- Space Game.
- Technology.
- Empire Building.
- Competition.
- Survival.
Product description
-------------------
Land on an alien planet and create your own empire with
advancing technologies. Basic game does not include Expansion
pack.
.com
----
Fans of earlier Sid Meier games, such as Civilization and
Railroad Tycoon, will love Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the
strategy game where players lead a colony expedition on a new
planet. This game employs the same rules and concepts as
Civilization, but with a new, slicker interface. Within the game,
you can now automate tasks that--in the earlier game--were
repetitive and dull. The factions also have a better mix of
leaders; three of the seven factions are headed by women.
Players begin by assuming leadership of one of seven colony
factions, establishing a base on the unexplored world. A balance
of priorities is critical: conquering territory, developing
technology, and expanding the faction's population are all
crucial factors in your survival. If a faction's output
is low, it may be vulnerable to attacks by others or by dangerous
mind worms that roam the landscape. On the other hand, building
war machines at the expense of scientific research may result in
trying to manage a massive but obsolete war machine or a
rebellious population.
This easy-to-learn and thoroughly absorbing game takes the best
features of the original classic and sets them in an exciting new
world. --Alyx Dellamonica
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Review
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Ever have one of those conversations about those magic games you
decided to boot up before dinner, just to get a look at it, and
the next thing you knew was 4 a.m. and you were still hungry?
Invariably, in such conversations, Sid Meier's Civilization is
cited as one of the worst offenders in creating "bleary-eyed next
day at work, but boy was it fun" syndrome. Well, be warned: Sid
Meier's Alpha Centauri is another one of those games that can
make hours pass like minutes, a game that makes you put a cooler
full of sandwiches and sodas next to your computer desk so you
don't have to get up all weekend.
Created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier, the team that brought
us Civilization II, Alpha Centauri is clearly the spiritual
sequel to that game. Civ II ends with you leaving behind the
conflicts of Earth to make a new life on Alpha Centauri. This
game picks up with a colony ship reaching that system, but it
turns out that moving to the stars doesn't change mankind's basic
nature. Before the colony ship lands, the crew splits up into
seven factions with different priorities for the new world. Each
decides to land on its own and try to remake the planet in its
own philosophical image.
Thus, it turns out that life on the new planet is going to be
much like the life man knew on Earth - exploring new territories,
setting up colonies, and using diplomacy and war to deal with the
other societies. To this effect, gamers will find that Alpha
Centauri's gameplay looks and feels much like Civ II's. The
perspective is similar, the command interface is virtually
identical, and there are nearly direct corollaries between some
of the historical and science fiction elements of each game.
Sure, mindworms may take the place of barbarians, and you may
create Planetary Datalinks instead of the Great Library, but
gameplay will feel instantly familiar to any Civ II player.
However, this is true in the same way that Starcraft will feel
familiar to any Warcraft II player. While Alpha Centauri
shamelessly borrows the elements that made its predecessor magic,
the game here is much richer, more sophisticated, and better
tailored to individual styles of playing than Civ II.
A big concern with moving to a science fiction realm is
accessibility. After all, even those of us burdened with a
typical American public school education are familiar with the
basics of historical civilizations and the progress of technology
throughout the centuries. But xenofungus, cyberethics, and
polymorphic encryption are new concepts to everyone. To keep from
overwhelming you or requiring you to memorize the manual
beforehand, Firaxis has created a well-done interactive tutorial
which can walk you through each interface window the first time
it pops up, and warn you if you're neglecting important game
elements. In addition, there's a well-done Datalink help system
with detailed information on all the game's controls,
technologies, and units. The help system is thorough enough that
you may not even need to crack the game's 250-page manual. You
should, though, as it includes excellent background information,
as well as a number of handy charts.
Gameplay is the familiar exploration/discovery/building/conquest
model. You'll establish cities,
explore the area around it, and build both and research
infrastructures. As in Civ II, you can build farms and roads to
make your economy more useful and productive. Be aware, though,
that this is an alien planet, and the ecosystem may not react
kindly to manipulation. In fact, the planet is in many ways
another player to compete with. Handle it properly and it can be
an ally, allowing you to tame the dangerous mindworms that roam
its surface and use them against your human enemies.
Alpha Centauri takes automation to a new height, with features
that will be welcome to gamers who don't enjoy management and to
anyone who has dozens of units and cities in the latter stages of
a game. You can put governors in charge of cities, with a
priority to explore, discover, build, or conquer. The governor
will then choose which units and improvements to produce (of
course, you can jump in at any time and alter the production
queue). Similarly, units can be put on autopilot, allowing
formers to automatically terraform, scouts to explore on their
own, and so on. Those who enjoy micromanagement can leave
everything in manual mode and manage every aspect of their
society.
The game features a very rich technology tree. While almost all
technologies are available to all players, the varying strategies
used by each faction helps keep everyone from having the
identical endgame forces. Particularly cool is the design
workshop, which lets you create custom vehicles using available
armor, weapon, power, and chassis combinations. The ability to
upgrade units (at a cost) keeps you from being saddled with
outdated forces. Further, the scenario and editors, as well
as modifiable "rule" text files, will allow you to create a wide
variety of custom scenarios.
Alpha Centauri's most impressive aspect, though, is the faction
AI. The seven factions have very different priorities - economy,
religion, peace, environment, knowledge, survivalism, and
authoritarianism. These philosophies not only come through in
each faction's play styles, but also in how they react to what
you do in the game. Warlike behavior won't endear you to the UN,
and the Believers aren't thrilled about high technology. Commit
atrocities such as nerve sting to keep your population orderly
and nobody will like you. As in real life, though, if you get
powerful enough, everyone will want to be your friend.
Winning the game can be done in a number of ways. Conquer all
the other factions (alone or with allies), win a diplomatic
victory by being elected supreme ruler, corner the global energy
market to gain economic victory, or go for the gusto and complete
the Ascent to Transcendence secret project. (From the description
of this, though, it sounds frighteningly like donning your Nikes
and going off to ride a comet.)There are few nits to pick with
the game. Some minor bugs exist, such as free armor on air
vehicles, but many were fixed with the 2.0 patch and more will be
zapped in 3.0. Diplomacy can be annoying at times - you may
wonder how Sister Miriam can suddenly break your alliance and
join with Colonel Santiago to attack you, when just 30 turns back
Santiago was eating into Miriam's territory. However, such
inexplicable choices do occasionally happen in real life, and
overall diplomacy is better handled here than in any prior
strategy game.
Alpha Centauri's multiplayer support is well done, with
simultaneous movement that keeps you from having to sit around
while other players make their moves. Particularly nice is
built-in voice chat, very handy for gloating to enemies when you
take one of their cities. Of course, turn-based strategy games
require a fair time commitment, and getting players together for
multiplayer sessions can be difficult. Firaxis has a free
matchmaking service at www.alphahq.net. The first patch added
play-by-email support, so when a game runs long you can save it
at the end of a turn and continue it via email at your leisure,
and then pick it up again "live" later.
Although it may feel a lot like Civ II on the surface, Alpha
Centauri is a much more refined game. As has been the case more
often than not, Sid Meier's name in the title signifies quality.
With its top-notch diplomacy, civilization building, and wargame
elements, Alpha Centauri is the new pinnacle of turn-based
strategy games. --Denny Atkin
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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