Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

The Good
Ok, before I go on, please know that I own and love Civilization 2 and Civilization 3. Thank you.

When I first got this, i was excited. I had heard almost nothing bad about it, it had received PC Gamer's highest rating ever, and everyone said this was awesome. At first, I thought they were right. The graphics are improved from the original Civilization 2, and the interface seemed pretty much the same. Also, the Wonder Movies, like Civilization 2, were awesome.

The Bad
Then I began playing and realized how "un-fun" this was. I had no idea what any of the improvements or techs were. Should I research Polyphormic Encryption or Synthetic Phase Theory? Gee, the answer is obvious, isn't it? Polyphormic Encryption leads to Quantum flux which lets me modulate my phase variance, whereas Synthetic Phase Theory only allows me too create droids with upgraded logic data processors. Got all that? I didn't. You either know the techs and understand what they are, or you just bumble along, having no clue or clear direction about what you are researching except that "this tech is in the war field, and this other one is in the social field." The ability to create your own units sounds terrific, but proves to be a waste of effort. All the units that are worth any effort are already automatically made by the computer. Speaking of units, unlike in civ 2 where old, useless, antiquated units are replaced by more advanced units in the build menu, in this game, they aren't. So you either have too constantly clear out the old units, or leave them there and scroll through them all.

The Bottom Line
Basically, what you have here is Civilization 2 with poorer controls and much less accessibility. It's just too hard to get into. Civilization II on the other hand, is easy to sit down and play. You'll have to look at the manual every so often, but you can understand the basic concepts of the game such as what "archery" does.