A grand classic TBS revisited, still having an unparalled social engineering feature
User Rating: 9 | Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri PC
No other TBS ( turn-based startegy ) developer has been able to develop such a compelling socio-political structure as featured in Alpha Cenaturi. A unique interface, very thoughtful government choices, unique tech tree, well implemented factions and units, decent graphics for the genre at the release date, extremly addictive for the TBS hardcore. This civ experience is the equal of its ''mentor'', the Civ series, in global quality - and could have been almost the best TBS ever if not because of the AI....well, its weak military AI. The good average TBS player has no difficulty at all to beat the hardest setting ( Transcend ), that's why this game is easy but don't get me wrong, the learning curve is still pretty steep and you have to play several campaigns before achieving that. And those voiceovers......a perfect ''intellectualish english'', enriching the gameplay in a more epic scale....never heard something similar since. Now we see why Brian Reynolds and his team have made a success with Rise of Nations, and we should always remember how that level of polish began with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, still widely played by the time of this review, joining the ranks of older siblings also widely playled like Civ II, Master of Orion I & II.
