Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Pandora: First Contact, and the Futuristic 4X

[Gormongous]

So I just put four hours of my life into Pandora: First Contact, a game that explicitly seeks to emulate and even recreate the feel of playing the best game of all time, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Of course, it fails utterly, like they all do, but it left me thinking about why SMAC is such a singular experience after all these years. I find Civilization II almost unplayably dated, but outside of the unit workshop, SMAC totally holds up.
 
I'll start with an easy one. The tech tree in SMAC has more personality than the tech trees in every other 4X game combined. Not only are the individual techs themselves interesting and surprising, but the way they're connected to each other is as well, all the more so when you play with blind research. Every single tech has quotes, read as well as the rest of the voice acting in the game, but unlike Pandora, which just seems to pick the coolest quote on a given topic (erring often towards Carl Sagan), quotes for SMAC tech all contribute to the same tone, which is a perfect balance of optimism and anxiety that captures the unique charm of fin-de-millénaire sci-fi.

 
And that's not even touching on the cool toys that you get! The pacing of SMAC is such that each and every tech is desperately anticipated, so you're never just hitting the "End Turn" button as your inevitable victory ticks down (well, not until the end, when it's a break you've earned). The first time you roll out Plasma Shard Infantry and bowl over the competition is as memorable as 4X games get. The tech progression provides the drumbeat for the song of your victory or defeat.
 
And yet it's all got a great sense of humor and charm to accompany the somberness, too! I could go on for ages, clearly.

 

So what do you think makes Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri so special? Have any games you've found captured any part of the magic?

[sclpls]

SMAC had this specificity to their sci-fi world that so many games in that genre lack. That's why emulating it is kind of an odd choice, it would be better to copy the spirit of the game and make some strategy game set in some crazy, unique sci-fi universe rather than try and capture the original's magic.

 

Luckily the game's interface is not so dated that it feels unplayable these days, which cannot be said for a lot of strategy games from the 90s.

[Gormongous]

SMAC had this specificity to their sci-fi world that so many games in that genre lack. That's why emulating it is kind of an odd choice, it would be better to copy the spirit of the game and make some strategy game set in some crazy, unique sci-fi universe rather than try and capture the original's magic.

 

Right? But Proxy Studios chose to copy Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri piecemeal, which makes Pandora: First Contact far less than the sum of its parts. There are diametrically opposed ideological factions, except that instead of being well-intentioned extremists with whom you can almost agree, they're insane caricatures in charge of vaguely defined factions with goofy sci-fi names. Like you said, tone is what's so important in SMAC and Pandora has none of it.

 

There was one cool touch with Pandora, about a hundred turns in, when the game informed me that the genocide of native life was complete. That was a shocker, partly because it's just a hard realization but mostly because I expected them to copy the narrative arc of native life from SMAC, too. In the latter, the mindworms start out as a minor annoyance, but mount in the player's mind as part of the Herbert-esque world-mind that forms the core of the game's story at the same time as they become a bigger and bigger threat again. The idea that, in Pandora, you can (and do) exterminate all alien life and wipe out the fungal blooms just baffles me.

[Chairman Yang]

SMAC's two greatest achievements are the writing quality (great by any standard, not just strategy game standards) and how well it meshes top-notch gameplay mechanics with top-notch theme.

 

It's easy to find great examples of the writing quality. Look up any of the technology blurbs. They are, by turns, thought-provoking and philosophical, vivid in describing characters, laden with keen social commentary, and frequently hilarious. They're also like a condensed "best of" compilation of science fiction ideas and tropes.

 

The game is also packed with examples of amazing mechanics/theme integration. The faction leaders, for instance. Their gameplay modifiers fit perfectly with their personalities, and on top of that, those gameplay mechanics encourage the player to truly feel those personalities in-game, both playing with them and playing against them. Like, Yang's bonuses make his faction truly feel like a human hive...his cities grow faster, and their free Perimeter Defenses disincentivize other factions from nipping his growth in the bud early. That means he tends to sprawl in most games of SMAC I've played. He prefers a police state and a planned economy, but unlike the other factions, can run these with no inefficiency, a result of his brutality. There's more of that for Chairman Yang, and it's like that for each of the factions.

 

That's one example of, like, hundreds of design decisions that are not only great on their own, but even better when considered in conjunction with the game's strong thematics.

 

It's sad, but expected, that SMAC clones aren't going to capture a shred of the greatness of the original, even if they faithfully copy all of the surface elements. Hell, SMAC's own Alien Crossfire expansion pack couldn't capture the greatness of the original, despite piggybacking on top. It was totally competent by normal standards, and really tried hard, but none of the new factions were as well-realized as the originals, and not much of the new mechanical stuff felt integral to the game.

[Procyon Lotor]

SMAC had this specificity to their sci-fi world that so many games in that genre lack. 

 

This says it perfectly.  SMAC wasn't just "Civ in Space."  It was a very specific story, set on a very specific planet with very specific characters.  If you change any of that, you lose the strange essence of SMAC.  

 

SMAC wasn't just specific -- it was unique.  Most sci-fi games draw from the same well of tropes.  Those that don't tend to require you to learn WAY to much obnoxious lore.  SMAC got around this by starting simple and familiar, and gradually drawing you in to the strange world that was Alpha Centauri.  

