|
|
|
||||||||
The Demo
My first impressions of Alpha Centauri actually came from the demo. The demo, which can be downloaded at www.alphacentauri.com, is actually quite good - it is like the full version of the game limited to a certain date, where the demo stops, and it lets you save your game so you can play from where you left off when you get the full version. Since the demo is also on most of the recent CDs in the Mac magazines (MacAddict, MacHome, MacWorld, etc), you can just pick one up at a bookstore and install the demo instead of enduring the long download.
Storyline
The storyline of Alpha Centauri is simply enthralling. Since much of the storyline you build yourself by actually playing the game, I won't give away the secrets uncovered by telling the whole story. But, from the manual itself, here is the story:
Soon after the new millennium begins, humankind's oldest enemies - war, famine and disease - are winning the battle on planet Earth. The United Nations decides to attempt the mission that has been the dream of countless science fiction writers and fans for generations: the colonization of a New World, before it is too late. The establishment of a new outpost for mankind as an alternative to the decaying situation on our mother planet seems to be the last and best hope for the continued existence of mankind.
Code named "Unity," the plan is simple. Send enough men, women and supplies to the earthlike planet, Chiron, orbiting the primary star in the Alpha Centauri system. Give them the seeds for planting a new society - technology, knowledge, and experts of every kind. Insure that the mission, U.N. sponsored, stays on track by carefully monitoring its progress from Earth. Then, when the time is right, and if the need still exists, begin shuttling others to the New World at Alpha Centauri.
But space travel is a difficult undertaking, even now. It is hard to reach our own moon. Even if we had the capacity to make it to a distant planet, will we be able to bring the travelers back? Once firmly established on a distant world, will we be able to cooperate with one another there long enough to establish a new society that can attain the same levels and quality of life that we have achieved here after almost 5000 years of civilization? But the deteriorating conditions on Earth leaves us little choice.
From the beginning, there are problems aboard the U.N. Starship Unity. An unexpected reactor malfunction damages the ship, waking the travelers early from cyro-sleep. It soon is evident that the accident has damaged the communications equipment and contact with Earth is lost, and cannot be reestablished. The leadership of the mission is faced with the prospect of going it alone and soon begin to argue obstinately about the best way to proceed.
The game begins when the Unity Mission reaches Chiron. But, by this time, the mission has fallen into chaos. The most powerful leaders on board have built ideological factions and surrounded themselves with dedicated followers. It is clear that each faction has established its own agenda for the future of mankind and is desperately serious about carrying it through.
In other words, you've got 7 factions that all have different beliefs and plans for the new planet - many that conflict with each other. Each faction has it's advantages and disadvantages. The factions are...
Human Hive, Lead by Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang: This faction is ruled under harsh collectivist/authoritarian principles. The good individual is totally subordinate to the state. The are isolationist, and militaristic.
University of Planet, Lead by Academician Prokhor Zakharov: The University is completely dedicated to research and the free exchange of information. They are rumored to sometimes put the pursuit of knowledge ahead of ethics.
Morgan Industries, Lead by CEO Nwabudike Morgan: The Morganites are organized along corporate lines, and dedicated to laissez-faire capitalist economic principles.
Spartan Federation, Lead by Colonel Corazon Santiago: The Spartans are paramilitary survivalists. They believe in both a right and a duty to keep and bear arms.
The Lord's Believers, Lead by Sister Miriam Godwinson: The Believers seek a life of prayer and religious worship.
The Peacekeeping Forces, Lead by Commissioner Pravin Lal: The Peacekeepers exist to support the humanitarian principles of the United Nations of Earth, the organization that originally commissioned the Unity expedition to Alpha Centauri.
Gaia's Stepdaughters, Lead by Lady Deirdre Skye: The Gaians are determined not to repeat the environmental mistakes of old Earth. They seek to live at peace with Planet.
The game begins when you select one of the 7 factions listed above. You play the leading roll of your faction and oversee the expansion and hopefully the conquest of your faction over the others.
A cluster of University Bases late in gameplay
Gameplay
Alpha Centauri is a turn-based game, meaning you do whatever you want to do on that turn and then the other players take their turns. Energy credits are used in the game - the currency - and are used for everything: creating units, starting secret projects, and negotiating with other factions. Alpha Centauri is a complex game, so explaining everything about the gameplay would be almost impossible, but I have split this section into subsections outlining the most important and noteworthy aspects of the gameplay in Alpha Centauri.
