Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

The Good
The game starts where Civilization II stopped, a spaceship speeding to Alpha Centuri. In the game it is a UN mission not the winning nation. There is a rebellion on board and the ship splits into 7 factions: Green, UN, Capitalist, Militaristic, Religious, Collective … Each one can found a colonies, build military units, research technology, make money, trade technology with others, and explore the map (and find pods seeded by the mother ship with goodies inside).

I liked the boarders which stop allies building near you and enemies crossing your borders with out making war. Also the fact that one power becomes strong making the game more difficult, and the fact you can ask an ally to concentrate an attack on a specific colony. In this game colonies actually fall unlike Civilization II. Weak nations seek alliance instead of being hostile. The food box reduces if you build child care, hospital etc… This is good, Civ II really missed out on Medical advances speeding population growth. All these features would have made Civilization II much better.

Others features include nerve stapling, alien monoliths and psychic attacks by native live forms. There are many government types and you can pick or choose features of each.

The Bad
The future technology, wonders and units don’t do much for me, they are difficult to understand and put me off the game. The terrain is also strange and off putting.

The Bottom Line
Some good points but no match to Civilization II.