Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Expansion: Alien Crossfire - PC

Product Description ------------------- The official Expansion Pack features 7 all-new playable factions, new technologies and secret projects, and expanded plot that continues the story of Mankind's struggles on an alien world. New custom faction editor. Seven new technologies. Four new Secret Projects. Five new weapons. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri fans can choose to play classic Alpha Centauri (with the original seven human factions), the new Alien Crossfire story (with seven all-new factions, or customize the game by combining their favorite factions from the entire suite of fourteen! .com ---- It is a time of upheaval on the planet. As five new factions fight for re, Alpha Centauri's original inhabitants return to do battle above the skies of humanity's new home. As the survivors of the alien civil war fall to the surface, the factions of humanity struggle with the implications of their impending arrival. Will the humans band together to overcome the alien threat? Or will diplomacy prove more effective in dealing with the invaders? Double the gameplay of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in the Official Expansion Pack, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire. With seven new playable factions, a host of new gameplay additions, and a custom faction editor, this is a must have add-on for every Alpha Centauri fan. P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); From the Manufacturer --------------------- The official Expansion Pack for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri features seven all-new playable factions, several new technologies and secret projects, and an expanded plot that continues the story of mankind's struggle on an alien world. The original inhabitants of Alpha Centauri, split in a brutal struggle, have come back to recl their world. Now the Earth humans are caught in the alien crossfire. Will humans band together to defeat the offworlders, or will they form separate alien alliances to ensure the survival of their faction? The future of mankind is once again in your hands. Review ------ Alpha Centauri wasn't quite the commercial success that Firaxis hoped for, but it did earn a loyal following. These fans looked past Alpha Centauri's similarity to Civilization II and reveled in its deep turn-based gameplay and strong premise: an interplanetary war for , economic, cultural, and scientific dominance. But many others shied away from Alpha Centauri because both its alien factions and its technology were too unintuitive. Fortunately, Alpha Centauri's official expansion pack, Alien Crossfire, resolves at least one of those concerns. As with its predecessor, Alien Crossfire has a good background story, which is unusual for turn-based strategy games. The planet Alpha Centauri was apparently seeded with great power by an ancient alien race. Now, the descendants of those aliens have returned to cl that power. However, the aliens are divided. Their two factions, the Caretakers and Usurpers, have sing views on how to exploit the planet. In addition, they are joined by five new human factions, including the cyborgs, the pirates, the data spies, an ecological cult, and a drone proletariat faction. Although there are many to choose from, it is now much easier to decide which faction you want to play because you can see all pertinent information for each new faction from the selection screen. Each new faction has different specialties. For example, the Cybernetic Consciousness gets better research because they have computer-swift brains, but they have stunted growth because replacing their minds with cold computers weakened their ability to interact with others. The Nautilus Pirates get free shipyards and several early sea bonuses, although they also suffer in growth because their swashbuckler culture shuns family life. The alien factions are particularly potent, for they begin play with a strong alien unit and also possess scans of the planet's surface. These alien factions share some bonuses but also have a few unique advantages and disadvantages. Alien Crossfire's story hints at the possible devastation of Alpha Centauri if the Usurpers can unleash its power. Throughout the game, fictional book chapters will detail the first meeting of aliens and humans, the unsavory means by which the Usurpers studied their human captives, and the thrill of victory after the Usurper or the Caretaker defeats its hated rival. Because the mind-sets of aliens and humans are so different, you won't be able to communicate with the other race until you research the right psyche technology. It's a nice touch that you actually have to study your alien counterparts before you can even speak to them. However, there are sometimes a few discrepancies in the progression of the story. As the Usurpers, you might eliminate the Caretakers early on, but subsequent entries in the book will keep referring to how you need to befriend or enslave the humans to defeat the already-defeated Caretakers. In addition to adding new factions, Alien Crossfire also introduces several new technologies, new units, new graphics for analogous alien units, and even some new secret research projects. Unfortunately, all the new technologies are as unintuitive as the original ones, although Alpha Centaui fans familiar with this sort of technobabble probably won't mind it the second time around. Usually, expansion packs for such games simply add new scenarios (as with the Civilization II packs) without really expanding the gameplay, but Alien Crossfire adds a great deal to the original game. While Alien Crossfire's core game is still very much the same as its predecessor's, the new factions, technologies, and projects increase that core game's depth. These additions don't make the game fundamentally different - you'll still feel like you're playing the same game, even as the alien factions - but you'll recognize that you have a few more options to explore. The additional victory conditions also heighten the experience because they at least superficially highlight the differences between the humans and aliens. Because it makes no drastic changes, players who didn't like Alpha Centauri in the first place will find nothing in Alien Crossfire that will change their minds. However, fans of the original game will want to get the expansion pack for its interesting alien factions and new technologies. --Elliott Chin --Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot See more ( javascript:void(0) )

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