Sid Meier's Civilization III: Complete
Posted 06/01/2006 at 3:09pm
| by Matt Osborn

It's important to keep your city folk happy, or they might revolt - and no, you can't slip anything into the water supply.
In Sid Meier's Civilization III: Complete, you plant the seeds of a new civilization and guide it turn by turn toward world domination through brute force, economics, technology, cultural influence, or by fulfilling scenario objectives. Civilization III: Complete has tons of enhancements and features, but it's too bad that it took a while for it to be released - PC gamers have been playing Civilization IV for months.
At the outset of the game, you don the guise of a legendary leader such as Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth, Julius Caesar, or even Abraham Lincoln (who looks great as a barbarian). Each leader has a unique personality, and the civilizations they lead have special qualities. America, for example, is industrious and expansionist, so the workers are fast. Each civilization also has a special unit it can produce when it hits a certain time period - Egypt gets a War Chariot in the Bronze Age, while the United States gets an F-15 in the Modern Age. You guide your people from 4,000 B.C. to the era of space travel, expanding your territory and gathering resources along the way. There's more than one way to win the game: by crushing your foes in battle, through the influence of your culture and your Wonders (innovations that are unique to your civilization), by getting elected as the head nation of the United Nations, or by being the first to reach space.
Civilization III: Complete contains tons of enhancements, and the two expansion packs, Play the World and Conquests (previously only available for Windows) are seamlessly integrated into the main game. Intriguing new historic scenarios based on such events as the rise of Rome or WWII offer preset enemies, allies, and objectives. Complete also offers 15 new tribes (31 in all), such as the Incans, Hittites, and Mayans. New Wonders include the Internet, which adds a free science lab to all your cities, and the Knights Templar, which recruits military units every few turns. And that only covers a few of Complete's plentiful enhancements.
An online eight-player game can take several days. Luckily, you can save mid-game and return later with your mates. If you're disconnected, though, be sure that the host stops and saves the game right after the dropped party leaves, otherwise the dropped civilization is automatically destroyed on the next turn. The old-school Hotseat mode allows multiple players to play on one Mac by switching seats each turn. In Play-By-Email mode, the first player sets up the game, plays his or her first turn, saves it, and then emails the SAV file to the next player - and each player can have a password to ensure the others don't cheat.
The in-game graphics use 2D sprites that look dated, even though the charisma of the prerendered leader portraits still shines through. The world-music soundtrack sounds like it came from a bad MIDI-enamored band from the nineties.
The bottom line. Once you get through the first five hours - dealing with the lackluster learn-as-you-go tutorial and flipping through the manual to find out what the heck you just did - Civilization III: Complete is addictive.
COMPANY: Aspyr
CONTACT: 512-708-8100, www.aspyr.com
PRICE: $49.99
REQUIREMENTS: 500MHz G4, Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, 256MB RAM, 2GB disk space, Internet and GameRanger or LAN (for multiplayer)
Even more addictive than previous versions. Multiplayer modes. Limitless game-mode customizations.
Should have been released a while ago. Graphics look dated.

BONUS TIP: Faster, Multiplayer! Kill! Kill!
To make online multiplayer games go faster, set the game to Simultaneous Movement. Now everyone must move at the same time; once the timer expires, the game plays the moves out. Try Turnless mode, too.