Bases
Bases are the hubs of gameplay. Units are created at them, technology is discovered at them, and secret projects are initiated at them. Since work of some type is always going on at a base, Alpha Centauri has a special feature for the bases, called Governor. The Governor can be turned on at a base by the player. The Governor, as the name suggests, manages the base and creates the units that are necessary (military units, construction units, etc) for the area surrounding that base. The only thing the player has to do is give the unit it's orders once it is done being built. This feature allows the player to spend more time focusing on the whole game instead of individual bases. Besides producing units, the bases can build facilities that help the base - providing workers, reducing the number of Drones (explained below), or maybe increasing the defense of that particular base should it be attacked. Bases also grow as time goes on, especially if you build many facilities. The bases of each faction all look different. To the right there is a Spartan Federation base at the top, and at the bottom a Hive base. The Hive base is having a Drone riot, represented by the red face (drones are red for some reason). Drones are the low lives of your bases, the dirt and scum of your society. The less you have, the better off you are. If they feel like it, they'll riot on you. Usually a Governor will put down the Drone Riot in one turn, but each turn that the Governor fails to quell the Drones, there is more and more of a chance that the Drones will start destroying facilities at that base, or at worst, the base itself.
The Map
The Map itself has a couple irregularities. First off, there is water and land, both of which you can build bases in. But besides just that, there are different kinds of areas that can help or hurt your bases. These different areas affect your base if the base is on the square or within 2 squares of the irregularity. Nutrient areas, or green areas that get a lot of rainfall, give your base nutrients necessary for the growth of your base. Mineral areas, or rocky areas, help your base produce units faster. Other modifier squares can also produce minerals or nutrients. Monoliths left by an ancient alien race of some sort can be found in some squares. Monoliths enhance the discipline (the Morale) of any unit that enters one. In addition, supply pods from the Unity are scattered around the map, and they too can help by providing goodies such as a unit, credits, or maybe something even better. But, they can also produce unwanted things, such as a mind worm boil or initiate a Xenofungus bloom (read below under The Native Life). And last of all, the most annoying aspect of the map, the Fungus (again, look below under The Native Life). The map itself can play a large part in the game, for any faction that sets all their bases in good, well thought out areas can be rewarded with strong bases and a good foundation of energy credits.
Research of Technology
The technology in Alpha Centauri is half the fun. The technology tree in Alpha Centauri - the order in which you discover different technologies - is massive. However, besides the technology charts in the manual, packaged with the software is a poster of the actual technology tree. To get through this tree (if you even do so before you win anyway), you must set your research priorities. Researching technologies, besides helping you win the game, does a number of things:
The Native Life
The Native Life is a very large portion of the story presented during playing (provided you decide to research the technologies that deal with the planet and it's life, of course). The Xenofungus, or more commonly called just "Fungus", is hard reddish shoots that intertwine with each other. It is represented on the map with reddish areas on land, and light bluish areas in the water. The fungus is just basically annoying. You can't build on it, units move slowly over it, and it doesn't provide any sort of advantage by building a base next to it (unless you build facilities later on that allow it to help your bases). And worse of all, it is the well-traveled path of the Mind Worms. Mind Worms are dangerous native worms that attack your units with Psi Combat. The irritating thing about Psi Combat is that it doesn't matter how powerful or strong the shields or weapons on your unit is, it is the Morale of the unit that counts, and if your unit's morale isn't high enough, the Mind Worms will destroy it. And the Mind Worms aren't the only native life. The Isle of the Deep is like an aquatic version of the Mind Worms, except in addition to attacking your units on the water, the Isle of the Deep is also a transport vessel for Mind Worms - it will come on shore and unload 2 or 3 Mind Worms and return to it's watery home. And worse yet is the Locusts of Chiron. The Locusts of Chiron are like airborne clusters of Mind Worms that fly to attack. And if it weren't bad enough with the annoying fungus, Mind Worms, Isles of the Deep, and Locusts of Chiron, guess what - they get stronger as the game goes on! As the game progresses, the worms turn to Boils, where whole clusters of the Mind Worms clump together to make the ultimate Psi fighting machine. To counter-act all these dangerous annoyances, there are special abilities that can be assigned to the player's units, such as Psi enhancement, or morale enhancement.
Communication
When you start the game, you don't have any of the factions' COMM signals, therefore, you can't talk to anyone. But as you build and explore, eventually your units should start to encounter other factions' units or bases, and once this happens, you automatically have their COMM signal. Usually they will contact you before you can contact them, saying hello, asking to exchange technologies, and probably asking to sign a treaty. Communications with other factions can consist of many things. All computer controlled factions have presets by the computer at the beginning of the game - maybe to hate you, automatically attack you, always want to fight with you, or maybe they love you. All these aspects, plus more, will influence the path your communications take. Another major modifier in your communications is power. The dominate faction will usually have the subordinance of the other faction unless the less dominate faction is preset to hate the dominate faction. When communicating, the other faction will almost always ask you for something, if it be a loan of money or exchange of technology (or demand for that matter), be sure to prepare yourself when communicating. Besides the computer faction asking you for something, you can ask the computer faction for things (mostly the same things they can ask you for). Usually when you ask for something, the faction will ask what they will get in return. After you make your offer, depending on how reliable you've been in the past, and how much they like you, they will either give you what you want or deny you. Frequently bothering the other faction and constantly asking for things will tarnish relations quickly. Another communications device is the Council. After you or another faction gets the COMM signals to all the factions, they will call a Council meeting (the Council can only be summoned when a faction has all the COMM signals) and elect a Planetary Governor. If you have a strong enough military, or you have made many discoveries, hopefully you will be elected. If so, you gain the advantage of getting all the COMM signals of the other factions, having an infiltrator in each faction that can give you special information, and other small benefits. After technologies are discovered by you and the other factions, the factions can call Council meetings for other things such as maybe melting the polar ice caps, which would raise sea levels, or maybe Reelecting the Planetary Governor. After calling a Council meeting, all the factions will vote on the measure brought forth. If the measure passes, the action will be executed. If the measure fails, the action won't be executed.
