Review of Civilization 3, Gold Edition, 3 hour Demo

Reviewing Civ3 Gold is an exercise in trying to find something new in a beast that has already been reviewed to death. A combination of the Play the World expansion and the original game, Atari and Infogrames have decided to release a demo that becomes unplayable after 3 hours.

The download is 650MB, so if I may pimp a competitor: The best place to download the demo is PC IGN, where they've got a new P2P method of downloading large content. However, if you're like me, you're going to soon resent the P2P software sitting on your computer after a while, and remove it from the control panel list of installed applications.

Let me preface this review by saying that I was clean of the Civ3 monkey for 7 months straight. I had managed to put the CD in the back of my desk drawer, at the bottom of my stack of old games CDs.

It wasn't that I didn't like the game. I liked it too much. I feared how much I liked it.

A Return to the Addiction

Since the original Civilization, I've always found the quick start single-player games to be the best fun. I've gone down different routes with the game: I've downloaded cheats and trainers, I've played the Save/Reload game where I try to get the best results from the random elements of the game, I've even edited maps that put me at a decisive advantage over my numerous opponents (who were commonly forced to eat each other alive while I built up my empire in relative security). But, none if it compared to the thrill of jumping into a game and wrestling the advantage away from superior civilizations through strategy, tactics, or otherwise tricking out the game to give me the win.

When Civ3 came out, I was pulled into it to such a degree that I called in sick to work, and developed a hygiene problem. The addition of active espionage, culture victories and increased diplomatic options was just what the doctor ordered. The only things I missed were the inventive nature of expansion afforded to me in Call To Power, an earlier series that was developed under the Civilization license, but which never seemed to have the critical acclaim or following of the original.

When Play The World was released, I dutifully purchased it in an attempt to support the series. The multiplayer capabilities of the game frankly didn't interest me: Everything that I found attractive about the game was strictly a single-person experience. I couldn't imagine a multiplayer game when a single player game could take me the majority of a weekend to complete, and that was with often leaving the computer in End-Turn-Pause mode for hours on end.

Firing up the Demo

The first thing I noticed about the demo was that it was, for all purposes, the complete game. Nothing appeared to be limited at all about the title. For the next three hours, I was playing a 40.00 game that I downloaded for free, and there was no associated guilt from surfing a "Warez" site. If this is a secure method of demonstrating a game, then I would suggest that all game companies out there take a look at it. It's definitely the only way to get people truly attached to a game.

I began the game by just throwing myself into the tutorial. I couldn't imagine a 3 hour game on anything above the Easy level to get me very far through the title. The extremely tough difficulty levels are those kinds of games where I try to make every decision the perfect one. A 3 hour time limit at one of those difficulty levels would have had me still in the Stone Age when the game died on me.

The game progressed normally enough. Immediately, I encountered a couple of new units from other cultures, mainly those custom fit for scouting capabilities. In no time, I'd built up a relationship with a couple of cultures. At the time I researched the Writing skill, it prompted me for the establishment of embassies, as I expected it would. One of the best features of the PTW expansion, and now the Gold edition, is the culture interaction screens. Be it espionage, diplomacy or negotiating a complicated deal; all of the screens have been revised from fan feedback over the time since Civ3 was released.

What's New?

I'd rather not get into a feature list. You can get that yourself off of the official site. In fact, I'd have to say, after playing all of the games in the Civ genre: Where's the Beef?

Sure, as compared to playing the original Civ3 game, there were some minor tweaks here and there, but after all has been said, my play style from Civ3 to the Civ3 Gold Demo did not change at all. In fact, after my demo expired, I fired up the original Civ3 (still installed, damn it) and played through a couple of Huge map games with a large number of opponents on one of the higher difficulty levels: I could detect no discernable difference.

So, what's really to prompt you to buy the Gold edition if you've already got the others in the series? Nothing. There's nothing more to see here, folks, move along.

The real purpose of the Gold Edition demo is, therefore, to attract people who either haven't played the game yet, or have played the game, but are looking for a cheaper alternative than buying both Civ3 and the Play The World expansion. I really should have known.

Still, some Quibbles

I can't go an entire game review without complaining about something, can I?

I still can't stand to complete a full game of Civ3. My high-score list looks like nothing special, as I never let myself lose, and I never have the patience to win.

Sure, I occasionally pull a culture or space-race victory out before I get too bored, but the end-game is nothing like the opening gambits and strategy. I feel as if I had taken a job in the fabulous profession of accountancy or data entry by the time I'm reached the late 1900s. Unless I'm actively participating in a war, an activity of which the game mechanics in the end-game don't approve, each and every turn is an exercise in choosing what next to build, and figuring out how to optimize the graphics presentation so I don't have to watch all of the automated workers dealing with the pollution and culturally-dominated cities' enhancements.

All I can say about the end-game in Civ3 is that I thank whatever deity I can that there's a default end-turn-pause, or otherwise I'd never find the opportunity to turn around and watch TV, or some other activity that pulled me out of the monotony.

As with all games with a tech tree and a time line, I'm depressed to find out that I've already searched every nook and cranny, and experienced every tech I could. Since Call To Power, I've felt cheated by the fact that Civ3 resorts to "Future Tech" like the old Civilization main games. CTP at least gave you all sorts of imaginative building and expansion options after modern day. Sure, I could resort to loading a mod from the community, but my experience with mods from the community has been less than stellar over the years, so I tend to avoid that option in general.

Conclusions

Those of us that have been kicking the Civ habit out of a healthy fear for our livelihood need not download and play this demo. Everything that you've come to fear and resent is here in this demo, nicely packaged to give you just the right taste and get you back into the game. Believe me: I just wasted a weekend on the damn thing.

For those of you who've never played the game, or at least haven't played the third installment in the Civilization series, will find the Gold edition of the game an affordable price point at 39.95 for everything made to date.

For me, I've reset the timer on my Civilizations Anonymous bracelet. Goodbye, "7 months Clean" bragging rights.