Reaching for the stars

By Peter Eley

Alpha Centauri *****

Firaxis

PC $109.95

G (all ages)

Bored with dominating only the world? Then try Alpha Centauri, and expand your control-freak fantasy to the stars.

It's the latest game from Sid Meier, who developed Civilization and Civilization 2. In fact, Alpha Centauricould have been billed Civilization 3.

It begins where Civ 2 ends, with your band of new-millennium citizens blasting off for Alpha Centauri - the nearest star - after laying waste to Earth and its resources for the past 2000 years.

But Alpha Centauriis far more than another sequel.

Both Civilization games were great - best of year, hall of fame, and so on. But Alpha Centauriis bigger, better and breathtaking in its scope.

It's easy to be fooled at first glance. The map graphics are similar to Civ 2, quite frankly not the best by today's standards, although the upshot to this is fairly modest system requirements.

And the way the game works is basically the same. The step-by-step technology tree, multiple-choice dialogue boxes with other characters and the turn-based structure are taken from the earlier titles.

But where Alpha Centaurileaves its predecessors for dog tucker is in the amount of control you have over the outcome of the game.

Decisions, decisions. You're making them all the time in the areas of economics, research, diplomacy, social engineering and military matters.

This is the lifeblood of Alpha Centauri. Flasher graphics would have been nice, but realistic strategy is what makes or breaks such games.

The story begins as Earth is wracked by war, famine and disease. Desperate citizens send the starship Unity to Chiron, a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, in the hope of colonising it.

But things go badly wrong en route and the mission fragments into seven factions, each with its own ideas on the best way to save mankind.

The game's starting point is the crash landing of Unity, the efforts of the factions to set up a colony on Chiron, and eventually to dominate their new home.

You get one exploratory unit and the initial trick is to track down as much debris from the Unity as you can to establish a base.

From here on you can take economic, diplomatic or military roads towards eventual domination, although you will need all three at some stage.

One thing to bear in mind is that you must respect your new planet's environment. Abuse it, and it will probably cost you the game through a natural catastrophe.

The environment is a dominant theme throughout the game, and there is some technical stuff especially in the tutorials.

By and large, Chiron is pretty tame for a new world. But one nasty is mind worms (shades of Dune 2000's spice worms).

These inhabit some squares and can do severe damage to your units, especially in the early stages.

I found them annoying, and wonder if such a finely balanced strategy game needs this sort of random element.

While Alpha Centaurihas a G all-ages rating, most under-12s would probably find it tough going, although it has a quick start, and an excellent tutorial.

You probably need to read the manual, too - all 250 pages of smallish type - if you want to get the most out of this game.

Required: Pentium 133, 16Mb Ram, 60Mb disk space.

Send your comments e-mail peter_eley@herald.co.nz