I was around thirteen when I was first introduced to the greatness that was Civilization II. I was spending the night at a friend’s house when he borrowed that game, and we stayed up the entire night and most of the next day playing it. When I got home the first thing I did was repeatedly ask my patents to purchase this awesome game. After one good report card, they finally purchased Civilization II for me.

Civilization II was my first real experience with turn based strategy games and I loved every minute of it. There were so many things that players could do in that game, the replay factor was astonishing. When I first saw Civilization III a couple of years ago I didn’t think much of it, but now that they have released Civilization III bundled with the first expansion pack: Play the world, I can say that I was a fool to pass up this gem. Read on to find out why.

Before starting a game, players must make a lot of decisions that will affect how the entire game is played. These options vary from choosing different types of world conditions to deciding which Civilization they will play as.

The first choice players make is the world they will play in and this is a decision that will affect how the entire game is played. The reason for this is that there are many world sizes, climate conditions, and other things that can stretch out the games length and make it more difficult to play. Of course the bigger the map, the more civilizations will be able to fit on it, and the longer it will take to win a game.

Then it is broken down by how much water you want covering the lands. Do you want the entire map to be ocean with tiny islands or one big chuck of land with an ocean all around? Next is the type of climate: from arid to rainforest. Then the age of the world, the younger it is the more rugged mountains players will find and the older it is the smoother the landscape will be. The next choice is the temperature of the world; will you choose to locate on a freezing tundra or a nice warm tropical setting? The final choice for this “first” process is to see if you want wandering barbarians around in the world.

After making all of the selections for the world, players must then face the daunting task of choosing what civilization they want to control from the Romans, Japanese, Spanish, or the myriads of other that can be chosen. Players must choose carefully which race they want to be because each of them gives players certain advantages, from having different special units to different beginning technology. It is wise for players to look through the book and find out which of the civilizations that they feel meets their needs the best.

After selecting those options players must select the games difficulty, and it ranges from very easy to almost impossible. The final set of customization is the game rules. On this screen, players can select many different "ending scenarios".  They range from eliminating all rival nations to being the first nation to get into outer space.  The nice thing is since this game offers all of these different choices, there will never be two of the exact games, even if you played for months on end. This is the thing that made Civilization II so great and the fact that there are so many more options in this sequel makes it even better!

As players progress though the game they will go through many different “ages” and different units. Each of the ages, from Ancient to Future, has its own set of different technologies to research, and what you choose to research will make your civilization unique. If players didn’t get a chance to research something they might be able to barter for it from neighboring civilizations. This whole concept makes the game feel more real and helps the replay factor ten fold.

Building a Wonder takes a lot of time and resources but it is definitely worth it! Players will only be able to build them if they have researched the specific technology that they require. Some wonders will help cut back on pollution while others give players more happiness points. Needless to say, once players have the opportunity to build one they should!

Civilization III: Gold Edition Multiplayer is rated E for everyone.

The system requirements are:
400 MHz or better Processor
64 MB of RAM
1.2 GB of Hard Drive Space
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
4X CD-Rom
Direct X 8.1
28.8 Kbps or better Internet Connection to play online
TCP/IP installed to play over a LAN (Local Area Network)
Microphone for voice chat.
Keyboard and Mouse.

Gameplay: 9.1
There are so many things to do in Civilization III: Gold Edition Multiplayer it is amazing. Players can customize everything in this game from the various races, land area, custom ending rules, and many other things. What the entire game boils down to is seeing if players have what it takes to take a group of people and make them into the supreme nation of the world, by whatever means possible. The entire game is extremely easy to get into and start playing; the developers even included a little tutorial mode that lets players get the basics down so they can start their own plans to dominate the world.

Graphics: 8.0
This game series was never about fancy extremely realistic graphics. The graphics in Civilization III: Gold Edition Multiplayer are nice to the eye but they are not eye popping with graphical goodness. There is a lot of detail that went into this game from the different units to the 3D views of the city that always make it nice to see the results of the hard work that players put into making their kingdom the best on the earth.

Sound: 7.5
The music is not bad in this game. It continues in the tradition of having a nice flare, but the developers didn’t spend a whole lot of time concentrating on this area. The sound effects used for the game are nice as well, but a few of them can get annoying after hearing them for the millionth time.

Difficulty: Medium
The game can either be extremely challenging or easy depending on how good you are at this type of game. When playing turn based strategy games, it requires players to think more strategic than the real time games because players have to continually think one step ahead of their enemies.

Concept: 8.5
The developers did a great job with this game, from creating two different working class units to the other myriads of changes from the other games.

Multiplayer: 8.0
The multiplayer aspect that Civilization: Play the World brings to this game can get very intense. What is new is that players can play the traditional turn based game or a quicker “turnless” game. These games can get really intense because of the lack of turns that it takes to accomplish something. Even though you might have thought that it is impossible, but this mode helps give the game even more replayability since playing against humans is always better than computer AI, and now that that you have the option to play a turnless game, the games will go fast and be more practical than playing the traditional way.

Overall: 9.0
I absolutely love this game. After the installation was done and I played this series for the first time in a few years, many memories came rushing back to me why this game is so renowned. There are so many options that will cater to everyone’s personal style of play and it makes the game fun! Even though it make take many hours to even a few weeks to play an entire game all the way from beginning to end, this game will never get old to me! What makes Civilization III: Gold Edition Multiplayer even better is the fact that players not only get to play the original Civilization III but an expansion pack that lets players play online to see who is the best!  If you are looking for a game that has infinite replay value then look no further than this game!