This is an ARPG with a 4X game going on in the background. What a beautiful concept. You play the captain of a single ship, and your job is not to conquer the galaxy, but rather pick the winners and losers in each and every sector. It's your job to ensure the guild of Drox Operatives continues to rule the galaxy from behind the scenes. And you mostly do that by blowing things up, finding loot, and leveling up. If you'll excuse the tangent, in Path of Exile, for instance, you go through the same story with every character just to level up enough to get to the endgame content. In this game, the story can change wildly. In a Small sector with 12 races, the diplomacy screen made my head spin, but it eventually settled into two alliances battling for control of the sector. At other times, it can be complete chaos - all out war, or just moving that last piece into place for a diplomatic victory. It's all great stuff. Well, not _all_ great stuff. There are some minor complaints. Your inventory can fill up fairly quickly, and while being able to sort it helps, you're still going to lose track of things if you're not careful. The early game can be a real drag just trying to find everyone, so I tend to stick to smaller sectors to keep the pace up. I get the feeling that playing on large sectors will just lead to long slogs where you need to exterminate dozens of planets. I'm also not a fan of how some builds just aren't possible out of the gate - You need to do some grinding, I think, before you can make a ship that gets through life by ramming into it head-on. These are all minor complaints, though. The game is just as good, if not better, than it was a decade ago and I am happy to continue to support this developer.
This is probably the game I have spent the most time playing, ever. No idea exactly how long because I don't want to use Steam. Even if you don't know anything about orbital mechanics, you can have fun with this game by simply crashing into things. If you know the basics of orbital flight, you can start planning missions, and see a lot of what the game has to offer without leaving Kerbin or its two moons. If you're already working at Mission Control in Houston, or are an aerospace engineer, you'll feel right at home immediately. This game has something for everyone, and its part of what kept me coming back. Not only that, but this game is super educational and inspiring. I've started watching rocket launches and watching the ISS pass over my house now, mainly because of this game. I cannot recommend Kerbal Space Program enough. If you've ever dreamed of being a rocket scientist or astronaut, put your dreams to to the test with this game. It's fantastic.
This game lacks the variety necessary to keep it going. No dungeons (well, technically the "secret wormholes" count as dungeons in the game code) and no really fancy stuff to keep your interest. What this game has going for it is that it will run on basically any hardware you have, so long as it runs Windows, Mac, or Linux. You got a toaster that runs Linux? This game will probably run on that. The diplomacy is very basic, and I have to say that I only ever play on Medium maps at the largest, because anything bigger is just a grindfest. The worst grind is when you are at war with a race of aliens. It gets old after destroying the second or third planet. I'm sorry.
Hear me out here. Introversion is a great developer, but I feel that they really dropped the ball on this one. The idea was to make a multiplayer version of Darwinia, but Darwinia is, to me, a peaceful game. Something that can't be rushed. Multiplayer adds too much pressure to the experience for me. It doesn't help that the UI is... problematic. It works, but only so much. Finally, and this is the biggest issue. The game servers are all dead. Nobody plays this game anymore, and that's a pretty hard sell for a multiplayer title.
This game is what brought Introversion into the big leagues in terms of gaming. This brilliantly designed game went way over-schedule and way over-budget, but it was worth the wait, because it is very, very good and very, very original. The digital theme park of Darwinia is under attack and at risk of being destroyed by a virus made manifest. Your job is not simply to destroy the virus, but rather enable the Darwinians themselves to fight back. You slowly transition in this game from doing things yourself with squaddies and engineers to letting the Darwinians lead the charge with officers and Armor/Turrets. The UI and level design encourages you (for the most part) to take your time and be careful in your choices. Only rarely does the game pressure you for time. It is an amazing, liberating experience. BUY. THIS. GAME.
If you've ever wanted a simulation of what Hollywood thinks hacking is like, this is the game for you. The ONLY game of it's kind I have heard of, Uplink is a brilliant game. You are the Uplink Corporation's newest employee. Your job is to use your leet hax to do... a lot of stuff, actually. You start off with basic, low-risk file theft and/or sabotage, but move up quickly to things like tracing other hackers, committing fraud, and, if you want to, DESTROYING THE FREAKING INTERNET (This obviously ends the game, though) This game is difficult, but you learn very quickly about what not to do, because if you are arrested or caught, Uplink disavows your actions and you are fired, ending the game and rendering the save file useless. (It displays a status screen when you try to play that character again) Of course, you don't have to do those missions to get ahead. If you're clever, you can get the best computers within a few hours of starting the game by robbing wealthy individuals. (The game will recognize your skills by leveling you up significantly if you do this.) You can even change the main storyline significantly if you kill or arrest the person responsible for starting it before he does so. To sum up, yes this game is worth your time and money.
What was a Mac owner to do in the '90s? You couldn't get much better than this. (Aspyr ported SMAC to the Mac, and yes I managed to find Alien Crossfire for the mac as well) Back to the game itself. Let me just sum it up here: THIS GAME IS CRACK! WHY CAN'T I STOP!?! I'll tell you why. It's good. Not just good, but VERY good. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) came out between Civ 2 and 3, and it deviates from standard Civilization fare quite a bit. You can do some social engineering "ying-yang" style options for your people. You have the ability to build cities (called Bases in this game) on water, and my absolute favorite feature is the Unit Workshop. In Civilization games, you unlock different unit types. In SMAC, you unlock components for various units. Weapons, armor, chassis, equipment, etc. You can then mix and match these components in any way you desire. Do you want a rover with a powerful weapon, but don't have the time to produce armor for it? Can do! A specilized mind worm exterminator? Absolutely. AA tank? Yep! Do you want to put a colony pod on a freaking plane?! No, you don't BUT YOU CAN! The live-action movies for Secret Projects (Wonders in Civ) are fantastic as well, as are the quotes for all of the buildings and technology you get. For only $6, this is a freaking steal. Get it.
