As man traverses into the realm of space, the epitomey of man's faults is fully revealed as the leaders of several colonies wage an endless war for resources. Alpha Centauri is not just a strategy game, but an actual study of mankind's true philosophical and ideological depth. The game begins with the Unity's disasterous voyage to Chiron or "Planet." Several of the U.N. leaders are split into colonies that begin terraforming parts of "Planet" and creating empires from scratch. The game is very fast-paced as, contrary to the Civilization series, the attacker usually has the upper-hand. You have to build, research, and terraform faster than your opponent. Other than the combat, the best thing about this game is the voice acting. The creators of the game hired top-notch actors with incredible voices. One major con of the game is the huge learning curve. I would recommend just playing the game and getting adjusted to everything instead of trying to memorize everything. Other than that, this game is beyond excellent, and it ranks as one, if not the greatest, strategy game of all time.
One of the greatest realtime strategy games I've ever played. The game plays in one of two ways: a peaceful building sim and a warring strategy campaign. It has an easy interface that doesn't get too cumbersome. You can alter taxes and society to make your soldiers either stronger or weaker. The game doesn't have a large learning curve, and the battles are almost limitless as you can play large maps with several A.I. players. Even enemies and allies have their own personalities. On top of all the pros, this game has an absolutely amazing atmosphere and soundtrack.
Okay, the game's atmosphere and mood is phenomenal, but everything else is borderline average. The voice acting is badly done and some of the puzzles are literally forced. Another bad point about the game is that it feels unfinished. They could've done so much more with the CSI tools they had the protagonist use in the beginning, but the beginning is pretty much the only place you get to use cool gadgets like blacks lights and blood detectors. As an adventure game, I have to take away several stars for the story alone. Some of the situations seem as though they were just forced without a thought as to how it would fit the whole storyline. I wish I could say the exact part that just made me cringe, but it is a spoiler. The story ends in a cliff-hanger that leaves you feeling more cheated than satisfied.
