In some respects Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is one of the most ambitious multiplayer strategy games ever released. Anyone who doesn't believe me should spend some time in the Alpha Centauri system and then try a return trip to planet Earth - you'll realize just how much you've changed since you've been away. While Alpha Centauri bears a family resemblance to its predecessor and may not represent a four light-year leap beyond the gameplay found in Civ2 Gold, it is a substantial evolutionary leap indeed. Victory in Civ2 sometimes involves the launch of a spaceship - a spaceship that in some senses flies right out of your game of Civilization 2 and right into a game of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. When I say that Civilization is a complex game world, though, it's definitely a relative sort of complexity. (In a challenging game filled with human players, every moment you spend in planning between turns usually pays off.) All in all, the turn system works well enough that it's renewing my interest in the multiplayer aspects of Heroes of Might and Magic III, which is allegedly going to have a turn-based system very similar to the one found in Civ2 Gold. I could really find something worthwhile to do like spending a little extra time in the Civilopedia to figure out what sorts of research would get me to that next crucial Wonder of the world. When I did find myself becoming a little restless I usually came to the conclusion that, well.
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It's a slightly different story as you add more human competitors - with four players you may start to find yourself idle for a few seconds between your turns at bat, and with a full seven human players the game may seem a little slow (depending on the time limit) for the impatient gamers among us. Civilization is such a complex game world that there is almost always something useful to look at or do while you are waiting. Before long you grow accustomed to moving your units during your turn and handling everything else - including diplomacy - during someone else's. I played a large number of multiplayer games on a LAN and found that for three players or fewer you rarely find yourself watching the timer and waiting for your turn. Somewhat surprisingly, this works out pretty well. Any changes you make won't take effect until later, however, because in your empire things only really happen on your turn. While you wait you can tinker with production, plan your research efforts, and/or raise and lower your taxes. When you play a game of multiplayer Civ2, you will take turns in fullest sense: there will be a period of time when you are not able to move your units because you are waiting for the other players to move theirs. Two years later it's still an excellent bargain.įar and away most important thing to note about the Civ2 Gold Multiplayer edition is that it is still very much a turn-based game.
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I'll try to focus on the multiplayer aspects, since Civ2 Gold in single-player mode is essentially still just a very clean and very complete version of the strategy game that GDR's strategy editor Tim Chown once called "the best PC strategy game that money can buy". Loyal Civ2 fans need not worry, however - in addition to the full single-player game and both expansion packs, Civ2 Gold contains a very stable and playable multiplayer component.
Having heard plenty of words like "ugly" and "fiasco" (and several not fit for a family publication) used to describe the original CivNet multiplayer adaptation, I was a little concerned when I popped open my copy of Civilization 2 Multiplayer Gold. In the end, though, there are no real losers in this comparison - it's a great blessing to strategy gamers everywhere (and perhaps a big problem for their employers and spouses) that both of these games hold up so very well. While this is supposed to be a review of Civ2 Gold and not a preview or review of Alpha Centauri, I'll warn you right now that I don't think I'll be able to discuss Civ2 Gold without mentioning the game that many people think of as "Civilization 3". Having just wrapped up involvement with the Alpha Centauri beta program only a week or so before receiving my copy of Civ2 Gold for this review, I found it impossible not to compare the two in great detail. Microprose has recently released Civ2 Multiplayer Gold, a multiplayer version of the classic game that made Brian a widely-recognized name in the gaming industry, and it's likely that by the time you read this we'll be seeing the full retail release of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, a "Brian Reynolds Design" that picks up where Civilization 2 left off. There is no doubt that this is a fantastic time for Brian Reynolds fans.
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