Two things make a great narrative game, the narrative and the game mechanics. As one would expect Alpha Centauri's game mechanics have been significantly improv

Two things make a great narrative game, the narrative and the game mechanics. As one would expect Alpha Centauri's game mechanics have been significantly improved on since it came out, however the narrative and setting is so strong that poor mechanics connect you to the nature of that reality. For instance mindworms (Alpha Centauri) vs barbarians (Civ). The mindworms should be annoying but because the game shares stories of mindworms attacks the annoyance is transmuted into a feeling of sympathy with the settlers of the game. You never get that sense with barbarians in Civ. The best example is horror games like Amnesia. They are essentially "walking simulators" with almost no game mechanics beyond movement. Yet the atmosphere is so good that the players don't notice. Personally I think too much attention in the game industry has been placed on flow and artificial-sweeteners such as RPC leveling reward systems at the cost of neglecting atmosphere and as a sense real presence.