Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack

There's a reason that science fiction 4X games always get compared to SMAC and Master or Orion. While Master of Orion takes a "colonize the galaxy" approach, SMAC sticks to the tried-and-true Civilization format. In SMAC, you'll terraform the landscape, mine the planet's moons, and launch orbital death rays, but everything takes place on a single planet. The crazy thing about SMAC is how much control you have over everything. Don't like your starting continent? You can create rivers and change the local rainfall patterns by raising up mountains, giving you ample farmlands. Annoyed that someone else settled that great spot? Divert the river and steal all the moisture, leaving it a dry wasteland. Units are equally as configurable. Make an armored scout, or drop your tanks deep in enemy territory using orbital insertion. The sad thing is that a lot of these features come across as almost like an exploit because the computer-controlled players don't know how to use them. Still, it's amazingly fun to progress through the tech tree and unlock these gamebreaking technologies. You can also turn on blind research, which semi-randomizes your research and keeps things fresh. The writing is probably what most people will remember about SMAC, though. A 4X game with a plot? Yes, it's possible! Each of the leaders has their own agenda, and this agenda memorably plays out through the various cut scenes and technological advances. It's easy enough to ignore if you prefer, but once you read what you're actually doing to the rioters when you click a button to immediately quell a riot, you may feel icky enough that you let it play out next time. It's rare that a game is written well enough to do this.

To me, it's one of the best Civ games, but before getting to the game advantages, its drawbacks need acknowledgment: 1. There is no panel for terraforming options and unit abilities, so you have to rely on hotkeys or a menu to select actions besides simple moving. Some options, like designating the top defender, can be done only by a hotkey. 2. No music - the game has great ambient sounds, but mostly it lacks compositions, which may be alienating. 3. Personally I don't mind the rather moody palette, but it definitely could be more discernible - you'll need some time to learn reading terrain from the first glance. 4. Incomplete in-game help ("Datalinks") - for example, there is no mention of the tile yield restriction and which technologies lift it, or that some techs provide a freebie discovery. You'll need 3rd party sources for this. What makes it greatly worthwhile: 1. Great diplomacy. You can trade with AI, exchange maps, conclude alliances, take or give out loans (with interest!), coordinate battle plans, etc; your pact ally may even gift you free units for defense purposes. Planetary Council votes are also important even if you don't intend to go for a diplomatic victory. 2. Actual flexibility in development - you can be eco-friendly, strictly industrial, or drown the terrain and get your resources from the orbital stations, or combine these approaches (kinda like cottage vs great people economy in Civ4). 3. Unit design allows for a lot of options and checks and balances - aviation is countered by anti-air units, technologically superior conventional units may be easily killed by native wildlife which is countered by high morale and/or or psi-combat defenses, etc. 4. Competent AI. Of course, there is always exploitative strategies, but AI handles complex game mechanics pretty well. 5. Great lore and fluff - secret projects videos, tech/building quotes, Book of the Planet interludes - all contribute to a very immersive atmosphere. Great voiceover work too.

I spot this game more than 10 years ago I didn't saw anything as good, as Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Very interesting setting, mechanics, balance and a lot of replayability. Despite pretty simple grafics it is entertaining and bring a lot of joy and chalenges.

I'm not really a Sid Meier fan boy, and I really didn't care for the Civilization franchise, but Alpha Centauri is hands down the greatest written game ever (11 out of 10). The game play is solid and entertaining (8 out of 10).

One of my all-time favourites. Truly ahead of its time and better than all turn-based strategy games I've tried over the past few years.