Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri™ Planetary Pack

Obviously the graphics are dated on this one since it came it at the turn of the century. But the gameplay is impeccable. It isn't just a continuation or improvement on Civ. It's a complete overhaul. The added dimensions to diplomacy, terraforming, customized unit creation, and the complication given to the player by the addition of the native life problem add richness and depth that make higher difficulties not something that's merely described as "tougher enemies" but more challenging internal (and planet) problems that cannot be ignored. But the reason why this game goes above and beyond is the story element. The faction profiles and introduction of the lore via gameplay elements (secret project, technologies and bases) pre-Dark Souls era interwine a story riddled with philosophy and questionable ethics. Repeal the UN charter on atrocities and start sending nuclear missiles against your enemies, gassing their cities, and "nerve stapling" your disobedient cities all the while operating under a police state building cloning factories and "punishment spheres." Or perhaps run a liberal democracy and green policies, planting trees, and "become one" with the planet. The option is yours.

Thank you GOG!!! I have been waiting for the return of this game for several years now and here it finally is. The game itself is one of those "just one more turn"-tormenters that keep you awake a whole night just trying to finally kill of that pesky neighbor that taunts you with irritating ideological lectures. As a strategy-game this one is really detailed in that you can design your own units, play with settling your cities on various heights (almost unheard of in the civ-genre) and much much more. I really hope GOG gets Alien Crossfire as well since its a good expansion to the original game.

Thanks in no small part to the writers and the voice actors. Is its strategy better than that of Civilization 4, 5, or 6? Not necessarily. But the premise of the game is both more desperate and more hopeful than the cheerily generic Civilization backdrops. Go watch the intro on YouTube and see. Every wonder has a short cutscene. Every tech and base facility has a voiced quote. These hail from a time when people were more hardy and adventurous in their mental constitution. Here is one of my favorite quotes, for the Unified Field Theory tech: "Beware, you who seek first and final principles, for you are trampling the graden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem." -Sister Miriam Godwinson, "But for the Grace of God" I was headed to engineering school when I first heard this, and it made me smile.

If you have played any of the Civilizations series games SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI (SMAC) will appear very familiar to you. Think of it as Civ with a future/science focus. The summary of this game, in the near future factions will be separated by philosophical ideologies and belief systems for what is the “right direction for humanity to pursue and survive”. It’s unfortunate that the expansion pack is not included as it really fills out the game completely. Good example of this, is you can choose which factions will show up and you get a much greater variety. Still the core game is quite good and offers a ton of replay. Once you pick a faction that interests you or offers the type of game style you want to play, you hit planet fall on a randomized unexplored map and away you go! The planet generator is quite good and it will keep the game fresh each time you play. Technology is the usual prime pursuit as it has cascading improvement effects on your society, economics, military etc. I really love the audio diaries by each faction leader as it represents their thoughts, ideals, and musings as game events move along. The eventual goal/win scenario: military (wipe all opposition out), social (get everyone to agree with you) or scientific (human transcendence). As you play though the game, technology is researched and unlocked. Usually it’s a race of which faction gets their project completed first. Spies can be sent to steal technology, slow it down or even destroy research work. You can also have counter spies by keeping them parked in your cities or even catch enemy spies along the way to a city. You can accelerate research at a cost – the longer the time frame purchased the more expensive it is. This is handy for racing to the dead line when an enemy faction is about to reach the goal before you – handy trick when your faction economics has much deeper pockets and can afford the high costs. Unit design is very modular, you can change its movement type, air, land, or sea. Weapons, defenses, make it specialized or generic. So for example you need inexpensive units that can be built quickly for city defense. Designs are saved as templates so you can modify an existing one or create a new one from scratch. Even better, you can do in the field upgrades so you do not have ancient/out dated units rolling around consuming your resources. Diplomacy is pretty solid though it can be abused by the settler squatter tactic if you open up your boarders to an allied faction. The AI has a nasty habit of parking a city off the outskirts of one of your own and its leaching resources. In an alliance it seems fine at first but later if they suddenly decide to betray you, your enemy is now immediately right within your walls yikes! If you have played the Civilization series then the diplomacy options will appear quite familiar. Military combat is pretty straight forward, the better the attack values vs their defense usually make it pretty clear who the winner will be. No worries about super stacks, each unit takes up its own square. So the combat focus leans pretty strongly towards building more powerful units that can stand well, fend off or assault locations. One unique thing with SMAC is builder units can teraform! Land not fruitful enough? Then modify it! You can set the builders – foarmers as they are called to automatic and they do a pretty good job over all. They do suffer from the spider web road systems in late game but it’s all good as having roads to any where you want to go quickly is handy. Only bad thing is it messes up the landscape and the enemy can use them as well doh! I really hope someday a developer group will make a graphical update to this title. SMAC is a wonderfully crafted title that still shines after all these years. It also has a classic board game feel about it as well. There are a very few mods out there that will improve the faction AI behavior so if you get tired of the opposition making the same mistakes example: (Santiago I am looking at you, picking fights with everyone and breaking the first rule in war – never fighting more than one front where possible). So in summary if you have enjoyed the Civilization series, are looking for a more technology centered strategy game then SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI is the way to go! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have! Happy gaming out there!

Openly, one of the best strategic games I have played. I have spent many hours playing this game and finished with almost every fraction. It has a slower pace than Civilization (in my opinion), on the other hand I consider it as a better story and very interesting environment. The possibility of making combinations of several technologies, making up own vehicles and trying to terraform the planet surface...so many exciting memories from the grammar school times. The only disturbing aspect of the game was the absence of the music - at least something would be nice. Nevertheless, this game is one of my favourites!