Worth Buying?

[Gelion]

I played both Civ 1 and 2 and Alpha Centauri. I got mixed feelings about Civ 3 as I heard that it is not as good as Civ 2, compared to what SM may have done. So my question is should I buy the game or not? How as your experience with the game compared to Civ 2 and AC? What did you think of it?

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Well, my first piece of advice would be to play the CivIII demo. (You can find it using Google. You get to play for one hour.) While Vanilla civ is pretty good (well, at least I think so,) if you buy the Conquests expansion pack, which includes the previous expansion pack (Play the World), the game get's even better.

Some of the features I enjoyed the most were:
-3D layout
-Better attack system (no firepower stuff)
-Unit Animation Graphics
-Easier customization
-More strategy involved

Hope this helped!

 

[Gelion]

Greatly . Now I know I can get the Demo . Thank you! Post more info if you wish...

 

[Megabyte]

Hi !

In comparison to AC , the nukes in civ3 are much less effective than the planet-bursters in AC.
Civ3 has not a true 3D terrain as AC had it.
No Colonization of the oceans in civ3.
Only pre-defined units in Civ3 , but surely you can mod the game....
The governments in Civ3 are not so flexible to manage as in AC.
The Diplomacy and politics in Civ3 is much less than in AC.
Civ3 has 4 different time-chapters : Antic,medieval,industrial and modern.
I personally like (love!) the civ-series , because the epic-game is just my thing. I also like the SF-scenario of AC , but only in Civ i rejoice.
In my humble opinion , buy Civ3 + Conquest and dont forget to download the latest patch , there has been several changes through the patches.
Hope this could help you.

Have Fun !

 

[homeyg]

CivIII, is a great game and I would recommend it to anyone (that likes strategy games, of course ).

 

[WackenOpenAir]

I never understoot people saying civ2 was better than 3.

Ok, well actually i do understand them, they were used to 2, saw new mechanics that made the game different and harder, were not very open minded and said 2 was better. Well that is my guess

 

[Sark6354201]

I loved Civ2 and Civ3 is better.

SMAC and Civ3 are both excellent, SMAC is more innovative while Civ3 refines things and makes them a lot better.

Get Civ3!

 

[Aggie]

Hi !

In comparison to AC , the nukes in civ3 are much less effective than the planet-bursters in AC.
Civ3 has not a true 3D terrain as AC had it.
No Colonization of the oceans in civ3.
Only pre-defined units in Civ3 , but surely you can mod the game....
The governments in Civ3 are not so flexible to manage as in AC.
The Diplomacy and politics in Civ3 is much less than in AC.

All good reasons why in many ways SMAC is superior to CIV3 (at least for me). But...the AI of CIV3 is stronger and it doesn't cheat as much as it did in SMAC (were you had to fight AI that was set to destroy the human in some cases). You can also fight more than 8 AI opponents (up to 31) on bigger maps, if that's your thing. CIV3 is the bigger challenge and therefore the superior game (although it has it's flaws). If SMAC would have the AI CIV3 had I would immediatly switch back.

 

[Babbler]

In comparison to AC , the nukes in civ3 are much less effective than the planet-bursters in AC.
Civ3 has not a true 3D terrain as AC had it.
No Colonization of the oceans in civ3.
Only pre-defined units in Civ3 , but surely you can mod the game....

I would personally find those features in civ to be out of place with the historical setting. But they work perfectly in SMAC

The governments in Civ3 are not so flexible to manage as in AC.
The Diplomacy and politics in Civ3 is much less than in AC.

Althought Firaxis said that social engineering would be out of place, I think it would have been great to have those in there.

So go buy it great.

 

[Pook]

I agree with Homeyg, WackenOpenAir, Sark6354201, and Aggie. Civ III is a great game, although it definitely has a different feel to it. After buying Civ III, I never once went back to Civ II.
1) It is a lot tougher- I routinely waxed the AI at Deity level in Civ II, after a year with Civ III I'm still at Emperor (the 5th toughest of 8 levels).
2) Leading the tech race is a lot harder, and just about impossible at higher levels.
3) Espionage is so expensive that it's hardly ever worth it- no more horde of Natashas stealing you back into the tech race and providing cheap nukes.
4) Nationalism is an outstanding concept. Culture flips are annoying- they make a domination victory a lot harder. Even though I would not have written the mechanism the same way, I must say that the overall effect is correct- it's hard to subdue a nation and keep it down.

My advice- buy the game, buy Conquests, and enjoy!

 

[Longasc]

All in all, Civ3 and especially Conquests is much better than Civ2 or SMAC. I would like to see some concepts of SMAC in Civ4 however.

 

[esep]

Look at amazon.com (if you live in USA), they sell Civ3 for something like 10 dollars. I think it really is worth it

 

[Gargantutron]

civ3 is great. and the expansion is also great! get both NOW!

civ3 is much more, and much deeper than civ2. and it has better graphics. (not that graphics matters... i'd love the game even if it was just squares with numbers that you moved around )

SMAC was a great game, and i really wouldve liked to see some of the features from it in civ3, but you cant have everything i suppose.

 

[Oddible]

It seems wierd to me that like a year after CivIII was released folks are still asking if it is worth it - I mean seriously folks. After playing CivII there just isn't anything in the Civ-style series that I wouldn't buy. PTW was rough - the multiplayer crashing was just hard to work with, though the single player still ruled. Now with Conquests showing the best of modding this game just takes the cake. The epic game in C3C rules but the Conquests are incredible - and they finally have the multiplayer right too!

You can probably get both CivIII and Conquests for < $20 on eBay. Don't even bother with the Demo - waste of bandwidth, just buy the game. If you've liked any of Sid's Civ series, you'll get your money's worth out of this one.

Oh yeah... and the community just keeps getting better! Democracy game, Succession games, GOTM, oh yeah, get this... Succession GOTM!!! Crazy.

[Edit] Strangely enough, I have one for sale with 30+ other games here.

 

[Gelion]

Thanks . One final quetsion: IS modding as easy as it was in Civ 2 (Units, maps, rules, scenarios)?

 

[King Alexander]

@Gelion: buy Civ3 + Conquests; both the original and the expansion are simply Great(Qonquests is a must buy, although Vanilla is excellent, too).
As for the modding compared to Civ2, I don't know, because I haven't played Civ2 more than 2-3 games(I played that after Civ3). Civ3 modding is easy and in Qonquests you have some more options, and, if you have any questions, there are a lot of threads in this site that they'll help you understand what you have to do.

EDIT: Even without reading any thread, you can easily mod many aspects of the game.

 

[Stapel]

It seems wierd to me that like a year after CivIII was released folks are still asking if it is worth it - I mean seriously folks.

I think Civ3 was out by the end of 2001. Almost 4 years ago.

Though PTW and C3C have great improvements, it has not really change the concept of the game.

 

[jst666]

That's an interesting question to ask in civFANATICS forums...

 

[Gelion]

I have Civ I, II, AC and MOO3. And now.........I'm going to add Civ III to my collection! With "Conquests".
Thread not closed though

 

[Kubannus]

I have Civ I, II, AC and MOO3. And now.........I'm going to add Civ III to my collection! With "Conquests".
Thread not closed though

Great decision! I would recomend it too. :