Sid Meier's Blastoff Centauri

snap304 Sid Meier'south Civilization rockets into space.

When Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds left MicroProse to form Firaxis Games, strategy fans were left wondering what would become of the Civilization series. Later on all, Civilisation II was pretty widely accepted equally one of the best strategy games ever. But they didn't have to do a 3rd game with the Civilization label on it, since they were already busy creating a game that would inherit the Civ throne. That game was Sid Meier'south Alpha Centauri.

As you astronomy nerds might be aware, Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to our own, and luck has it that it'due south likewise habitable. A ship gets sent there to colonize the identify, but somewhen the coiffure brake upward into ideological factions. Y'all assume control of one of the factions with the goal of becoming the dominant forcefulness on the planet.

Meier and Reynolds perfected their model for turn-based strategy games a long time ago, and Alpha Centauri doesn’t deviate far from the formula. Essentially, you begin with a base of operations and a small number of resources; from those apprehensive beginnings you lot must develop technologies, expand your empire, and eventually conquer the world. That’s not to say that Blastoff Centauri merely Civ 2 dressed in sci-fi jargon. It's much more than advanced than that, simply also fundamentally familiar to Civ fans.

The interface volition be familiar to anyone who’s played Civ 2, but it has been streamlined and is easier to navigate. The building/enquiry fashion has been cleaved into four areas — explore, discover, build, and conquer — which helps you lot determine what each computer-controlled city governor volition research and build. Other welcome additions include borders that ascertain your territory (which prevents the roaming "musket men" that could be and so abrasive in Civ II), observation posts that permit you rail anyone in your territory, and a workshop that lets you design units.

snap297 Those welcome additions aside, the real genius behind Alpha Centauri lies in its depth. Multiple victory conditions cover the unabridged spectrum: You can achieve victory with military machine dominance, economic authorization, diplomatic means, cooperative victory, or victory through transcendence. The diplomacy model has been improved, and the other factions respond more realistically; a threatening tone is not e'er met with a armed forces attack, and y'all can bully certain factions into doing your dirty work.

Unlike the commencement version of Civ 2, Alpha Centauri does include out-of-the-box multiplayer. The interface is clean, with a straightforward chat feature and a detailed negotiation screen where y'all can exchange technologies and create treaties or pacts. The plough-based nature of the game makes it a less-than-platonic multiplayer experience, since you’ll spend a certain amount of time just waiting for the other person to complete his plough.

With refined and pretty much bug-gratuitous gameplay, Meier and Reynolds have shown again that they are the masters of turn-based strategy games. Alpha Centauri may have Culture II at its core, but information technology raises the bar to an entirely new level.

System Requirements: Pentium 166 MHz, 32 MB RAM, 60 MB HDD, Win95