 

I've played some Pandora, and it's a decent 4x game.  But it lacks the magic of SMAC.  When I played SMAC, I felt like I could imagine every detail of Planet.  With Pandora, I don't really care to imagine every detail.  The story is just not that engaging. 

[baekgom84]

I don't really want to see a sequel to SMAC, either an official one or just 'in spirit'; I want the same game with updated graphics and rebalanced/tweaked gameplay mechanics. I would be too afraid that a true sequel wouldn't be able to capture the quality of either the writing or character of the original, so I would rather all of that content just be imported wholesale, with only aesthetic and gameplay elements updated. Ditch the unit workshop, or at least make it more useful.

 

It's either amazing or absurd, or both, that SMAC still has arguably the best and most mature writing of any video game to date.

[Procyon Lotor]

I revisited this game after the recent 3MA podcast.  It really is a brilliant game.  I'd even say that, as far as mechanics go, this is one of the best 4x games ever made.  

 

The only thing that keeps this game from ascending to the ranks of All Time Greats is the lameness of the factions.  

[sclpls]

It took me a second to realize you were talking about Pandora, and not SMAC! I was about to blow up in explosive fury.

[Procyon Lotor]

Pandora!  PANDORA!  I was talking about Pandora!  

[sclpls]

Looks like Firaxis are taking another stab at a SMAC type game without burdening themselves with the game's legacy... I approve!

[Dewar]

I went and bought SMAC from GOG.com because of this announcement. I've never played before, and so far it hasn't felt all that much different than Civ2. Maybe I just don't have it on high enough difficulty? Any tips on how to best experience the story?

[sclpls]

When's the last time you played Civ2? I don't remember the game really playing that similar at all. Most of the similarities came down to interface I think? But it's been so long since I played Civ2 so my memory might be off.

[Gormongous]

I went and bought SMAC from GOG.com because of this announcement. I've never played before, and so far it hasn't felt all that much different than Civ2. Maybe I just don't have it on high enough difficulty? Any tips on how to best experience the story?

 

In my opinion, the best version of the story is a high-industry, high-tech game played on a difficulty you're mostly sure you can beat. I recommend the University of Planet, but others would probably say the Human Hive instead. Almost all of the story is in the tech quotes and the secret project videos, so don't skip those. Other than that, just play a leisurely game. It probably won't click until the endgame, when Planet starts getting pissed and you have Drop Shard Marines hitting bases halfway around the globe.

[Dewar]

Ah, I only got the one secret project, the video for that was really cool. At the moment I'm trashing The Believers as they took about half the planet from my other allies. Just took their capital and got 3 or 4 additional secret projects under my control now. Is there a picture of the full tech tree somewhere? I'm not feeling the weight of the different technologies that you mentioned in your first post and I think part of that is not quite getting how it all fits together. I get a lot of technologies that I didn't think I was researching and that whole system is somewhat opague. Also, I found an alien building and got a nifty little interlude story. Should I be making a big effort to get to those, or is it just flavor?

[Gormongous]

Ah, I only got the one secret project, the video for that was really cool. At the moment I'm trashing The Believers as they took about half the planet from my other allies. Just took their capital and got 3 or 4 additional secret projects under my control now. Is there a picture of the full tech tree somewhere? I'm not feeling the weight of the different technologies that you mentioned in your first post and I think part of that is not quite getting how it all fits together. I get a lot of technologies that I didn't think I was researching and that whole system is somewhat opague. Also, I found an alien building and got a nifty little interlude story. Should I be making a big effort to get to those, or is it just flavor?

 

Important questions: are you playing with the expansion? Are you playing with any of the expansion factions? I would seriously recommend passing over both until you're familiar (and even tired) with the base game.

 

The full tech tree only came with the strategy guide. I think the blind research system is the best that's been made, since you're investing in playstyles rather than specific techs, but you should definitely google it if not having a good idea of it is holding you back. As you might expect, it's mostly just a vast interconnected web of techs.

 

By "alien building" I assume you mean a monolith. Those are good for early and cheap upgrades to unit experience before barracks and such become common, plus they're really resource-rich in the early game, but I think the monoliths are ultimately the least important part of the fiction.

 

Also, fuck the Believers. Miriam can go die in a worse hellhole even than Montezuma.

[Dewar]

No expansion, playing on the second to lowest difficulty. This building was bigger than a monolith, it has a special name on the map and looks sort of like a ribcage. I'll have to look when I get home.

 

Not usually my style, but I Miriam started this war, and I plan on ending it, every city, every troop.

[Gormongous]

No expansion, playing on the second to lowest difficulty. This building was bigger than a monolith, it has a special name on the map and looks sort of like a ribcage. I'll have to look when I get home.

 

Not usually my style, but I Miriam started this war, and I plan on ending it, every city, every troop.

 

Oh yeah, that's the... Nexus? Nexus Manifold? There's a bunch of unique landmarks around Planet, that's one that's good for energy. You don't happen to be Morgan?

 

Just a tip, but once Miriam offers to swear a pact to serve you, there's no reason why you shouldn't take it, unless you want to imagine her in that punishment sphere.

[Dewar]

I'm playing the University of Planet.