Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack

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.

This is an insta buy. This game is one of those classics that never got the lime light, like most of it counter parts like Sid Meier's Civilizations. But, I cherish this one as the one that perfected the old 4x Genre!!!

The best thing Sid Meier's ever created. One of the greatest turn based strategy games together with x-com, master of orion 1, age of empires, Civ 2 and master of magic. Besides having great mechanics and interesting strategy options this game has one of the best flavors in the genre. The game reveals itself as you play it and it feels like you're reading a science fiction novel. It plays a lot like Civ 2, but with many improvements to game balance and the AI. A lot of innovations (like social engineering) were used here and carried on to other civ games. The game is immersive, the story is great, and the game play can keep you playing for months on end just to experiment with different strategies. This should be the direction the Civ franchise took, instead of going all COD and making it so mainstream that it had no flavor anymore. A must play for any strategy fan.

When I want to play a Civ game, I play either this or Civ 4. Given that this came out 13 years ago or so, that's saying something. I'll assume that you've played Civ's before if your considering buying this game and answer the primary question - what does this game have that others don't? Character and Story. The setting, factions and leaders have their own individual traits. There's an actual story as well that progresses as you discover more about Planet. Plus, the way the factions interact and how they operate starts similarly, but can go to weird places. By the end of the game, there's a high degree of transumanism and possibly horror, depending on your lifestyle and tech choices. The wonders also bear special mention - this game got them down better than any Civ before or since. Each one is very useful, and has its own read quote and little movie attached. Together, this, the story snippets and the quotes with each tech paint a wonderful picture of what each faction stands for and the story that is being told. Since you also have a lot of personal options for your civ, there tends to be a lot more impact within the game as well. Trust me, if you decide to nuke someone in this game, you'll know. The victory screens are a heck of a lot better then any Civ game since, with a much more personalized ending. In short, I wish Firaxis or someone else would do something like this again - not the exact same game, but simply apply good storytelling techniques to a 4X style game that gave players a high degree of freedom as to what kind of society they were going to create.

I still play this after all these years as no one has ever made a better civ game. Haven't checked, but if you don't have Crossfire on GoG you should totally add that too.