplomacy has been expanded, with the ability to trade and even slightly haggle with other civilizations in a more detailed way. Other new additions include the great leader mechanic, war weariness amongst the population, and small wonders.
Spellings
- 文明III - Simplified Chinese spelling
- 文明帝國 III - Traditional Chinese spelling
Groups +
- Best of Infogrames / Atari releases
- Game with creator's name
- Gameplay feature: Fog of war
- Games that include map/level editor
- Games with randomly generated environments
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Setting: Totality of history
- Sid Meier's Civilization series
- Sid Meier's licensees
- Software Pyramide releases
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
- Theme: Famous politician
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Credits (Windows version)
139 People (124 developers, 15 thanks) · View all
| Original Civilization Designed By | |
| Civilization III Designed By | |
| Programming | |
| Art Lead | |
| Art | |
| Sound | |
| Music | |
| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 86% (based on 39 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 134 ratings with 7 reviews)
A worthy successor to the Civilization lineage.
The Good
Many things. First, settlers and workers have no defense or attack. No longer can settlers take down bombers. Strategic resources like iron and uranium add much more strategy to the game. Planes are much better. Now, you just bomb stuff instead of moving them. Instead of having super-short range ICBM's, they are capable of hitting anywhere, just like real life. The controls are as simple as previous ones of the series. More than 2 ways to win the game gives it more replay value. Finally, civ-specific troops and attributes give more variety with civs. Other than the things I listed earlier, the game is mainly a better graphics version of civ 1 and 2.
The Bad
No multiplayer. Small AI glitches also make things annoying. They build cities on your colonies, and enemy troops move back and forth on their borders, like they are patrolling. Also, the combat can be incredibly lame. A horde of horsemen will attack and defeat your tanks. Spearmen can successfully defend against machine gunners. This detracts from the realism the games exudes in other areas.
The Bottom Line
If you are a fan of civ2, than this is the game for you.
Windows · by James Kirk (150) · 2003
You call this a game? It's a MASTERPIECE!
The Good
The delightful simplicity even with the complex nature of the game. The Civilipedia is very insightful, and helps you a lot when playing the game. Graphics is good (although not excellent) and music is catchy. The way that it makes me THINK like no other game EVER managed to do is remarkable!
The Bad
Slowness of AI turns during the latter stages of the game was a bit bad, but not bad enough to prevent me from becoming a total addict.
The Bottom Line
All I can say is that if you don't know about this game yet, you're missing out on the most important of all computer games EVER. You probably use your computer only for word processing...
Windows · by Kobus Myburgh (1) · 2005
The Good
This game is deeper than the earlier ones without being harder to play. It has nifty things like unique units and special abilities to make each civilization different. It has many things that were sorely missing in Civ2, like better air unit handling and national borders.
The Bad
Despite all the great things in it, this game didn't grab me the way its predecessors (Civilization, Civ2, and Sid Maier's Alpha Centauri) did. It somehow lost that "just one more turn" feeling.
The Bottom Line
Despite its lineage and superficial similarities, this is not really a new version of the classic Civilization. For that, SMAC is still the best. This is a new game in the same genre. It has a lot of cool ideas and features, many of which can be accurately described as improvements, but the sum total of the change is enough to make it play so differently that liking its predecessors will give you much of a hint whether you'll like this one.
Windows · by weregamer (155) · 2003
Trivia
German version
Because they didn't want to wait for Firaxis to release a German version of Civilization III, some German fans started to translate the game. They were about halfway through when they were forced by Infogrames to stop distributing their translation with an injunction, citing copyright infringement. The reason was not so much ill will, but Infogrames' responsibility towards the game's developer Firaxis on the one hand and commercial aspects on the other -- Infogrames wanted to sell its own localized version. As a sign of goodwill, Infogrames payed for the injunction's legal costs, so the fan project came away unharmed.
Music
You may notice that some of the original themes from previous Civ/Sid Meier games have made their way into Civilization III. For example, the Middle Age music for Oriental Civilizations is the Chinese theme song and the Middle Age music for North American Civilizations is 'Tenochtitlan' from Colonization and Civilization II.
References
The game's initial advertising campaign featured Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln wrestling. This is a reference to a comment made by Brad Pitt after filming Fight Club about the two people he'd most like to see fight each other.
References: Music
1) Let the credits roll through and right at the end, after Shakespeare's quote and after about two or three seconds of the credits screen being blank, a picture of Elvis Putnam appears.
To view this picture manually: Find folder: Infogrames\Interactive\Civilization 3\Art\credits
Then one of the pictures there is called "Elvis Putnam" obviously an Elvis joke of some kind.
2) Access your computer's clock by double-clicking on it, and change the date to January 8. January 8 is Elvis Presley's birthday.
Play any game with either "Regicide" or "Mass Regicide" mode on, and notice that your King unit looks like Elvis! If your Elvis gets into a fight, he will just stand there and say things like "Thank you, thank you very much!"
3) In the screen where you talk to your domestic advisor, you have the option to change your form of government. She will ask you, "You say you wanna revolution?" And you can select either "Yea, you know it's gonna be alright," or "No, you can count me out." Both are lines from the Beatles song Revolution.
Awards
- Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences
- 2001 - Strategy Game of the Year
- Computer Games Magazine
- 2001 - Game of the Year
- 2001 - Strategy Game of the Year
- Computer Gaming World
- April 2002 (Issue #213) – Best Game That Didn't Win an Award
- Gamepen
- 2001 - PC Strategy Game of the Year
- Game Revolution
- 2001 - PC Strategy Game of the Year
- GameSpot
- 2001 - Best Single-Player Strategy Game of the Year (Editors' Choice)
- 2001 - Best Single-Player Strategy Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
- Gamespy
- 2001 - PC Strategy Game of the Year
- GameStar
- Issue 02/2002 - Best Game in 2001
- Issue 02/2002 - Best Strategy Game in 2001
- Wargamer.com
- 2001 - Strategy Game of the Year
Information also contributed by -Chris, Indra was here, Itay Shahar, phlux, Rambutaan and Zack Green
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by berksneighbor.
Macintosh added by Jeanne.
Additional contributors: nullnullnull, Kasey Chang, Unicorn Lynx, Xoleras, jean-louis, Paulus18950, SGruber, Patrick Bregger, Plok, Danfer.
Game added November 5, 2001. Last modified March 23, 2024.