Alpha Centauri for Windows

Pros: Addictive, immersive, balanced, diverse factions, unit design.
Cons: Addictive, computer factions not too smart or aggressive, some clunky interfaces, occasional freezes and bugs.

Background Alpha Centauri is Turn-Based Strategy (TBS) game written in the late 1990s at Firaxis, the company Sid Meier and his team founded after leaving Microprose, where they developed Civilization, Civilization II and other popular games. ...

Pros: New aspects enhance the depth of strategy, differences in factions improve the replay value.
Cons: A few aspects make the game more confusing; long turns.

With the event of the official launch of the Civilization 3 Web site (www.civ3.com), I decided to take on one of the most interesting games of the recent years. Alpha Centauri was supposed to be the next step in the Civilization evolutionary ladder....

Pros: Extremely versatile, repeatable game play
Cons: High learning curve, bland graphics

Alpha Centauri is the sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization II. The original does not have to be played to enjoy this game, but it makes learning the game a bit easier, since there are many similarities.

Premise: a ship blasts off from Earth...

Pros: There really is a good game in there. Some nice strategy. Interesting "Factions" replace the races of previous games.
Cons: When you look past outward appearances it is basically the same as Civ 2

Ever since the Mikeians (don't ask) first colonized Alpha Centauri at the end of one of my countless games of Sid Meier's classic Civilization I wondered just what sort of game it would be if we were allowed to continue on and...

Pros: Interesting game play, engrossing play over-all, excellent turn-based strategy
Cons: Massive learning curve, confusing interface, not terribly exciting

Above all, I am a strategy game buff. I've played through all the Blizzard RTSs (and I mean ALL of 'em), I've mastered Risk, and I'm learning Axis & Allies. I've also played Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and Heroes of Might and Magic II. So, those...

Pros: It's all good.
Cons: Multiplayer...too...slow...

If you're like me, all the other PC games that have been released in the time span between Civ II and now were only to tide you over until this came out. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, or SMAC, as the acro-philes have dubbed it. Hell, it could have been Sid...

Pros: Best strategy game ever
Cons: Looks a lot like Civilization

I’ve been playing this game again, and I’ve come to realize how great of a game Sid Meir’s Alpha Centuri (SMAC) is.

Initial response to this game has been lukewarm. It really is a clone of Civilization II, which was a clone of Civilization I....

Pros: Graphics; Customizable units; Interesting and enjoyable gameplay
Cons: Lack of a good AI for automating your cities and units

Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri picks up where Civilization II leaves off, with the first launch of a colony ship into outer space. In Alpha Centauri, you play a leader of one of the factions that rises to power when this colony ship finally reaches its...

Pros: Plays well, challenging
Cons: a little bogged down on custom sized planets

I am a strategy game junkie! There, I have said it, no more denial. I got hooked to Sid Meier's games back when he and Microprose released "Pirates" in the mid eighties.

The detail and concentration needed to master this game (at...

Pros: Complex, thought provoking, and customizable
Cons: Complicated, steeper than normal learning curve

I've played several real-time strategy (RTS) games, such as StarCraft and Age of Empires, but I've always avoided turn-based strategry games, such as Civilization (I or II) as being a sort of throwback or too detail oriented.

After reading...

Pros: Best strategy game I've played, excellent Mac port
Cons: Hellishly addictive, eats up entire days of your life

I'd been waiting a long time for a really good SF strategy game for the Mac. Call me shallow, but I just can't get that excited about catapults and cavalry -- it's the future I want to see. I played Command & Conquer, but as a single player game it...

Pros: Can be Played Over and Over, Many Options to Customize
Cons: Graphics could be Better

Civilization and Civilization II wasn't enough…

Sid Meier has put another excellent game out. This time you are on an alien planet. A planet which is generated every time you play. You control one of 7 factions in a fight to become to...

Pros: Fantastic gameplay
Cons: Really addictive, eventually gets old

First off, Alpha Centauri is not a revolutionary game. The graphics don't bring you new levels of immersion. The sound isn't dynamic and 3D. There are no polygons. And it isn't any sort of new action-RPG/strategy/platform/shooter/driving hybrid....

Pros: Good graphics and sound.
Cons: No new game concepts.

Alpha Centauri was playable. It was a game that was useful to waste a bit of time and if you're a Civilization lover: you won't be disappointed. Why? Because Alpha Centauri is -exactly- like it, something that turned me off to it almost immediately.
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Pros: quite simply, the best turn-based strategy game ever made
Cons: multiplayer mode not as highly as expected

Go ahead. Name the best games ever. In fact, name the single best strategy game. I'll give you a hint. It begins with "civilization".
Well, the maker of that and many other amazing games is Sid Meier, and he's back. This game picks up...