10 years later, and I still feel the urge to play a couple games every once in a while. Just... one... more... turn... Great plot, great factions, great technologies, great "social engineering" model, great terraforming, great diplomacy, great unit customization, PLANET BUSTERS, so many awesome quotes, what's not to like about this game?
I've never played the game, though I have played Civilization. My personal back story for the game, based solely on what I've seen in this thread, is that Morgan Industries was founded by Morgan Freeman and that guy in Summer Dreamer's picture is his descendant.
I consider it to be the most high-brow video game in existence. It was good times. My favorite faction is the psycho Human Hive. FYI, you can still download and play the original and its expansion pack from gog.com.
Every game I played always seemed to end with Miriam blowing up entire continents And yeah, I think it's tied for the highest-rated computer game of all time. Check out these cool quotes from the game.
Miriam was a psycho that I always tried to eliminate early on. Bonus points for doing it with nukes. Take that environmentalist!! Anyone play the expansions? The new factions were pretty interesting.
Ah...Miriam was the God nut. Deidre was the tree (or mind worm) hugger. But either way nukes are great
Yeah, the Cybernetic Consciousness, Data Angels, Cult of Planet, Nautilus Pirate, Free Drones, and especially the Progenitor Aliens were all really cool. I still like the original 7 factions the best, though! Yeah, I loved how in Alpha Centauri, the Planet Busters actually blew stuff up! Like, actually destroying the cities and physically altering the entire landscape around it. Nothing like the puny nukes in Civ.
oh, the memories..... Peacekeeping Forces were far from it. Comissioner Pravin Lal was the most blood thirsty person in the game!
I always find this game incredibly dark. I don't often actually 'play' the game much these days, I just turn on cheat mode, and listen to all the tech quotes, all the building quotes, and watch the secret project videos. The narrative they create is incredibly compelling.
The factions are more bloodthirsty than the nations on Civ. With Alpha Centauri, the AI will go to war pretty quickly and usually will target you. Never had a peacefully, relaxed game - just mega global wars. Civ, on the other hand, I've had several games where I never went to war at all.