Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack

The core "one more turn" addiction loop of Civ games is as strong as ever here. The thing that brings me back to this one over the others is the story and aesthetic. Simply put this game oozes personality. There's this dark weird vibe to the whole thing that you can feel right from the menu screen. I continue to be amazed at how much story this game manages to weave throughout itself. The Faction Leaders are a prime example of this. Usually in strategy games, leaders aren't much more than stats and gameplay bonuses. But in Alpha Centauri, they are actual characters with quirks, beliefs, and motivations. On top of that alot of intriguing sci-fi ideas and concepts that build a truly immersive world. No other Civ game has 'wormed' its way into my brain like this game.

I played this a lot when I was much, much younger, and for its time it was a pretty solid strategy game, and pretty memorable. It's similar to Civilization II in playstyle, with some enhancements. What it does really well: the setting. Even with the dated graphics, the cold, alien nature of the planet really shines through. The game is interspersed with narrated quotes from the various faction leaders, minor story characters, and famous philosophers, which paint a vivid picture of the environment of this distant world, the motivations of the factions, and the psychological stress of colonisation. Even the default names of the settlements you found, while rather cheeky, give each faction its own personality. This is the part of the game that really shines, even today. What it does not do well: The gameplay tends to be rather tedious. The game encourages you to expand relentlessly, building as many new bases as you can, and they all need to be given direction on what to build. Unlike Civ, where you would eventually run out of land, you can build on the water in this game. By the middle of the game, the beginning of every turn is a voice saying "drone riots" repeatedly for every single base you need to manage happiness in, and then managing 30+ production queues. You'll be managing a large number of terraformers to develop the land around all those cities. You can customise units, which seems really cool, until you realise the majority of potential units you can create are so expensive that they're not worth it, and you spend a lot of the mid-to-late game trying to find the best ways to clear your 63 unit design slots. All of the aforementioned can be automated, but the AI in this game is as dumb as a box of rocks in the choices it makes, so you need to do everything yourself to win on higher difficulties. Overall: the game is innovative and interesting, but maybe it should be called Sid Meier's Micromanagement Hell.

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.