Helton
Arcane
Alpha Centauri has great mechanics. Social Engineering. Terraforming off the chain. I've continued games long after I'd won just terraforming, you can really do some incredible stuff. Unit design. Interface is exceptional. Ambience is pretty good. Just every fucking thing about it, really, such a great game. I got the expansion recently so I've been playing a bit.
What I notice, though, is that none of this is actually what I consider to be the strongest part of the game. It excels beyond most TBS's in almost every way, sure, but I just really dig the story.
I've not even read the novelesque background stories and what not, I'm talking just the huge wealth of quotes, movies, event-pop-ups, ect. which really get you inside of these character's heads. I think its an amazing, epic, story which would be hard to tell in any other medium. A story which spans a thousand years and dozens of different perspectives. A story about generation-long wars, intrigue, exploration, and human ascension. But its a story with so much down time it would be smothered by the pace of even the slowest mediums.
But since its a game, that down time isn't an issue at all because that's what your moment-to-moment activities represent.
I think Alpha Centauri is a model for game narratives. This is the type of story which not only travels well in our medium but could not be told as well, or even at all, in another.
What I notice, though, is that none of this is actually what I consider to be the strongest part of the game. It excels beyond most TBS's in almost every way, sure, but I just really dig the story.
I've not even read the novelesque background stories and what not, I'm talking just the huge wealth of quotes, movies, event-pop-ups, ect. which really get you inside of these character's heads. I think its an amazing, epic, story which would be hard to tell in any other medium. A story which spans a thousand years and dozens of different perspectives. A story about generation-long wars, intrigue, exploration, and human ascension. But its a story with so much down time it would be smothered by the pace of even the slowest mediums.
But since its a game, that down time isn't an issue at all because that's what your moment-to-moment activities represent.
I think Alpha Centauri is a model for game narratives. This is the type of story which not only travels well in our medium but could not be told as well, or even at all, in another.
