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2001 · Firaxis Games · 4X · Grand strategy wargame

Civilization III

Civilization III, like the other Civilization games, is based around building an empire, from the ground up, beginning at start of recorded history and continuing beyond the current modern day. The player's civilization is centered around a core of cities that provide the resources necessary to grow the player's cities, construct city improvements, wonders, and units, and advance the player's technological development. The player must balance a good infrastructure, resources, diplomatic and trading skills, technological advancement, city and empire management, culture, and military power to succeed.

Released: 30 October 2001
Platforms: Windows macOS
Genres: 4X Grand strategy wargame Historical Simulation Strategy Turn-based strategy
Developers: Firaxis Games MacSoft Games Aspyr
Publishers: MacSoft Games Aspyr Atari
Modes: Local multiplayer Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Fantasy Historical Educational 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate)
Country: United States
Age ratings: ESRB E
Time to beat: 22hmain story60hcompletionist
Directors: Sid Meier
Composers: Roger Briggs

About

Sid Meier's Civilization III is the third installment of the Sid Meier's Civilization turn-based strategy video game series. It was released in 2001, and followed by Civilization IV. Unlike the original game, Civilization III was not designed by Sid Meier, but by Jeff Briggs, a game designer, and Soren Johnson, a game programmer.

Civilization III, like the other Civilization games, entails building an empire, from the ground up, beginning in 4,000 BC and continuing slightly beyond the modern day. The player must construct and improve cities, train military and non-military units, improve terrain, research technologies, build Wonders of the World, make war or peace with neighboring civilizations, and so on. The player must balance a good infrastructure, resources, diplomatic and trading skills, technological advancement, city and empire management, culture, and military power to succeed.

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The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game map is made up of square tiles on a grid. Each city, terrain improvement, and unit is located in a specific tile, and each tile can host any number of units. Land tiles can contain a transportation improvement (road or railroad) and a land improvement (farm or mine) or a city. , no two cities may touch.

Each tile is made of a particular type of terrain that determines, among other things, how much food, production, and trade it produces when "worked". A tile can only be worked if it is one of the twenty tiles surrounding a city. A tile can only be worked by one city at a time, and each city can only work a number of tiles equal to or less than its population.

Development

Civilization III was released after about two years of development on October 30, 2001. Developed by Westlake Interactive and published by MacSoft, a version for Mac OS was released on January 6, 2002.

Reception

In the United States, Civilization III entered NPD Intelect's weekly computer game sales rankings at #1 for October 28–November 3, 2001. Its Collectors Edition SKU claimed second during the period. Thanks to this debut, Civilization III became the country's fourth-best-selling computer title of October as a whole, with an average retail price of $49. In its second week of availability, the game was pushed to #2 by Backyard Basketball, and the Collectors Edition was absent from the top 10.

Firaxis's title remained in NPD's weekly top 10 from November 11–December 1, and took sixth place for November as a whole. After an absence, it reappeared in the weekly top 10 twice during December and secured 11th for the month. 5 million.