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REVIEWS

I’m sorry. That’s right, I’m apologizing up front. There are many people who will find Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (SMAC) to be the next masterpiece from the now legendary founder of Firaxis Games. I am just not one of them. Before you condemn me for blasphemy, let me tell you why.

For those of you who have never heard of Sid Meier or of his stable of high quality games, let me clue you in. They include some of the most addictive, turn-based, empire building games ever created that have a high replay value. His crowning achievement thus far had been Sid Meier's Civilization II. In that game, you were to take a tribe of savages from the stone-age to the space age. They’re were two ways to win the game. The first was by totally annihilating your opponents. The second and most rewarding was to be the first to send a manned spacecraft to the distant star system of Alpha Centauri.

SMAC, a true sequel to Civilization II, picks up where that game ends. The spacecraft experiences a malfunction, awakening the population within. In the ensuing chaos, they become divided into seven distinct ideologies. They decide to separate the ship before impact with the planet so that they may attempt to live apart with their differences.

So there you are. Your ship has (crash) landed. Your people have used what materials there was to build your first city. From here, the gameplay is similar to Civ. You construct units to fend off your base from roving barbarians…uh, I mean mindworms. You create settlers, no I mean Colony Pods to explore and set up new cities. You have your scientist’s research new technologies to advance your civilization along. Eventually you bump into the other factions. You may wage war of course, or seek out a more peaceful means of dealing with them.

But as you can tell, you’re really not doing anything different here than if you were playing Civ. And how is that a drawback? Because no matter how much you slept through school, in Civ you instantly recognize and understand the world. You know the technologies and which are vital. You are familiar with the units, monuments and buildings, which helps suck you into the game world, as if you truly were building a civilization from humankind’s rich background.

SMAC on the otherhand makes no bones about it; this is an alien world. One that at times is so alien as to alienate the player. It’s tough to figure out the true importance of the technologies available when you don’t have a strong grasp of what they mean. I mean before we had mathematics and the alphabet, but now we have Ethical Calculus and Retroviral Engineering. We had buildings that included the Sports Complex and Library, but now we have Network Nodes and the Genejack Factory. They’ve changed the name of the spy unit (an easily grasped name) to the probe team (I at first thought they were some sort of scientific research unit). To add to the confusion is the terrain. It has become simplified and alien; being comprised mostly of squares that are composed of Rainfall (three different colored squares here, most of them reddish-brown), Rockiness or Elevation. Forests can be had; they’re just rare. But proliferating on the planet surface is fungus, a terrain that hampers movement and provides no real worth to the colonists. For the most part, grasslands, swamps, desert regions (not counting the Great Dunes that is considered a landmark you may never see in a game) and other terrain features common to Earth are gone. I feel you need to care about the game world in order to care about the game. The gameplay is great, but the world does not hold my interest. I’m just not intrigued by the native flora and fauna. Perhaps it will grow on me (no pun intended)?

For all that, SMAC is a high quality game all in its own right. The ability to customize units by picking its weapons, armor and other components is a lot of fun. The AI is not easily outwitted with a stronger diplomacy model than in other empire building games. In addition, each faction has there own inherent bonus’/penalties, making each unique. There are several ways to win including a diplomatic and economic victory (but as in Civ reaching Alpha Centauri was the most desirable win, in SMAC it is achieving Transcendence). Also included are scenario and map edit options.

The graphics are a step up, nothing fantastic. The music is adequate. A nice touch includes voiceovers from the various faction leaders when new technologies are discovered. The interface, designed by Brian Reynolds, is easy to pick up with help menu’s a right click away. The multiplayer option is great. The best way to play is by getting together a few hours a week and playing at once. Than, in-between gaming sessions, you can PBEM (play by email) the same game.

But as repeated playings will show, there is definitely something missing. SMAC is not easily customizable with Mods in the way that Civ was. The alien world will create a love it or hate it response. The game world is not as easily accessible in the way that Civ was. There will be people who love this game and those that could care less. But in the end I think we can all agree that, however more advanced SMAC is, it will not remain on our hard drives as long as Civ. To truly enjoy SMAC, you have to take it on it’s own merits, which is tough to do when it is the true sequel to such a classic game. For those who have never played this classic series, Civilization II would be more appealing. SMAC is designed for the more advanced gamer who has been playing Civ for years.

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Reviewed by A. Sage

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