lpha Centauri is the latest game from renowned designer Sid Meier, who made a name for himself in 1990 with the release of Civilization, one of the most popular world-building games of all time. Like Civilization, Alpha Centauri is a turn-based title that challenges players to create a society from the ground up, in this case on a newly discovered world known simply as Planet.
This is no simple colonization expedition, however. It's a desperate voyage put together by an ecologically devastated Earth, and it may be humankind's last chance for survival. Worse still, the project faces a major handicap. Before the ship--ironically known as the Unity--can achieve orbit around Planet, the captain is murdered. In the resulting chaos, the would-be colonists divide into seven factions, each willing to work with the others if they can, but all ready to destroy their rivals if they must.
The game begins when players choose a faction and head down to Planet in a pod ship that will also serve as their initial city. The first few turns of the game are usually taken up with exploring the surrounding area, establishing more cities, and trying to make contact with the other factions. Players have total control of their forces at every step of the way, from micromanaging each of their cities and directing individual units to developing an overall strategy for their burgeoning society. They must also decide what type of victory they wish to achieve: military, economic, political or scientific. For instance, players may decide to eschew violence in favor of transcending the bounds of humanity through research.
And, of course, players have to deal with Planet itself, whether that means fighting off attacks by the dreaded Mindworms or limiting their terraforming activities in order to prevent global warming.
Colonization is in the details
Alpha Centauri has been called Civilization in space, and that description is pretty apt. Meier has basically taken all of the work he did on Civilization, refined it, expanded it and sent it off to another planet. Which is a simple way of saying that Alpha Centauri is one of the most complex SF games ever created.
Would-be world-builders should know that Meier doesn't kid around when it comes to creating a new society. The rulebook for Alpha Centauri is 247 pages long, and if anything it doesn't go into enough detail. There are countless aspects of Alpha Centauri that players will have to master if they want to succeed, from designing individual units (rovers, terraformers, etc.) to figuring out what research paths they need to take. Fortunately there are plenty of auto features to help gamers out, such as the ability to place individual cities under the control of artificially intelligent governors or to put various units on autopilot.
Unfortunately, that still leaves a lot of ground for players to cover on their own. Beginners will likely have to play several games of Alpha Centauri just to understand the basics, and, at several hours per session, that's no small time commitment. Firaxis didn't help matters much with its confusing, underwritten instruction manual, though at least there is plenty of online help available. Choosing an easy difficulty setting will also make some of this learning time pass more quickly, as even the most inept player should be able to beat the computer on its lowest setting.
And the rewards of mastering Alpha Centauri are grand indeed. This is easily one of the largest, most involved SF games of all time, and it will offer countless hours of enjoyment to those willing to learn its ins and outs. And when players are tired of pitting themselves against computer opponents, they can challenge their friends to multi-player matches over the local network or on the Internet.
