Sid Meier's Civilization® III Complete

Be aware that this bundle allows only Conquest version of the game. You can play neither basic civ 3 nor Play the World expansion. This was huge disappointment to me as I'm not a fan of changes made by Conquest. Basically Conquest expansion added huge number of units and buildings without increasing the number of available technologies. As a result it doesn't matter much which technology you choose to develop next as it almost always will give you new unit(s) and new building(s) anyway. What I appreciated the most in civ 3 were choices and risks you made when deciding your research strategy. Especially in Middle Ages when you could basically go two ways (economic & research development or military). Another factor is that Conquest brings several additional wonders. Some of them are IMO game breaking as they produce military units at no cost whatsoever which totally breaks the balance. The game itself is of course awesome. Civ 3 is one of the best strategy games of all time. In my opinion second best in the series - after civ 4. Civ 4 has more depth, you need to keep more balance between all aspects, it also brings religions in. Civ 3 was more in your face with main focus on military. Which makes it different and still fun to play even after all those years. Especially that the game gives you good reasons to fight. On most of the maps strategic resources are limited so it makes sense to secure and monopolise them through military aggression. Next instances in the series failed a bit on that field. It is a shame that this version denies the "vanilla" Civ 3 from you. Especially that this is gog - the whole idea of this place is bringing those old original games back to life.

Civilization III is an excellent game, but more than offering enjoyable gameplay, it serves as an important stepping stone to the later games. It offers unique enough experience that some players will find it more appealing than other titles in this series, but I was left a little unfulfilled playing this. Civ III tried to revamp the gameplay, as known from Civ II. With the success of Alpha Centauri, which managed to revolutionize the Civ concept while still feeling like part of the series, Civ III tried to take the best of AC and apply it here. One of the main features it took was the concept of cultural borders, and consequently cultural victory. Cities produce culture, which in turn generate national borders, within which other nations cannot build their cities. The borders may expand, and ultimately swallow and take over enemy cities. Unfortunately, the designers did not balance the game well for this feature, and what you get is a mad rush to settle every small neutral piece of land. This results into a checkerboard map and cities that can't grow sufficiently; they only serve to occupy a piece of land. The second major addition was unique traits for different civilizations. Some produce more money, others can generate military buildings faster, etc. However, these traits are fairly minor, and don't differentiate different factions to the extent that Alpha Centauri does. The third change is the introduction of strategic resources. These are required to build certain structures or military units. Here, too, the feature was not thought out too well, as the resources often pose as bottlenecks to further progress or even victory in the game. All in all, Civ III is a very enjoyable game. However, I feel that Civ IV improved on all the concepts so much, that I keep playing it only when I feel particularly nostalgic.

I was 5 years old when my dad learned me how to play civ3, so this review is probably biased because of the nostalgia. I am 20 years old now and i still play this game sometimes, i have 100 hours played on my steam version of CIV3 Complete. The wars are so much funnier than in the sequels you can mass stack units and form a train of invading troops, and when the AI wants a peace treaty you can scam him of even more gold and cities and invade him again. It's broken but fun! There are really good mods for civ3 on civfanatics website. Civ IV is second best and CIV V was awesome aswel but the oldschool graphics and animations are just flawless in CIV3. Anyone who hasn't yet played civ3 should definately give it a chance GOG always makes the best and most compatible versions for games so this is the place to buy it. I have so many memories from this game like when i achieved world domination with facist Egypt. It's endless hours of awesomeness and nostalgia and my favorite TBS along with Heroes 3.

A child of extreme, Civ3 sports both the best and the worst. Bringing the new revolutionaries concepts that would grow through the franchise (like culture, borders, global support of units and so on), Civ3 was truly a revoltion for the serie. At the same time, it suffered from dubious design choices and balancing. Still, at the crossroad between old-school and modern, it's a very great experience and well worth any price. Those wanting only the very best should look at Civ4, but still, Civ3 has an immersive quality and some magic that were unique to it. I would definitely recommend to play it.