Reviews

Alpha Centauri FIRAXIS

In the end of civilization and civilization II, you and your people board your space colony ship and rocket to Alpha Centauri, our sun's closest neighbor. This was the perfect setup for a sequel, and for years, fans have been waiting for that game that would let you continue the success of your civilization into space... Mankind has finally researched practical space travel and is colonizing the stars. The first stop is the planet of Alpha Centauri. However, when the UN starship unity finally gets to its destination orbit, its captain is murdered and the crew splits into seven factions, each led by a distinct personality with his own philosophy believing the best way to colonize the planet. Each faction then takes a colony pod and lands on the planet to build an empire from scratch, mirroring the start of civilization. Rather then being a star-spanning game in the same vein as master of Orion, Alpha Centauri restricts you to the game's namesake.

-The fighting factions:One of the improvements in Alpha Centauri is the greater distinction between civilizations. There are seven sides, called factions, and each has it owns agenda, special abilities and penalties, and its distinct leader. Some are ruthless soldiers while others are diplomats or scientists. You are one of the seven factions.

Gaia's stepdaughters

Morgan industries CEO

Peacekeeping forces

Spartan Federation

The Lord's Believers

University of planet

III- the game looks

What about it? The first improvement that you'll see is a more informative interface. The interface is more helpful, with a lot of information now offered up front on your display: On the planetary display you can see the population and next build order at each city; the unit view shows the unit's attack, defense and movement points. Another display can show a comparison chart bar graph of faction dominance; an account of the leaders in wealth, territory, military strength, or technology, a quick summary of your empire's current state, and finally small dossiers on world leaders. But the immediate difference between civilization and Alpha Centauri is the look of the planet itself. Alpha Centaurie features simulated 3D terrain that depicts varying levels of elevation. It offers a realistic 3D view where the mountains and hills now rise up, of the ground, and river valleys seem to sink into it. You’ll also discover some 2D-world objects, such as monoliths, kelp farms, and mines. Finally this 3D-topography device makes the planet much more realistic giving you an urge to plunge into the game. What about the units look? Well like the terrain, the units in Alpha Centauri also make jump to pseudi-3D. Firaxis is using the proprietary Caviar technology, which renders objects as 3D spriter. Finally the animation is pretty sparse but the units do rotate in the building of the terrain. The sound is the next game aspect that draws your attention. Unfortunately, its quality is similar to that of Civilization II forming a weak spot in the game. The canned sound effects that accompany attacks, riots, and building orders will be familiar as you proceed through the game. However you'll get to see high quality full-motion video clips symbolizing or summarizing the project benefits. Finally this new game, developed by Firaxis seems to be very strategic in which gamers will want to dig a lot because the gameplay is where this game really excels.