The
Civilization series of games, including Civilization III, have been among the
most popular strategy games of all time. In spite of their appeal and uncanny
ability to turn “just one more turn” into an all-night play session however, the
time investment required for each game has always been a turn off to many
gamers. Civilization III stayed true to the series in this regard, making it a
game for empire builders who enjoy slowly building large empires and fighting
protracted wars of attrition. Conquests attempts to broaden Civilization III’s
appeal beyond this strategy gaming niche by allowing the game to be played in
shorter sessions and with concrete goals. The result is an even better
Civilization III that can be enjoyed by even more strategy gamers and provide an
exciting change of pace to those who’ve enjoyed the game all along.
Conquests accomplishes this by providing a set of nine historical scenarios with
victory conditions designed to create conflict right from the get go. From
Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire under siege to World War II, the scenarios
provide you with established cities complete with cities, transportation
networks, and developed economies eliminating the slow build-up of territory and
infrastructure that can take hours in the regular game. From there you are given
specific goals and victory conditions required to win the scenario. These can
include conquering other cities, eliminating the other civilizations, or being
voted the leader of all as in the feudal Japan scenario. Also, there are always
multiple paths to victory so you always have several strategic options in your
pursuit of victory. However, they are always goals of conquest or aggression
that often must be accomplished within a set turn limit so sitting back and
trying to build up your cities while ignoring the war is not an option.
Another interesting feature of the scenarios is that each one tweaks the rules
of the game to fit the historical context and the civilizations involved. For
example, the Mesoamerican scenario allows you to capture enemy units and then
sacrifice them in one of your cities to boost your culture rating. In addition,
you can build your cities on mountaintops and in jungles without a loss of
productivity and efficiency. These rule tweaks are an excellent addition to the
scenarios as they give each one a distinct feel and force you to adjust your
tactics to fit the time and place of the scenario. The scenarios aren’t merely
shortened versions of the regular game with set civilizations, each one is more
of a full variant of the game and you’ll love the variety they add to your
Civilization III gaming sessions.
The regular Civilization III has undergone some tweaks in Conquests. There are
some new civilizations and wonders added that are drawn from the scenarios, and
some others that seem new to the game overall. There are other more subtle
changes such as tech tree tweaks that you’ll notice at first but will quickly
get used to. For those looking for an even greater challenge, two new difficulty
levels have been added as well.
Multiplayer gaming is a bit of a sore spot for Civilization III players. The
Play the World expansion was plagued by bugs and lag, and just as bad it became
obvious that the Civilization III game just was not suited for multiplayer over
the Internet. The game is far too slow in developing and players had a tendency
to drop out rather than sit out the long end game of a losing campaign.
Conquests’ multiplayer feature is a far more stable offering than Play the
World’s and the scenario-based play is a much better fit for multiplayer gaming.
However, Conquests still plays slower than other online games, so it’s best to
know the other people if you want to be certain that everyone will stick to the
game until the end.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 90%.
An excellent expansion that is sure to please Civilization III players.
System Requirements: Pentium II 400 MHz; 64 MB RAM; 32 MB
Video RAM; 600 MB Hard disk space.
