Strategy Gaming Online - Reviews : Best and Worst of 1999

Subscribe to our
Free Newsletter!

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

FEATURES

Best and Worst Games of 1999

[Intro]
[Turn-based] [Wargame] [Real Time Strategy] [Expansion] [Multiplayer]
[Storyline] [Audio] [Surprising] [Disappointing] [Innovative] [Graphics]

Turn-based Game of the Year:
Alpha Centauri

Coming up with a sequel to Civilization II that would at least seem respectable in light of its progenitor's candidature on just about everyone's list for "Best Game of All Time" was no easy task. To come up with a game that would be its equal, unlikely at best. To come up with a game that, in some ways exceeds the standards set by Civ2? Impossible. At least, that's what we all were saying until the arrival of the Civ2 colony ship Unity at Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri was the product of the then-fledgling Firaxis studio. Equipped with talent the likes of Sid Meier himself, Brian Reynolds, and other very skilled and creative staff there was no doubt that Firaxis would produce at the minimum a "good game". But seemingly rising above the feral snarlings over the "Civilization" moniker, Sid and crew produced the only true sequel to Civ2. And what a sequel it was - they kept the basic turn-based gameplay, the city-building, and the technological tree structure that made Civ2 easy to grasp but hard to walk away from. They trashed almost everything else in favor of high -tech factions based on philosophical lines, customizable units, detailed terrain (and effects thereof), an energy-based economy and innumerable interface and information handling improvements to make Alpha Centauri completely immersive and simultaneously simple to play. Alpha Centauri - starting from Civ2 and taking a giant leap forward when other genre games are struggling to simply catch up - is clearly our "Turn Based Strategy Game of 1999"

Read the review.

Runner-ups:
Heroes of Might and Magic III and Jagged Alliance 2