Alien Nations

Summary: this game can crash abruptly at any time and also upon loading a save game and completing the mission, rendering the save game / effort completely useless. That is on the top of my mind when playing this game more than anything else: that it will crash. Aside from crash bugs, Amazon missions 4, 8 and 9 are if not completely broken extremely badly designed with extreme difficulty. This game looks like Settlers II and plays like a slightly less tedious Settlers III, e.g. no need for road planning and the military aspect is super simple: buy a soldier and you'll have one. The visuals are clearly inspired by Settlers II. The music is awful. Fortunately, the GOG version does not play the worst tracks, though the menu music is ear-raping cello fest that does not obey the volume settings! It even restarts every time you visit the menu (which you need to do to load a saved game). This game is much faster than Settlers, though it does not have any new content to add to the formula. The laziness of this publication is demonstrated by how similar its German name is to Settlers': Die Völker vs. Die Siedler. Despite the claims that the different races play differently, one insignificant trade commodity is the only difference between them. Bluntly put, the races are identical and play the same. When the game does not crash, it is an average experience at best. The missions are mercifully short except for the couple bungled ones. In longer sessions, it is painful. I am never going to touch this game again. In comparison to Settlers II, it is just a much faster form of pain. Definitely not recommended. P.S. The Amazon ending shows a topless Amazon lady. That came out of left field for me.

love the game from my childhood <3

This game in itself is really fun, had it as a kid and was really looking forward to try it when I saw it here. Unfortunately the version acquired suffers from game-breaking issues, crashing without remedy in mid game, when civilizations expand. It's probably a matter of compatibility with newer systems. I found some messages in the forum addressing the issue, but no answers. Be advised.

It's a really great game, hours and days of fun. Build your cities economically and military.

This is one of the first PC games I've ever played. An absolute nostalgic trip back to the past. The game itself runs flawlessly on my PC with no issues whatsoever. The story is very simplistic, the gameplay is fun, and the sprites look nice. It's not on the level of complexity of Starcraft, but for casual play, I highly recommend it. The only complaint I have is regarding the rather poor unit pathing.