Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack

This has to go down as the 4X game I spent most of my child-hood playing, and was also the first Sid Meier game I played (though, in fairness, Bryan Reynolds is responsible for much of what makes this game work). The hard sci-fi setting is fantastic, drawing inspiration from Frank Herbert's Pandora Sequence among others. Each of the factions and leaders oozes personality that's sorely lacking in Civilization: Beyond Earth, a more recent foray into spaceby the series. Exploring Planet and uncovering tis mysteries while shaping the direction your society grows is a wonder to behold. The only critique I'd level would be towards the unit creator, which can quickly feel overwhelming if you're first trying out this game. While not as deep as many of the Paradox grand strategy titles, this is a perfect sci-fi 4X gem that deserves to be available here.

19 years after release smac is still unsurpassed. The ai isn't quite up to some of its successors, but the flexibility of paths to victory, superb combat system and flawless immersive theme remain the pinnacle of 4x gaming. Each of the factions in the game has its own colorful well realized personality and the quotes with each new technology are masterfully chosen, written, and voiced. Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?

This was one game that still has me coming back. The attempt to remake this game was horrible,( beyond earth), This game was/is outstanding fun, I miss games like this, even to this day I would call this game a triple a title, never had the expansion to this game until now and was introduced to a whole new experience. This game is worth the purchase.

I was a huge fan of all the Sid Meier games, back in the day and Alpha was one of the best. Just finished my first play through and I am happy to say that Alpha Centauri is just as good as it was back then.

I've been able to play this game on Windows 10 without too much difficulty. However, I don't see why more effort couldn't be put into modernising it. This is a pretty decent 4X game, especially considering it's over 20 years old. The AI opponents are a little bit predictable once you've played a few times, but the challenge I enjoy is building up my bases and taming the land. Speaking of the land, if you thought barbarians were scary, this game takes it to a whole new level, with the planet itself out to get you for all the ecological damage you've done since landing. Oops. Don't like the standard game rules? No problem, you can customise them to your tastes. If you're not afraid of doing a little modding, you can even create your own custom scenario with a set of rules that you like playing with. The usual old problems still exist. Mass upgrading your forces is a bit fiddly, thankfully though when the game pings you to the far right end of the design list, you can just hold down the left arrow key for a bit to go back to where you were. Also, the game likes to create lots of different unit designs for you by default, you may want to turn that feature off and just design your own. You can randomise the planet map and even the faction leader personalities, which gives it a fair bit of replayability and maybe even an extra challenge if you decide to make native life forms abundant. Overall, still worth looking at. May hold your attention for a while. But the visuals haven't aged well.