Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World (Windows)

Sid Meier's triumphant return to Civilization was chronicled a year ago this month, and fittingly the expansion pack is here. It adds eight new civilizations complete with unique units, advantages and disadvantages, a few new buildings, and a new wonder as well. They've streamlined much of the game, incorporated all the patched-in content, and named it Play the World, which is a fitting title given the primary reason for buying this pack: the addition of multiplayer.

Multiplayer, which came standard in Firaxis' previous strategy game Alpha Centauri (PBEM was patched in later) was glaringly absent in the original Civ3 release. Now it's here and instead of just putting it in and seeing how people used it, the design team obviously thought long and hard about how best to take a complicated and intensive game like Civilization III and make it playable in groups over the net. A noble undertaking, given that a good 80 odd per cent or more of the audience will likely never even try it out. Firaxis came up with some great ideas: you can play in hotseat mode at the same PC or over the Internet, you can play by email, or you can opt for the gimmicky new modes of play, simultaneous turns or "turnless" mode. You can play entirely new games like domination, regicide and princess.

Hotseat is played at the same PC or with a group available at the same time. You can set turn time limits to goose the laggers, but otherwise if playing with a large crowd, you'll need to have a book or several magazines handy as you play.

Play-by-email takes a lot of time but is reminiscent of the old days of play-by-mail boardgaming. You'd be amazed how many Civ players prefer this method. It helps that you can set goals and limits to shorten the game somewhat (that goes for hotseat, as well). Play the World doesn't use its own server, but you can easily send off turns within the game itself. No fishing for files and sending them via email. PBEM games are also password protected to prevent tampering.

Much like Combat Mission's WeGo concept, in simultaneous movement mode, each player takes their turn at the same time, and then, when ready, initiates it. The actions unfold and then you go again. Combat in this mode sometimes comes as a surprise, as two units find themselves occupying the same square. Meanwhile, in the new turnless mode, which does actually still have "turns," each player continues play without interruption - at an interval, the computer marks off a turn and automatically adds totals up to grant players accurate production, money, etc. This mode is a boon to quick thinkers or "instinct" players but will drive micromanagers up the wall.

In regicide, each Civ's leader comes to life as a unit. The goal is to smash the other player and if you can kill his leader, it's game over for him. In mass regicide you have multiple "kings" to protect; lose them all and your whole civilization goes kerblooie. The benefit to the game is obvious - rather than arduously taking over an enemy empire piecemeal, you can choose to run down Abraham Lincoln with your cavalry. Or use tanks to, y'know, end that Gandhi threat once and for all. Almost makes you wish the German faction leader was Hitler rather than jolly old Bismark, doesn't it?

For domination, each civ has a flag at its starting point and there are others scattered across the map. Each civ must seek out and find as many as possible and, here's the key, hold them. The longer they're yours, the more points you'll get. Capture the princess is like capture the flag, replacing the flag with an immobile princess who must be rescued and brought to the player's capital. This mode will unlikely find fans - it's drawn out and totally contrary to the "expand, conquer and research" mentality of the game.

The addition of new modes of play is welcome, but after putting some play time in, the novelty begins to wear off fast and you'll probably return to regular multiplayer mode rather quickly... or even ditch multiplayer altogether. Good thing this isn't just a multiplayer pack then, isn't it?

Play the World brings a few other additions to the table. The new tribes are the Arabs, Scandinavian, Celts, Carthaginians, Ottomans, Spanish, Koreans, Mongols, and each has their own funny portraits, unique abilities and units. Genghis Kahn looks like a moron, the Scandinavian Viking looks like a badass, Isabelle of Spain is pretty fetching, especially when compared to ghost-faced Elizabeth and frumpy Catharine of Russia, from the original game. Spanish Conquistadors travel across any terrain as if it had roads, the Mongols get their famous horsemen, Arabs get Ansar Warriors, Carthaginians get powerful eleph... no? Oh, they get Numidean Mercenaries. We were thinking Hannibal there. The Scandinavian Berserker is pretty cool, too. Interestingly, a lot of these civs function best in despotism, making them killer early rush tribes and perfect for multiplay.

Also added are new improvement buildings, like civil defence (defends against bombardment), commercial dock (gives water trade), and the stock exchange (boosts tax output), and a few new objects that workers can build. There's the radar tower, which improves line of sight and grants an offensive and defensive bonus to units in the field within 2 squares; outposts, which let you keep an eye on surrounding terrain; and airfields, which act like Civ2's air bases. These additions are smart and help deepen your options, particularly in the late game, but aren't crucial additions to the game really.

They also added a new wonder, which doubles as a nice in-joke considering the multiplayer focus of this add-on; you can be like Al Gore and build the Internet Wonder. It adds a free research centre to each city on the same continent, which makes it roughly the same animal as Civ2's version of the SETI Wonder. Oh, they even used it to mirror the 90s economic boom by having this wonder grant you a free golden age, if you haven't already triggered one. Since all but the least aggressive players out there will likely have triggered theirs by the time it becomes available, that's a moot advantage.

Lastly, they added a bunch of scenarios and maps. Most are culled from Civ3 fansites, but there are a few new ones here. Really they're just maps, rather than Civ2-style full-blown scenarios, and not particularly inventive. No, they didn't add the ability to play on the world map and place cultures in their historical birthplaces. Odd, seeing as it was many people's favourite way to play in Civ2, after all.

Anyone who hasn't kept up with the patches will be shocked at how much Civ3 has been improved since it's somewhat rocky release. It's a much stronger game now. This expansion adds a lot more clutter, but at least it's interesting clutter. Sadly it doesn't fix some of the aspects of the game still arguably broken. The game is still wickedly hard at high difficulty and still cheats too much in favour of the AI at all difficulty levels. The ludicrous deals are still here (500 gold + 10/turn for your World Map!) and the tribes still trade mercilessly amongst themselves. The game still completely lacks the sense of personality found in Alpha Centauri's much richer diplomatic model, as well

All told, you can now forego the AI entirely and play with your friends - and if you've ever wanted to do that, you'll find this a $30 investment well spent. If multiplayer doesn't interest you, skip the add-on until the price drops. Now it's time for us Scandinavians to resume conquering the world, a few Internet players at a time.

Review By GamesDomain