Alien Nations

Fun game, but not optimised for modern computers. Also, it is borderline impossible to beat this game. At some point you will be attacked by other nations and you will never be able to defend yourself as they will always have a ridiculous amount of troops.

I used to play this game endlessly as a child, it still has the same charm to it as it did way back then - including many of the same strange bugs with alt-tabbing! I genuinely don't think there are many games out there which have the same kind of colony/city management, as simplistic as it is, it really does have a special place in my heart.

When I go to play a game, I get heavily invested in it. For me, immersion and focus is everything. I am that person who spends 20 hours prior to even touching an RPG like Skyrim figuring out the best mix of mods to add to it! And unfortunately, with Alien Nations, this playstyle of mine was a hindrance to any enjoyment. Alien Nations is a game where combat/story is heavily tempered by a need to build, gather resources, build many beautiful cities, and make your citizens happy. Unfortunately, it is NOT a game like others in its genre, as it is particularly hard to get immersed in it, largely for two reasons: the lack of graphical variety; and repetition between missions. Graphically, you can hardly tell you are on different maps, as the trees, animals, and every other detail look identical, meaning that missions largely feel the same. This leads to the second, bigger problem: repetition between missions. Most missions require the same idea: tech up, build up, and hit some minor, time-consuming goal. While this is not a problem persay, the sameness between maps made this into a chore, and it often felt like there was no real difference between the titular "nations," as they had identical tech trees with only cosmetic differences between units and buildings. You end up doing the same pointless tasks, mission after mission after mission, and these issues make it ill-suited for immersive playing. However, it works surprisingly well as an AFK game where you are engaged in another task while it runs in the background, with a minimum of your time investment, and in this regard, it can be very enjoyable. If this sounds fun, get it by all means, but do not expect either immersion, vivid imagination, or striking gameplay, for beyond the quirky intro and the alien look, there is nothing interesting happening. Try Cultures or Settlers instead, or better, try "The Nations," this game's sequel, where many of these problems have been solved.

for everyone who want to play this game. There is Launcher especially for this game called R2p Launcher. Download the game on GOG download the Launcher have fun it is a wonderful game for everyone who likes RTS!

In Germany just "Die Völker" or "Alien Nations" for the international version is a milestone of gaming in 1999. Different nations with individual balancing each (wood, stone, both but a bit less). You can teach your people to be teachers, craft buildings or resources, hunt, farm, different kinds warriors are possible. You can extend your town, build more towns, use diplomacy (war, truce, peace). In an endless game you may find the building a bit to repetitive. The game has some technical flaws, but it still has the potential to have a lot of fun. Too sag, that the successor was not that good.