Amazing, but I had really high standards for Civ3, so I was a little disappointed. You didn't seem to have as much easy access to your units as in SMAC--you often don't know how to do a command. Like if I hadn't played SMAC, I wouldn't have known how to build a road to a specific place. You can't access the help in the city building screen for what to build. You have to know what a resource looks like(and look for it on the map) to find it. I loved the Civs and SMAC, but wasn't very good, so I don't really care about multiplayer.

Not enough things are awe-inspiring, like the wonders/secret projects in Civ1,2/SMAC or the beginning movie in SMAC.

Easily as addictive as any of them.

The Gameplay:

Ah yes, truly the meat of any strategy game, gameplay. Yes, the premise has changed a bit in Civ 3. With new victory conditions, Civ2 pacifists like my self will be tickled pink to find out that you can now dominate the world by means of 2 new peaceful victory conditions.By simply expanding your borders, or dominating other civs with superior culture. The tech tree has been somewhat stripped and cleansed of the useless techs and has been redesigned to go in a more chronological order. You can now change your research goals on the fly, a definite plus. Unfortunetly a new, unwanted bit of gameplay has taken over the beginning of the game. The "Big Land Grab" as I have dubbed is basically what it sounds like. Because of the new political borders, all players now pump out as many settlers as they can in the beginning of the game. This hinders my "quality not quntity" strategy immensely. Establishing trade routes and planting spies has now been all done through non-physical means, as in you use menu options and the like. Instead of precious settlers running around building roads and irrigating a new unit has been created to do the tough work for your settlers. They have been aptly named workers. That is an example of the developement team's courtesy to the players during the "land grab". In order to build certain units, one must now collect the required resources by assimilating the resources into their territory and hooking them up to roads. I.E.: You want to build a swordsman. You need a road connecting the city that wants to build the swordsman to the iron. This adds a certain realism to the game, but also quite a hassle to players who miss out on territory early in the game. On the other hand, trading players will find great prospect in dangling a needed resource over the head of one of you rivals. Diplomacy has been greatly redone, allowing for much more options then Civ2. The new diplomacy screen gives the game a much more personal view, as you get to see your friend's/foe's face right in front of you. You can now also see what the computer will offer you for something and vice-versa. Truly a greatly needed upgrade from Civ2 diplomacy. The AI has taken what I consider a great leap from "YOU GIVE ME TECH. NO? OK YOU SIGN PEACE TREATY! YOU STUPID PATHETIC CIV! ME KILL YOU! YOU WANT BE FRIENDS?". Though it will still demand things now and again, its not nearly as bad as Civ2's "ME KILL YOU NOW!" AI mentality.

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