System Requirements:

• Windows 95/98
• Pentium 133
• 16megs RAM
• CD-ROM Drive

Reviewers System:

• AMD K6 3d NOW, 300 MHz
• 128 MB RAM
• Windows 95
• 24x cd-rom
• Matrox Millenium II PCI

Overview:

Legendary game designer Sid Meier presents the next evolution in strategy games, with the most addictive, compelling gameplay yet. Explore the alien planet that is your new home and uncover its myriad mysteries. Discover over 75 extraordinary technologies. Build over 60 base upgrades and large scales secret projects for your empire. Conquer your enemies with a war machine that you design from over 32,000 possible unit types.

Analysis:

If you are a fan of Civilization I or II, you’ll see a lot of resemblance in Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (SMAC). SMAC has the same style of city building, resource management, and VERY addictive gameplay. If you’re new to this type of game, you’re in for a real treat. The game is very solid and well developed and will keep you entertained for hours on end. Just when you think you’ve learned all there is to know you’ll uncover something new.

Learning SMAC is a breeze with the built in tutorial system. The manual instructs you NOT to read the manual but instead, go straight to the game and play using the tutorial system. This is an excellent way to learn the basics of gameplay.

The longer you play the more you will discover. Along with a huge variety of units you can build and customize, you can develop and customize cities. Combine the excellent base building, the management of your people, the huge number of units you can command, and you have yourself a game that will entertain you endlessly. (After having played SMAC for over 30 hours in two nights, I can attest to its addictive qualities.)

SMAC offers one of three objectives. You can complete the game by conquest, diplomacy, or development. Conquest is probably the easiest method. Diplomacy is a little tricky, but with the UN peacekeeping force it can be done with relative ease.

One of the most challenging and rewarding ways to win is by development and actually learning the secret of the game. I won’t divulge just what that secret is, but trying to accomplish winning in this manner plays out almost like an adventure game. Winning the game using any method is still a personal triumph, since you’ll probably have to invest several hours into winning.

With the story progressing and the development of new technologies, you’ll enjoy building new items to help further your goal. Each time you obtain a new technology you are treated to cut scenes that range from stunningly beautiful to eerily haunting.

You can choose to complete the game using one of seven factions. The factions are as follows: Gaia’s Stepdaughters: An ecologically aware faction. They have advantages when it comes to exploration and development. The also have the empathic ability to attempt to control mind worms and Isle of the Deep alien lifeforms.

Human Hive: A collective colony. They follow a strict government that controls every aspect of their population. They have the advantage of Loyalty and they tend to develop and grow faster than the other factions. The other factions dislike the leader of this faction, so it may be a challenge for a diplomatic completion of the game when playing with the Human Hive.

Morgan Industries: A corporate faction. They have the advantage of added income through various means. They are a financially superior faction.

University of Planet: The learners. They are always in relentless pursuit of knowledge…no matter what the cost. They make technological discoveries at a faster pace than other factions.

Spartan Federation: The Militaristic faction. While militarily superior, they don’t share the same economic strengths as the other factions.

The Lord’s Believers: The religious faction. Very devote and dedicated, the Believers have an added bonus when attacking due to the strength of their convictions. They tend to make technological advances more slowly than the other races.

The Peacekeeping Forces: The UN faction. Their job is to uphold the morals of the UN charter to Planet. The Peacekeepers attract the intellectual elite into their faction. They have the advantage of diplomacy.

Using any of these factions presents various strengths and weaknesses. I completed the game with both Gaia’s Stepdaughters and the Human Hive, but I think my favorite of the factions is the University. You’ll have to concentrate on the military aspects early to ward off your knowledge greedy neighbors.

While you can micromanage many aspects of SMAC, there are also a wide selection of automation commands. From fully automating any unit to giving a governor command of a city, the automation tools will keep you from getting overwhelmed moving every unit and managing every aspect of the base.

At the same time, you have the control over everything when you need it. The bombing automation and the Automatic Terraforming are my two favorite automations.

SMAC proved to be a very solid game. The user interface could have been a little more responsive. The game should have allowed us to select any square with a single left click rather than having to press V, then select the square of the unit desired. The saving grace of the interface is allowing pop up menus to appear with the use of the right mouse button.

Once you get used to the interface you’ll be able to navigate the screens and menus with ease. My biggest complaint is the inability to draw a window around several units and give them a single order. This is a prominent feature in real time strategy games, and I think it has a legitimate place in a turn based strategy game like SMAC.

A matter of small annoyance is the dialog from the other factions. While I enjoy the communication, sometimes it just doesn’t make a lot of sense. For example, often times I have reached a point where there is no doubt about my victory over another faction. Yet instead of begging for mercy, they demand that I pay them money or they will destroy me.

At this point, I find them so stupidly annoying that I crush them, but in the last game I played I showed them mercy at the end and forced a pact of brotherhood on them. A pact of brotherhood is a useful alliance that allows you to call in favors when you need a hand. In the long run mercy pays, no matter how much you’d just rather rid the planet of that particular faction.

SMAC is also scalable. Firaxis reports that you can choose the level of installation you wish to make to optimize the game on whatever unit you wish to play. From your laptop computer to your P-133 all the way to PIIIs, you can scale for the system you run. All options ON is best reserved for high end systems.

Multiplayer functionality is good. You can play over the LAN, Serial, Modem over the Internet and by e-mail with a friend. Firaxis has also developed a multiplayer match up room. I didn’t have a chance to check it out by press time, but it’s certainly worth looking at.

Overall, if you like turned based strategy games, you’ll find hours upon hours of enjoyment from SMAC. If you prefer the fast pace and quick games of a Real Time Strategy game, you may find yourself getting impatient in the middle of the game as the AI moves all the other pieces. This can range from 1-3 minutes typically.

Even holding the shift key down to speed up AI movements, you’ll have a good wait between round. I wish there was a “AI always moves fast” so I would not have been required to hold down the SHIFT key to speed up AI movement. Regardless, I think any game that can hold my interest for 20.5 hours straight is a winner in my book. I’m sure you’ll find SMAC just as addicting, but hopefully you won’t forgo as much sleep as I did while playing!

Reviewers note: I was a little hesitant to review SMAC because I didn’t think it would compate to Civilization I. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed SMAC. It is not often that I can spend 20.5 hours on any game, or just about anything, yet with SMAC I pulled a 20 hour marathon with only a break to go grab some Mc D’s. WARNING: heavy addiction factor. The game is difficult to put down.

My rating: 92%.