Civilization III Preview

To say that the Civilization series has been subject to turmoil over the past few years would be an understatement. MicroProse owned the rights to the Civilization license, but the company was bought by Spectrum Holobyte, so the license was transferred over to it. A short time later, Activision wrangled the license from Spectrum Holobyte and produced a new series known as Call to Power, which branched off of Civilization II. Eventually, Hasbro Interactive bought MicroProse, which gave Sid Meier's company, Firaxis, the chance to recapture the license and work on a brand-new Civilization. "It's been a hot potato," said Jeff Briggs, president of Firaxis. "A lot of the people at Firaxis, including myself, had helped Sid [create Civilization]. We liked the game and that's why we want to do Civilization III."

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Now that the Civilization series is back in the hands of its creators, Firaxis is working to ensure that Civilization III combines the best elements of the two previous games with new features that add new dimensions of depth. "I think the first two games, especially the first one, used a broad brush approach, and that made sense for that time," Briggs said. "With Civilization III, we've taken some of the systems that were broad-brushed and tried to flesh them out." One of the systems that's receiving special attention is trade, which, in the two previous games, simply consisted of building caravan units and moving them from town to town to collect additional goods. Civilization III gives Firaxis the opportunity to build the trade feature, which is a much more dynamic and useful part of the game. "We've put a lot of energy and effort into getting a trade system that is integrated into the Civilization system, creating a whole new aspect to the game that [influences] diplomacy, war, and the way you make your citizens happy," Briggs said. "It's all pretty integrated, and we feel really good about that." Trade isn't the only feature receiving an overhaul. Diplomacy is also the subject of intense focus at Firaxis, and the development team hopes to give you additional options to consider when confronted by other civilizations. Of course, there are many cosmetic adjustments being made, including refined city-information screens, three-dimensional units, and incredibly detailed maps.

Overshadowing all of these subtle improvements are the features never before seen in previous Civilization games, such as culture. "Civilizations develop a sense of self-identity. We think culture is what causes things like France to happen. There is a whole group of people that speak French; they share a past experience," Briggs explained. "All these things put together form a thing called culture that binds these people together and makes them have influence over the whole area that is France." Firaxis has taken that concept of culture and integrated it seamlessly into the Civilization universe, creating a whole new dimension of strategy and possibility that was completely absent in previous Civilization games. Brute military force is no longer the only option you have for conquering enemy civilizations--now you can join together through culture.