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
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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.
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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
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