Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack

What was a Mac owner to do in the '90s? You couldn't get much better than this. (Aspyr ported SMAC to the Mac, and yes I managed to find Alien Crossfire for the mac as well) Back to the game itself. Let me just sum it up here: THIS GAME IS CRACK! WHY CAN'T I STOP!?! I'll tell you why. It's good. Not just good, but VERY good. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) came out between Civ 2 and 3, and it deviates from standard Civilization fare quite a bit. You can do some social engineering "ying-yang" style options for your people. You have the ability to build cities (called Bases in this game) on water, and my absolute favorite feature is the Unit Workshop. In Civilization games, you unlock different unit types. In SMAC, you unlock components for various units. Weapons, armor, chassis, equipment, etc. You can then mix and match these components in any way you desire. Do you want a rover with a powerful weapon, but don't have the time to produce armor for it? Can do! A specilized mind worm exterminator? Absolutely. AA tank? Yep! Do you want to put a colony pod on a freaking plane?! No, you don't BUT YOU CAN! The live-action movies for Secret Projects (Wonders in Civ) are fantastic as well, as are the quotes for all of the buildings and technology you get. For only $6, this is a freaking steal. Get it.

I didn't enjoy this game as much as civ2 when i was younger. My biggest complaint back then was that the formers looked massive when compared to the cities. However i brought this game recently and i appreciate it in ways i couldn't in my early teens. I don't think I've seen a game try to combine turn based strategy and roleplaying in a game before. It's a game that encourages you to play as a distinct leader of a distinct faction. Technologies, strategies, units, base facilities and secret projects are linked to a factional philosophy and limiting yourself to choosing faction specific options make this game very interesting.

This is the first video game i ever played. And while it was playable on computers with windows xp though a patch it was not playable on windows vista or 7 computers. So its been years since i played. I was actually considering buying old parts, building a machine and installing win98 just to play this game. Thank you GOG you saved me a lot of time and effort. And thanking for bringing this game and others like it to the masses to enjoy.

I still have my SMAC Planetary Pack CD & I didn't stop playing it until I upgraded to a triple core CPU & couldn't get it to run anymore :( I am glad they have got it working on modern computers & will have another crack at getting my copy working. It would be nice if they did a sequel or remake based on Civ5

Plenty of the reviewers have mentioned the tech and unit development, the unique faction system, and the storyline. What less people know is how this game stands as an evolutionary missing link between Civ 2 and Civ 3. For you Civ fans who have stayed with the series, you absolutely must play this game. If you never tried 3, then play this first.