SYSTEM: “Indigenous life form.” SYSTEM: “Production complete.” A lot of people call “Alpha Centauri” one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, sci-fi 4X game. Considering that they’re still saying that 20 years later, something went very right. Namely, the mysterious setting, the interesting characters, the hard science fiction elements – all wrapped together in a really fun game. That said, it’s far from perfect. The good news is that the GOG version will run right out of the… box… store, without any compatibility issues. There are still a few things you could fix up on your own. The game still has some bugs and issues, and there are some unofficial patches out there. The “scient v2” patch is the most comprehensive – both, for the base game and the expansion. The game also won’t be running in widescreen. I’m usually okay with this, but it does feel restrictive for a strategy game. More importantly, as the video editor can cause clip issues. You could get widescreen by adding a DirectDraw line to the config file, but there is an even better way: download PRACX. It does more than make your game widescreen. It adds better mouse scrolling and zoom levels, and also adds some nice quality of life features. If you’re used to features like being able to easily display territory, showing resources on tiles, elevation levels and stuff like that – well, the game has none of those. This helps it not feel like “Cookie Clicker”. So, now the game is ready to go, and so am I. There are some scenario maps, though I didn’t find them to be that compelling. If I wanted to see China fight over ocean rocks, I could watch the news. You’ll find the heart of “Alpha Centauri” in its regular skirmish mode. You’ve got 7 unique factions to choose from and a pile of rules to customize. For example: if you don’t like blind research, you can flip that off. Because blind research is like hoping you get a car, but then you end up covered in worms. Then the game begins. SYSTEM: “Turn complete.” These controls may take you a while to adjust to. Groundbreaking ideas like “click to move” were still pretty conceptual back then. You can click and drag to move, or the dropdown menu. This is a little archaic, but the rest of the UI… aw fuck… The story of “Alpha Centauri” kicks off in 2060. The entire planet has been own-zoned by pollution and war, so the UN just decides to start over. So, their best and brightest, along with a few thousand colonists are sent aboard the “Unity” spacecraft, off to Alpha Centauri. When they’re almost there, at the end of their half-century journey, the ship starts to break down. The reactor and the communications are knocked out, the captain is assassinated, and it takes seven leaders to bring everyone back together. They’re now arguing about the future of the planet, so they decide to divide up into seven groups, with seven groups of colonists, based on their ideology. Everyone is scattered. The planet is littered with parts of the spacecraft and the supplies from it. A fresh start. So will humanity learn from its history and make a new better world, or instantly break every ethical boundary we know of and some we haven’t thought of yet? Well, it could go a lot of ways, but… I guess we’ll see… [loud scream] Like any 4X game, you’ll need to build and explore the landscape. Except, there are signs that advanced alien civilization was once here. And other aliens are also currently here. For reasons you don’t yet understand, they hate all sentient life. Along with the Irish. They live in a horrible fungus that slows down movement and can pop up at any time. Planet is alive, and wants you not to be. So the game is also about overcoming an alien environment – whether by conquering it, or maybe achieving a deeper understanding of it. All while the most extreme human ideologies are fighting for control of it. It’s a great setup. Sure, the environment is alien, but the interactions are all too human. So let’s talk about the presentation. There’s a lot that helps the game stand out, though probably not in the way you’d expect. CHIBI MORGAN: “Hey, get off my land, you peace-keeping son of a…!” CEO MORGAN: “I plan to live forever. Of course!” CEO MORGAN: “But barring that, I’d settle for a couple thousand years.” CEO MORGAN: “Even 500 would be pretty nice!” CEO MORGAN: “CEO Mwabudike Morgan. MorganLink 3D Vision interview.” Being a 2-decade-old game, yeah, the visuals are dated. There’s no secret graphical technique they used or anything like that that makes it hold up this time around. As a strategy game of its era though, it’s pretty good! The planet’s environment doesn’t have a huge variety, but they made do with what they had. Besides the regular terrain, there are a few unique landmarks, and they might change, depending on your playthrough. Once you’re accustomed to it, the map is easily readable. M-most of the time… As the game goes on, it can start turning into a nightmare. It’s only when tiles and units start to get heavily clustered up. Which is honestly inevitable by the late game, but the rest of it is fine. However, the unit designer is a cool aspect. Not only do the units have custom stats and abilities, but their appearance changes based on the equipment you use. I find it really engaging – finding a new piece of equipment to slap on a unit, and then seeing how it does. These are simple adjustments that add up, and your army feels unique from it. Another big draw comes from the secret projects. All of them come with cutscenes. Not only do they reinforce how significant these things are, but they come with the voiceover from one of the leaders. So, not only do you get to see the project in action – you also get to learn more about one of the characters. In fact, every technology comes with a character voiceover. So, once again, you’re getting more insight into how the galactic players think. PRAVIN LAL: “Its inventors promise a new era of genius,” PRAVIN LAL: “but meanwhile, unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds.” PRAVIN LAL: “They are creating their own private army of demons.” DEIRDRE SKYE: “…we pruned you, as we may yet prune your branches.” The voiceover is also the best part of the game’s sound. Everything outside of the voiceovers is forgettable. Like the ambient music. [quiet, featureless ambience] SYSTEM: “Turn complete. Production complete.” [quiet, featureless ambience] SYSTEM: “Turn complete. Production complete.” [sudden and odd musical pass] [*whoorr*] [*broop*] It’s not grating, but half the time I thought it was an in-game sound effect going on. The cutscenes are better in that regard. Like the “Dream Twister”. Anyway, let’s get onto the gameplay. Managing the empire is more than just creating roads and buildings – you also need to manage your ethics and government, while also keeping your population happy. What’s cool is “Alpha Centauri” usually has multiple avenues of solving a problem. You could stop a riot by making a new building, or you can make a tile improvement, manage the workers, or maybe there’s a technology. Then again, you could nerve staple the population. Of course, your neighbors consider that an atrocity. Even some buildings, while efficient, could cause damage to the climate. First, your reckless development pisses off the wildlife, and oops, it looks like the ice caps are melting! The actual game map can start turning into a hellscape as the oceans rise and cities just fall into the abyss. A world council might be formed to stop these issues. Volcanoes can erupt, earthquakes can change the landscape, and it goes to show just how far “Alpha Centauri” is willing to go to make the planet as much of a character as the factions. While other 4X games can let you turtle without consequences, “Alpha Centauri” isn’t about that. Your actions affect your neighbors and the planet. Maybe you wanna keep to yourself, but an ideological rival just hates the fact you exist. Playing as a scientist Zakharov with great research bonuses and no ethics is fun, but the luddite Miriam might not like that. So, conflict is inevitable. Picking a faction doesn’t just determine your bonuses, but who your rivals will be, what ethics you can choose. You can still break the mold, but it’s gonna be harder. The diplomacy has so much flavor text and personality that, even though you play different factions, and most options a really the same, it still feels different. You can conspire against enemies, trade data, trade maps. You can build probe units to spy on your neighbors and commit false flag attacks. There’s so much intrigue, you have so many options. For example: everyone hates atrocities (unless they repeal them). Most everyone will declare war on you, but what if they can’t? Say, if a sunspot knocks out global communications. Well, it’s time to break out the nerve gas and nuclear missiles, because the offensive against the YangGang has begun. Keeping in line with everything else, these missiles don’t just destroy the city, but also the landscape around it. Sometimes, you whack them so hard they actually have to rename an entire region or lake. So, weapons of mass destruction earn their name. What makes the conflict so interesting is that the game doesn’t treat any faction like they’re just the evil one – everyone gets their fair shake. Someone like Miriam comes off as a religious fanatic. MIRIAM: “You are trampling the garden of an angry god!” But then her quotes start reappearing in later technologies and secret projects. You can invent a self-aware colony to police itself, and that’s a great boost to your stats, but then a cutscene plays for it. WHISPERS: “We must dissent. We must dissent...” [spraycan drops] WHISPERS: “We must dissent. We. Must. Dissent.” [rushing footsteps] FIRM VOICE: “We must dissent!” [*clank*] [distant moan] MIRIAM: “Will we next create false gods to rule over us?” MIRIAM: “How proud we have become.” MIRIAM: “And how blind…” MIRIAM: “Sister Miriam Godwinson, “We must dissent”.” Huh… Maybe we should hold back on some things. Even an authoritarian collectivist nightmare, like the human hive, makes a good point. Maybe, you need to take an extreme position like that to survive on the planet. Acting as an individual scattered everyone in the first place. Maybe, Gaia’s Stepdaughters are right: instead of fighting the planet, we should embrace it – understand and work with the native life. Maybe, the planet life is apex existence, and we should just merge with it. Maybe, only the strong should survive. Maybe, everyone can make it. Maybe, Miriam will stop talking shit. The planet is an interesting character. The people are interesting characters. The environment and all the factions make you care about the setting. There’s so many fights to come out of it, and so many ways to do it. What else can I say? There is a reason this game is still so loved. The biggest hurdles are the user interface and controls. They’re not the worst thing on Earth, but when you’ve been spoiled by more recent games, it’s hard to go back. Drag-movement is something you could get used to quickly, but stuff you’re used to seeing at a glance you’ll have to find in a menu. Learning all the hotkeys is mandatory if you wanna stay sane. There’s a lot to learn, and while the game does try to help you out, it’s still a fairly steep learning curve. You won’t always know where you’re going for the first few games, and that’s fine. If you’re really having trouble, you could even automate cities. Even if you forget to do something, the city won’t. The AI is somewhat competent. I think this could do great with a remaster, even if all they do is rework the UI and add some widescreen support. Some people have made elaborate mockups of it having a better UI, so there’s definitely SOME demand. That said, there