Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack

I had already discovered this game ages ago thanks to a rare Linux port by Loki and, although I'm not really into strategy games, it quickly became one of the best games I had ever played, and I have to say it still is surprisingly. It was great to find out that the Alien Crossfire expansion is included too. So if you want to get yourself a memorable masterpiece, just save a little money and put it on this game here, you won't regret it.

This game ruined me. Every 4X strategy game I play is compared to it and they all come up short. The story! The atmosphere and the factions. The gameplay! So awesome! So cool! So..... Why, why why did I ever play this?

Whatever you say that's good about this game, I agree. Whatever you say that's bad about this game, I disagree!! One of the best games ever made, I know i`ve played and reviewed quite a few. Absolute classic, buy it and enjoy the way games should be made without having to rely on too much glitz.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is often compared with the games in the main Civilization series, and is (in my experience) usually rated higher, and for good reason. There's an engaging story, and each faction is truly unique and each has its own play style and path to victory, unlike the superficial or absent differerences between the nations of civilization games: Gaians and Cultists thrive off of massing mind worms to overrun their enemies or holding out for the late game where they can win by transcendence. The University benefits from huge technological output which can give them the edge at significant turning points, such as the dawn of air combat. The Believers have stangant technological development, instead relying on the strength of their probe teams to steal the technology of their rivals. The combination of two different types of combat (normal attack and psi attack) makes combat deeper than in most other games - the most powerful weapons and armour are useless if their wielders don't have the psychological strength and experience to withstand hypnotic mind worms, and a demon boil of mind worms can be easily overcome by a moderately experienced scout with empath song. Unlike in the Civ games, expansion is limited by inhospitable, fungus-covered terrain. In my opinion this gives a much more realistic and engaging challenge than fiddling with numbers representing happiness, upkeep and corruption. The game is not without its flaws - the unit design workshop is a nice idea, and the combination of weapons, armour and abilities is an important part of the game, but it does become tedious when it comes to replacing the weapons, armour and reactor of almost every unit every time you get a new military technology, and there are occasional bugs and glitches with certain units not upgrading or being declared obsolete. The combat works well, but often gives too large an advantage to attacking units, as attack stats are generally much higher than defense stats.

sid meiers master piece. if your into sf and strategy a must buy better then the newer space based civ games ;)