GameRx: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded."

  - Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

A while back, I wrote up a review for Sid Meier's Colonization in a sort of celebration of the new Civilization V downloadable content coming out in the following weeks. Taking a brief hiatus with HyperBlade to change things up, it's time to continue with revisitations of Civ-likes with an old /vg/ favorite, Alpha Centauri. The game in the curious position of being the most praised game of a franchise as well as having fewest copies sold. This really is a shame; this game is that rare brand science fiction gold that I feel cements game-writing as legitimate literature. In complete seriousness, I'd put right up there with the likes of Heinlein, Aasimov, and Herbert. It's that good.

In the 22nd century, the United Nations assembles an effort to colonize on Alpha Centauri, called the Unity program. Things go horribly awry when a generator malfunctions, rousing the passengers and crew from their travel-stasis and severing all communications with Earth. The captain is assassinated by the panicking passengers, leaving a power vacuum on board the ship. Seven colonists stand out from the others as leadership figures, each with very specific principles that they feel should be priorities in the colonization effort. Unable to reconcile their differences, the seven leaders and their followers take seven escape pods to the surface of the planet Chiron, commonly called "Planet", in the Alpha Centauri system. I'd go on with a story summary, but I'd hate to spoil such a great game for anyone who wants to give it a try. Besides, we have much bigger and tastier fish to fry in this game.

Read more with The RedShirt Crew »