It had some great ideas, though. The planet had prevailing winds, and you could terraform mountains so that your cities had lush farmland while your competitors

It had some great ideas, though. The planet had prevailing winds, and you could terraform mountains so that your cities had lush farmland while your competitors were left with arid deserts. And the terrain didn't have to be hostile in the late game, depending on how you treated Planet. It was also cool how you could mix and match technologies to make different units. But it was sort of overambitious, and a lot of the features were ridiculously opaque. I think it's a sci-fi gem, but it definitely takes a bit of patience. If you don't have patience or time, most of the pithy quotes are here: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri