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Apha Centauri

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game at a EB store. It was one of the most interesting civ games I have ever played. It had verry good game concpts and I played for hours on end. And that was about 7 to 10 years ago. I still remeber playing it. But then again I like all civ games. It got 4 stars over all. But I only got 3 stars of fun out of it. I finaly got burnt out on it and traded it. And I have nothing but good memories from playing it. Planting forest and reaserching biomorphic fugi. And the wierd mind worms which took the place of barbains. Differnt factions such as chairman yang of the hive and more cool stuff.

GREAT GAME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are great for their time, not bad at all even though its old. The gameplay is great: turn based strategy. I have spent way too many hours of my life playing this game! On top of that, it is really cheap here on amazon. I lost my first copy, so I bought another one, that is how much I like this game. Similar to other Sid Meier strategy games like civilization.

Still the best, after all these years

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is still he best Civilization game even though it is not called that. I own all Civs and all expansions and while I like Civ IV immensely, this is the most playable. The factions are truly different. Playing with Gaia, for example, requires completely different strategy. The units can be designed as you wish, a feature that doesn't exist in any other version of Civ. You can create your own "flying laser Bronco" and give it your own name. The victory conditions are all truly reachable. The graphics show a bit of the game's age but are still very acceptable. The production queues are easily manageable and the AI for production control is easily controlled making it the best version to manage large civilizations and not having to worry about little details and focus on the game itself.

One of the best turn based strategy games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a classic game. It is one of the definitive best turn based strategy games ever created.

Alpha Centauri is a Sid Meier game, although it was designed by Brian Reynolds. It takes a lot of what Civilization had at the time (like Civ3 or 2 was the last Civ game to come out before this) and added much more depth to the game world. Just the details like videos and quotes for technology advances. You could create your own units, so I had crazy stuff like troop transports that can make orbital insertions, or insanely expensive aircraft which can ignore all base defenses. I even upgraded the supply crawlers to move faster and be better than relying on terraformers to make a base more profitable.

The best thing this has over Civ is that it takes place after Civilization, in the future. So you are actually discovering new units and technologies instead of the same old, same old: start with cavemen, move to the Castle age, Industrial, and finally Modern age. Theres none of that nonsense. Its science fiction and even has a storyline which unfolds as the game progresses.

To Time Consuming; Annoyingly Long Game Length 12 to 25 hours until finish;

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The artistic renderings some are quite good; it is sometimes better to just watch the movies (secret base project completions); the game length of play is annoyingly long;

But if you play for an hour or so once in a while you can gradually see how it develops over time;

They spent a lot of time making the game; I like it best of all the civilization builder games by Firaxis;

In spite of long game length of time playing; I think it was well done artistically and the game play is quite good;

Alpha Cenauri

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

In 1991, Microprose release Sid Meier's Civilization, a game like no other the world had ever played. It's innovative take on developing technology and advancing a civilization took the world by storm. It won Game of the Year in 1992 (Computer Gaming World) and Best Consumer Entertainment Program in 1991 (Software Publishers Association). This was only the beginning of its success.

850,000 copies later, it has entered game history. Few computer gamers haven't played it, and it's legacy is going strong.

In 1996, Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Brian Reynolds banded together to form Firaxis games (named after a musical piece by Jeff Briggs). Why the sudden break with Microprose? I haven't heard an official story, and I wouldn't dream of promoting rumors . . .

The fact remains that Sid Meiers left, without Civilization. The first release Firaxis had was Sid Meier's Gettysburg. Now, Alpha Centauri is the second release.

This game continues the old tradition of Civilization and Civilization II. You build cities, develop technologies and form strategic pacts, all in the old familiar fashion. But does it do justice to it's presitgious lineage? Drum roll please . . .

Yes.

That is not a resounding yes, but a yes nevertheless. I enjoyed this game immensely. I did tired of it more quickly than it's predecessors, however. I couldn't say whether that has to do with the quality of the game, or if it's just because I've done all this before. Needless to say, I haven't met my goal of winning it every way possible on the hardest level. I'm sure I`ll never meet the goal of winning with every faction.

So what is the game like?

We'll its just like all the others. You don't see the buildings being build on you city display, but you can set up ques of buildings. You can also set three different governers, allowing you to set a governer with the same priorities as technology. Want to go to war? Set all of your governers to Conquest. Want to spread out? Set them to Explore. Want to build? You guessed it. Set them to Build.

In most of the games in the past, I'd rather hammer a nail through my hand than use their governers. Alpha Centauri is the first on the really won me over. The stupid things they do a rare enough to cause less headache than doing all the work myself.

The game looks much like it's predecessors. The graphics are better, but that's to be expected. Game play is essentially the same.

This game has a lot of fun moments. The story line to the plot (it does have a story line), is interesting, if not compellingly presented. Each new achievement give a quote, some of them pretty funny. My favorite is the Recycling Tanks: "It is every citizen's final duty, to go into the tanks . . ." Soylent Green anyone? A close second is the blatantly Microsoft based add with the tag line "Where do you want your node today?"

To get the full impact of this game, win by transcendence. Only in this way, will you see the storyline played out to conclusion.

Bottom line? I liked it. You will too, if your not looking for something different. It doesn't matter how many innovations went into the technology, the game concept was not particularly innovative. I've seen people who loved it and people who got sick of it in ten minutes, because they had played so many hours on it's predecessors. You'll have to decide which kind of person you are.

Still Works Great In WinXP

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I played this game a LOT when it came out in early 1999. Recently, in March 2007, I've gone back to it. I thought it might be helpful to some people to learn that the game works just fine in Windows XP. At first, I wasted a lot of time trying to get XP to run it in Win98 mode; or to follow complicated instructions translated from the German that I found on the net; or to install the latest patches, including one that Firaxis created specifically for WinXP.

None of that worked for me.

But I found that if you just install the original CD (in my case, I think it's version 1.01j) it works fine. When you start the game, at first you get a black screen with two white rectangles. One assumes that one is hosed when one sees that. And one would be wrong! Just click the left rectangle! It starts the start sequence, and after that everything works perfectly.

This really is a cool game, way ahead of lots of more recent stuff. The sci-fi elements are very well represented. It's very interesting. I recommend playing on the Huge Map of Planet--and expect a long game.

One of the games that turned me on to turn based strategy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a classic. I loved this game, and spent hour after hour playing it. As noted in many of the other reviews, I fell into the state of "just one more turn" - often to the neglect of eating, drinking or sleep. But hey, who needs that? I have missed this game quite a bit, as I have never been able to get it to work with the XP patch, or to run in '98 mode. I too hope this will get a second look by Sid Meier, and get revamped for XP/Vista. Certainly a game that still receives such high marks should be given another life.

I didn;t get the item

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 16
Date: November 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I didn't get the item I purchased. The retailer said the item was lost, or stolen while being shipped. Fortunately, I have full refund.

Lasted a long time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Alpha Centauri is perhaps one of the best strategy games ever. I really like the way you can change your environment with the formers. I usually create rover formers and run with those. They're the same as rovers only can move 2 squares instead of the usual one so you do more faster!@!@

I start at the edge of my continent and continuously raise terrain adding new area that I can plant colony pods on. Simple by today's standards, but I just can't stop playing it!!

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