is an expansion. There are 7 new factions, and these include 2 new alien factions. Along with new buildings, technologies, units and factions – all the good stuff you expect from an expansion. While at best the new factions are pretty bland and forgettable, at worst they’re ridiculously overpowered. Even the aliens are disappointing. While the aliens look neat and they have their own goals, they’re not that different from playing a human faction. Really, the most interesting thing about them is their writing (which is still more surface-level, compared to the original factions). You can try them if you’re curious, but I didn’t find a lot to them. However, you can still play a game with all the original factions and the new stuff. Or make a brand new faction with an elaborate faction maker. So, it’s still well worth it, and GOG sells them together anyways. I did try every method I could to get the multiplayer working, but it didn’t happen… Until a youtuber SpicyChickenGod and friends found a way to do it. So now you can compete with your friends in making the worst dystopia you can think of. I’ll pin the instructions below. Thank you for your service, Spicy! So, that’s the video, and… wait a minute… Who’s typing that comment? [hectic typing] This game has a spiritual successor? Wut? No it doesn’t! [hectic typing] Ohh, are you talking about this game? I’ve got time. And I’ve been waiting a while for this again. Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick, and explain why no one plays it. Compared to “Alpha Centauri”, “Beyond Earth” is gorgeous. It has fantastic music, an intuitive UI, and the landscape is beautiful. Not to mention it’s easy to control and play. Now, what’s worse is… ehh… EVERYTHING ELSE. All the technologies are simplified to be more like “Civ 5”, except their order is nonsensical. You don’t need computers to get robots? Okay, that’s a nitpick, but “Alpha Centauri” wasn’t afraid to wear its hard sci-fi elements on its sleeve. Yeah, this looks like unit designer, but when you click it, it’s just an upgrade choice. Two options per level, but they look more distinct. The native life looks way better than “Alpha Centauri”, since, you know, they were just squiggles and dots and stuff. But they were like the blood cells in a big life form that would talk to the player. It was a character. So the squiggles ended up being more interesting than even the biggest Thresher Maw. Even the name of the expansion – “Rising Tide” – was just a trick. There’s no ecological damage, pollution, climate change, rising sea levels. Yeah, “Rising Tide” where the tide doesn’t actually rise. It added new aliens and water cities – something the first game had. All the thinking on how it’d affect the planet is gone now. The big choice is: do you shoot an alien in the face or not all the time? After that: do you like robots or “Warhammer” more? And then we have the factions. The… characters. REJINALDO: “Bienvenido!” DAOMING: “Nihao.” DUNCAN: “Hello there!” HUTAMA: “Good to see you again.” ELODIE: “Iberia welcomes you warmly.” DUNCAN: “I’m open to the possibilities.” HUTAMA: “What’s ours is yours.” HUTAMA: “For a price…” These aren’t characters – they’re mannequins. They can be any affinity, so their clothes can change. They have no soul. Everyone is refined and polite and cardboard. All the conflicts are decided by what colored action figures you picked. Everyone is from a really clean, polite, refined, perfect future. It’s hard to imagine any of them fighting, or doing anything. There’s even some more superficial picks. Like, in “Alpha Centauri”, the leader of the Spartan faction was Brazilian, so our Brazil will have a military uniform, and you’ll… I don’t know, get a combat bonus? You have all these genders and ethnicities and countries, but I don’t remember anybody. They didn’t do anything. What does Samatar Barre believe in? Maybe it’s buried in the lore that the game doesn’t reflect… CEO MORGAN: “Of course we’ll bundle our MorganNet software with the new network nodes! Our customers expect no less of us!” CEO MORGAN: “We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us.” SAMATAR: “…the African people greet you!” MIRIAM: “But what of the immortal soul in such transactions?” MIRIAM: “Can this machine transmit and reattach it as well?” MIRIAM: “Or is it lost forever, leaving a soulless body to wander the world in despair?” HUTAMA: “I love computers, because they automate the tedious stuff and give us more time for important things, like market manipulation.” Fuck it! ADVISOR AI: “Please, don’t go… The drones need you. They look up to you.” HUTAMA: “That’s so true.” A big thanks to everybody making this possible. And, as always, there’s time for some questions. Marshall: “Are you going to review “Overlord 2”?” If I do, it won’t be for a while. I played a bit of it, I think, on 360, but I actually didn’t get that far in. I’ve had people tell me it’s better than the first game though. Lars Schafer: “What’s the backstory with the name and the knight picture?” I honestly don’t remember where the name came from. I found out later that it was from “Star Wars”, but I couldn’t tell you where I first heard it and said “Yeah, I’ll use that!” As for the picture, I didn’t want something abstract, and I didn’t want, like, an animated picture of me, because, whenever you see those, the person is always more goblin-like than the picture. Which… it’s inevitable. I had a book for one of my courses on my desk though, and I looked at it, and I saw… I think it was a joust on it. And I went “Oh! That will work!” Kovacs Andras Zoltan: “When’s the next adventure game stream?” Soon! Sneaky-Mcgee: “Who’s your favorite god from “Warhammer”?” If you mean fantasy, I guess Sigmar. Or maybe that one Imperial general who killed all those skaven. For 40K, I guess it would be… *dink* Gork. Okay, I’ll see you next time! I'm gonna buy it!