Winning the Game
There are 4 ways to win Alpha Centauri:
Conquest: You can win the game by conquest if you eliminate all remaining faction. Factions who surrender and swear a pact to serve you count as eliminated.
Diplomatic: You may win the game diplomatically by convincing enough faction leaders to unite behind you as the Supreme Leader of the Planet. This is done through the Council late in the game.
Economic: You can also win the game by cornering the Global Energy Market. Cornering the Global Energy Market costs a ton of money, and it costs more and more per each base on the map. After a faction chooses to corner the market, the other factions have an allotted amount of time to either capture or destroy the base of that faction to foil the plan.
Transcendence: The highest form of victory is the Ascent to Transcendence, the next step in the evolution of humanity. In order to ascend, you must complete an extraordinary Secret Project - the Ascent to Transcendence - which can be started only after at least one faction has completed the Voice of Planet secret project. This means that after a faction has completed the Voice of Planet secret project, any faction can initiate the Ascent to Transcendence secret project, in which it becomes a race to the finish.
After winning, you are given a percentage of how well you did. The highest I've ever done was 76 percent. That's pretty hard, trust me!
Replayability
The replayability of Alpha Centauri was the hardest thing for me to review about it. My first thought was that it is really not replayable, in fact, I was ready to downgrade it one star (or Mac OS face) because of how stagnant I found the storyline after playing it twice. But, I decided that probably wasn't fair, so I sat down and played a couple more games, and finally realized that it was very replayable. I think the problem was is that I had the 4 ways of winning stuck in my head, and I was just so intent on winning that I didn't sit back and enjoy the game. That is the real replayability of the game, not winning it, but more of the game itself. After realizing that, I found that it was very replayable, and that there were many things that I hadn't encountered before in the storyline. I think you could say the Golden Rule of playing Alpha Centauri is "Enjoy It".
Interface
Ahh...the interface. The Interface is so great because it is so straight-forward, you have displays at the bottom, the COMMLINK at the right, and the menu at the left. The menu has submenus where you can open different displays, manage bases, and command units, but using the menu isn't always necessary - you'll use the keystrokes more than anything.
The Interface of Alpha Centauri (downsized, obviously)
The box to the lower left shows the unit that is currently moving. The box next to it shows the terrain. The long box at the bottom shows all the units on the square currently shown or at the base currently shown. The two displays in the middle show various information, such as Faction Dominance or the current status of your faction's economy. The box on the right is the world map.
Graphics
Don't let this optimized and downsized JPEGs that I've included with this review fool you, because Alpha Centauri has great graphics. Although they are in 256 colors, the graphics are still very good and all blend nicely with the game. But the real jewel is the movies - every time you complete a secret project, a movie plays. Most of the movies are very cool...they add a lot to the game. Sometimes, though, when you are in the heat of a huge war with another faction, they are more of a hindrance than an enjoyment. You can stop them by just pressing a key, but of course the computer has to switch resolutions to play the movie, so it is still annoying nonetheless.
The Manual
I hate manuals. They are usually unorganized, boring, and not very helpful. But Alpha Centauri's manual blows them all away. The manual is surprisingly organized, interesting, and very helpful. There are all sorts of reference materials, and even a few extra sections about the Alpha Centauri system itself (fictional, of course). If someone were to ask me what my favorite manual was, I would say "the Alpha Centauri manual". It is seriously as fun to read as it is to actually refer to.
Final Thoughts and Opinions
Alpha Centauri, however complex, is a really enjoyable strategy game with an exciting storyline that leave you begging for a book based on the game. The gameplay is rich and dynamic and the replayability value is priceless. The interface is intuitive and straight-forward, and the graphics are appealing but practical. The manual is not only great for reference, but is also a joy to read. It is also very well organized and doesn't leave you asking "Huh?"
However, for someone that like fast paced games with explosive graphics and an easy-to-follow storyline, Alpha Centauri will really be a disappointment. One game can take forever, even up to a week if you don't play it for a long time each day. Take it from someone who had never played a true strategy game until Alpha Centauri: If you don't like strategy, don't buy this game. However, if you want to experiment with a strategy game and you have a horde of money to bust, try it out, it is truly a very innovative and addictive game.
Jason Clements enjoys music, philosophy, graphics design, and of course, every aspect of the online Mac community. He took all the screenshots and wrote this review in one day, all while getting ready to go to Canada the next day. Whew!
|
© 1997-2002 MacMilitia.com, Contact Us
John Norton, Webmaster