But it's not compatible with Windows 8.1. And in turn it does not work in Windows 8.1.
My biggest pet peeve with Alien Nations was that you had to micromanage every single worker constantly to get anything done. This is fixed in this game as you can't control anyone directly. Which is annoying in that it's too much in the other direction. In that sense it's more like SimCity. The pacing is still ridiculously slow. And on top of that the third stage in the game is entirely unforgiving. If you upgrade to the third age without the capital and resources to build the right kind of economy quickly, forget about it. I'd give it more stars because the difficulty level is so high which I actually like, but unfortunately, you're never really given the tools or training to succeed and because of that I think many new players will quit. Unlike most management games it doesn't really seem to have a cause and effect relationship that can be related in any meaningful way to charts or statistics screens. It basically boils down to: If you don't make enough soap quickly enough upon upgrading to the second age, your entire population will turn into criminals and rob your palace. That being said...if you're willing to fight the odds and deal with the harsh and unforgiving game play style and beat your head against the wall for a few missions until you actually understand what's going on...well, you're realize like I did that you could have been playing any other management game ever. Then you'd write this review. Then you'd go play any other management game ever.
I spent quite a few hours with this game hoping it would get better before I went to review it, but it just seemed to get worse. I love city building games but this one has to much micromanagement. You have to constantly select every gatherer and tell them to go to the next berry bush and when you have a late-game city and you're trying to wage war or build a more advanced economy with multiple cities as well as start trade relations with other nations...it makes it almost impossible to focus. Add to that a disorienting mini-map situation and no way to automatically select those idle workers who need to be pointed at the next bush...and you're in for some lack of fun in the sun. The game is also painfully slow in the beginning. So much so that you find yourself doing other things around the house while you wait. Once you get a lot of workers you'll be sweating just trying to keep them on simple tasks (like gathering berries). The other thing I've found and I've seen many other posts about this on the internet as your city grows there isn't a way to start mass producing food...and famine becomes a very real problem that there's no solution that I've found for. You have to build tons of mushroom farms and constantly revisit those cities and tell them to convert the mushrooms to food because they won't do it automatically. It also crashes randomly on my PC. There's nothing really wrong with it, it's just...not very fun at the level it was designed at.
I beat the "good guys" campaign awhile back. I don't remember the story. Or the strategy elements. Or anything other than the goofy voice acting and Warcraft 3-like graphics. I didn't feel any impetus to play as the "bad guys." The RPG elements are almost not noticeable. Not a bad game. I guess that about sums it up.
