I want a Super Mega Orichalum Enemy Smithereen Blaster (Alone in the Dark Trilogy (PC))

Member Name: campb3ll

Product:	Alone in the Dark Trilogy (PC)
Date:	08/08/01 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very re-playable, Gorgeous graphics, Lots of fun customizable options

Disadvantages: Needs a lot of (computer) memory, Takes ages to complete

Sid Meier crosses another milestone in strategy games as easily as I mix my metaphors. Here is your chance to explore, discover, build and conquer in any combination on the pretext that you're divising strategies to protect the future of mankind.

Anyone familiar with Civilisation and Civilisation II will be satisfied with the fact that Alpha Centauri is an advanced version in 3-D with increased interaction. For the rest of you, Alpha Centauri is a complex strategy game where you have to direct the growth of your chosen faction.

There are 7 factions to chose from: University of Planet, Morgan Industries, Gaia's Stepdaughters, Spartan Federation, The Lord's Believers, Human Hive and Peacekeeping Forces. Whichever factions are not chosen by human players will be operated by your computer. The game may be played on your own or with up to 6 friends via the internet, a LAN, modem or serial link. (I wouldn't know where to start plugging in cables, so I can't really discuss the multi-player option.) Once you've chosen your faction and specified the game options (e.g. large planet, bad weather, random faction personalities, etc) you can begin to play. Your screen will display a 3-D map, which you explore with your dinky little units. You can found new cities on land or in the oceans. You can terraform the land i.e. alter the landscape features to fields or forests, etc. Beware of over-use as this can dangerously affect the weather conditions and cause flooding or drops in the sea levels. On exploring your new world, you'll notice that the 3-D effect makes the grid squares irritatingly hard to see but you'll also notice a dotted-line in the colour of your faction. This identifies the boundary of your territory and appropriate colours do the same for the other factions. On nosing around, you'll run into these other factions. You can communicate with them and exchange information, make alliances or tell them where to go. Ho
w you deal with the other factions (some of which may be other human players if you're a whizz kid with computer cables) will affect the final outcome of your game. There are 5 "paths to victory" and 6 levels of difficulty i.e. chimp to cheat.

You could play this game all day and still not get bored - this game is designed to be re-playable and not in the sense that it doesn't self-destruct after its first use. Each time you set up a game, you can generate a random 3-D world or design your own. You can set the difficulty level and the world environment. You can adjust the faction personalities. You can design your own units and build that Super Mega Orichalum Enemy Smithereen Blaster you always wanted so you can blow up enemy factions and indulge your meglomanic tendancies. One special improvement - for Civ fans to notice - is that cities can be set to run automatically to your precise instructions. Not in the "build everything and wreck the game" kind of way but rather "build what I tell you" so you can leave cities to chung along happily while you concentrate on another part of the game. You can set up a list of city improvements to be built in this manner and set all units to "automatic" and trust that things proceed intelligently while you practice your special mix of ambassador/James Bond style of diplomacy on the factions.

Alpha Centauri is available for the p.c. and mac platforms. My version is, sadly, for the p.c. (I am a mac-lover). It claims the minimum requirements are Windows 95, 16 Mb RAM and 60 Mb disk space plus all the usual bits e.g. CD-ROM drive, sound card, video card, blah, blah, blah. This is a big porkie as it runs very poorly on my battered old p.c. which does meet the minimum requirements but runs as fast as me going for a jog (I don't exactly love exercise). The game actions aren't jerky but take a long time to run. The lovely video clips take ages to load but run smo
othly enough - fortunately, these can be turned off. The "recommended" p.c. requirements are twice that of the minimum requirements.

I have no doubt that on an expensive blow-your-budget p.c., Alpha Centauri would be a great game - A Thing of Beauty and A Joy Forever. If you live in the p.c. dark ages like me, then the slick Alpha Centauri is doomed to remain A Thing of Beauty and A Joy to Treasure. Nevermind, the box looks nice on my bookshelf.

Summary: