(wow) Words Of Wonders Level 2493 Answers – Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is widely regarded as one of the best strategy games of all time. But in the nearly 15 years since its release, there hasn't been a single new sci-fi turn-based 4X game on the planet. Small indie game developer Proxy Studios saw an opportunity, a gap in the market, and the result was Pandora: First Contact.
Veteran 4X players will probably be the first to notice how familiar Pandora is. The reason for this recognition is that Pandora looks and plays like the Civilization series of games, a timeless reference to the Planetary 4X games. It's not bad, it's the other way around. Proxy takes some of the best things from Civ 4 and Civ 5, especially the hex map, the smooth and intuitive user interface, the game encyclopedia, and the military stack.
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Of course, Pandora: First Contact is also very similar to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which the developers say they were “inspired by” when developing their 4X game. And, it shows. So in Pandora you will find concepts borrowed from SMAC. Human excitement on terrestrial exoplanets, different factions with different ideologies, hostile alien flora and fauna, terraforming planets (not hard, but more on that later), mysticism, exploration of alien worlds, fighting and conflict. Basically, Pandora uses the same themes and many concepts as SMAC.
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Now you might be thinking “well why should I play Pandora when it plays like Civ and SMAC?”.
I played all the civic games to death. I also played a lot at SMAC that day. I'm currently playing Pandora: First Contact, which I find very unique and fun in its own way. Why, because it's different from the MicroProse and Firaxis 4X games in many ways. Perhaps the most notable difference is in the way the game's economy works, i.e. how the production system works.
In Pandora, production is not based on tiles, but on jobs. This means that each map element around your city will not generate all the output shown in the element, but only the amount based on how you divide your work. Let me give you an example. Let's say your city has a map that shows 2 types of food and 1 type of mineral. If you put workers there like in Civ or other typical 4X games, the tile doesn't give 2 food and 1 mineral. You either put a miner there who only gets 1 mineral or a farmer who only gets 2 food per turn. Combined with global resources, Pandora's job assignment system enabled the city's natural tendency to specialize on an unprecedented scale. Thus, there are usually whole science cities, mining cities, high tax resort cities, mixed manufacturing cities, and other combinations, since each city does not have to feed the local population. It was the guarantee of the empire's global food supply. So Pandora's economic system is unique and definitely one of its strengths.
Another unique and powerful feature that sets Pandora apart from other 4X games is the randomization of the tech tree. As with almost all other 4X games, the exploration paths for Civilization and SMAC are fixed. Therefore, the development of technology in all games is almost the same. The shape of Pandora's tech tree is randomly generated, so progression varies greatly from game to game, and there's no guarantee that every tech will appear, which is also a nice twist. Unfortunately, this randomness comes at a price. You see, the connection between technology, technical requirements is not very important if they make sense. You could research a new farming method that increases food production, which could lead to the next thing… researching a new hull.
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That's the price to pay for the randomization process, but I think the developers could have implemented the system better. Many technical approaches will suffice if you use your imagination a little, but some just don't make sense. I think they need to figure out a way to stop the development of some technology. I don't think it's that hard to achieve, and immersion wins there. The tech tree is pretty big though, and I think most of the tech is pretty interesting, especially in the later stages (like black holes, organic tanks, EMP beams). However, it is not uncommon for technical breakthroughs to start every 2 to 4 times. So even though there's a lot of tech to unlock, you can't help but feel like things are moving too fast. Game speed can be slowed down when the game is installed, but this also affects production speed. So the overall technical progress is good, and the tree randomness is a very welcome feature that contributes to more playability. But further balance is welcome, and it would be nice if the technological advances were a little more reasonable.
Another powerful innovation for Pandora is the ability to use support actions anywhere on the map. These immediate actions are called actions, and they allow you to interact with the battlefield more directly and quickly. Using them is actually very satisfying as it increases your options and really makes you feel powerful, which is a very important aspect of 4X games. Examples of such activities include satellite bombardment, nuclear weapons, instant repairs, satellite scanning, and even controlled singularities (black holes). That's a new thing, sir. And it's big. You may have seen this mechanic in other strategy games like Command & Conquer: Generals or Company of Heroes. However, until now, if I remember correctly, I've never seen this “handling” feature in a 4X game. Let me tell you, it works great and is a lot of fun to use. Some activities require the construction of special buildings to unlock and will be updated from time to time. Additional actions are unlocked directly through exploration, and from there you can do as many as you want. Transactions are one of the most innovative and interesting features of Pandora and definitely one of its strengths.
Another notable new feature is the excellent auto-migration feature, another rare system you'll find in 4X games. When your morale is low and your cities don't have enough living space, your people will move to more desirable areas. This simple but very nice mechanic helps as a kind of feedback on how you plan your city. And sometimes it's also a useful mechanic when you want to move population from one city to another, for example to produce science or food faster in your newly created specialized cities. And to achieve this migration effect, you only need to improve the living conditions in the destination city, not to improve (or worse) the living conditions in the city you are moving to. The game lets you move people around at will, but I found this simpler, more automatic migration system more engaging, fun, and manageable.
But if you're a fan of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, you're probably still asking yourself (as someone on this site already asked): “I have SMAC and the Alien Crossfire expansion pack – is Pandora different enough to warrant the price?”.
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Without a doubt, Pandora is a very similar product to SMAC. So one might wonder, why would they invest time and money in Pandora? Why not play SMAC with the Alien Crossfire expansion pack?
I played a lot of SMAC back in the day and I think it's one of the best games I've ever played, but it's been almost 15 years. So to refresh my memory, I spent part of this review playing SMAC and watching how Pandora really stacks up against Firaxis' sci-fi strategy masterpiece.
Here's how it works, by no means am I doing a thorough comparison as I'm not doing a SMAC review here! 🙂 So I'm just highlighting what I think are the main differences between the two games, my personal preference, to see what key features make one game better.
Let's start with the obvious. Pandora has better graphics. Now playing 15 years later, it's not surprising. However, graphics alone mean little in a game like this. No, seriously, it's not about them at all. The images help to dig in and definitely grab the attention of the younger generation more, but not very well.
