Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

The Good
The most important thing for a game is that it should be enjoyable to play, and SMAC manages this perfectly. Completing that monolithic project that took 100 turns to complete feels satisfying, as does negotiating with the other seven factions... or crushing them. The brilliant thing about SMAC is that - unlike most other games - you can tailor any unit to suit your needs and coffers. This game has every charm of the Civilisation games, only executed with much more effort.

The Bad
This is not a game for those who have not played TBSs (Turn Based Strategies) before. The interface at first looks daunting, so sitting through the five-minute guide to the various screen is recommended. After this, though, it's a breeze. The graphics are acceptable, but by todays standards they are not brilliant, but then, that's not what TBSs are about. The music can get repetetive after a while, but this is only a minor problem.

The Bottom Line
If you're a diehard TBS fan looking for something new and challenging to try, this is the game for you. Sid Meier has cracked his brilliant formula again, and this results in one of the best TBSs around. Enjoy, and don't hang around in Xenofungus for long...

The Good
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) is one title that had not failed to disappoint. It is just as enjoyable as the "official" Civ series, and more. The interface, although not much changed from the Civ games, has been touched up to perfection. Game play is intuitive. That fact is highly impressive. The early levels provide in-depth explanations on almost every aspect of the game, which makes flattens the learning curve. Help is even more comprehensive than Civ II. Battles are also well balanced. The units in SMAC can be customized extensively, because each unit is a combination of components. This makes the creation of good defensive units or special offensive units a new possibility. It always feels good to create a customized AA unit just as the needlejets come in and get crushed by anti-aircraft defense. The game plotline is amazingly superb. When a character that contolled one of my units was killed by a unit of a foreign base, the game renamed the base in her honour when I captured it (yeah, characters, although in reality one never notices them). The Secret Project (Wonder) movies are great, ranging from the hilarious (Network Backbone is a great joke on Microsoft) to the beautiful (Telepathic Matrix is a great one to watch) to the macabre (Neural Amplifer and Dream Twister freaky guy). Although some of these items seem to be extraneous, they do not take away from the great play. This is definitely one of those stay-up-all-night games!

The Bad
SMAC is great, but it isn't perfect. The graphics are much more drabby and dark than Civ II. As one review put it, one seems to be fighting over a blob of "plum pudding". Units are hard to distinguish, although this is not totally the fault of Firaxis, as extensive unit customization means that it is inevitable that some units look similar in order for components to fit a wide range of units. Nevertheless, sending an infantry unit to take out a base just to find that it's an artillery unit and won't kill anyone really sucks! Finally, if you're looking for innovations, there really aren't that much in this game. Almost everything has a counterpart in Civ II.

The Bottom Line
This is a great game to have. It's definitely addicting because it's such an in-depth game to play, and if you get bored, there are plenty of online mulitplayer resources out there. I find the all-night SMAC sessions better than the Civ II session, if only for the plot. =)

The Good
Pretty much everything. Specifically, the AI and the ability to customize units are a big plus when compared to other games like Civ/Civ II. Also there are some new unit management features which help prevent the end game from being a huge micro management nightmare. The combat system and Diplomacy options have been refined since Civ.

The Bad
While I liked the new 3D graphics, it's sometimes hard to tell where your pieces are located. The game is great, but it's basically Civ II with some added features and refinements (I haven't tried out the multi-player support).

The Bottom Line
A fun game that has the same adictive qaulities as most Sid Meier / Brian Reynolds games. You start out on an empty planet with six other factions. World domination is your goal. You build your empire city by city, and advance your technologies discovery by discovery. As you improve, you will be able to create bigger and better city improvements and more powerfull combat units. If you do the right things, you will be victorious.