# Alpha Centauri successor Pandora: First Contact **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 21, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393 "2013-11-21T01:02:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/1 "2013-11-21T01:02:09Z")
A developer called Proxy Games recently released a spiritual successor to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. It doesn’t appear to break any new ground in the 4X genre and has a fairly high price ($34 Australian for the download), so I’ll hold off until I learn more about it. I know there are other fans of AC here, though, so I thought I’d make a thread. Order site & description: [http://www.matrixgames.com/products/435/details/Pandora:.First.Contact](http://www.matrixgames.com/products/435/details/Pandora:.First.Contact) Seems there’s only a few reviews so far, and nothing at all on Metacritic. The reviews I checked were positive, calling out a bad manual and weak AI opponents as negatives. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/2 "2013-11-21T03:16:08Z")
Very interesting. I love SMAC/SMAX to death, and still play it from time to time. It looks like they’re ripping off both SMAC and Civ V; I hope they don’t draw too much from the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/3 "2013-11-21T15:58:26Z")
Is this Pandora, as in the world of Avatar? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/4 "2013-11-21T16:03:03Z")
Do the drones still need you, still look up to you? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/5 "2013-11-21T16:07:15Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > A developer called Proxy Games recently released a spiritual successor to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. It doesn’t appear to break any new ground in the 4X genre and has a fairly high price ($34 Australian for the download), so I’ll hold off until I learn more about it. I know there are other fans of AC here, though, so I thought I’d make a thread. > > Order site & description: [http://www.matrixgames.com/products/435/details/Pandora:.First.Contact](http://www.matrixgames.com/products/435/details/Pandora:.First.Contact) > > Seems there’s only a few reviews so far, and nothing at all on Metacritic. The reviews I checked were positive, calling out a bad manual and weak AI opponents as negatives. Compared to SMAC, I think 99.9% of games had a bad manual. Wasn’t that the game that came with a 250+ page manual, complete with backstory? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/6 "2013-11-21T16:18:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Is this Pandora, as in the world of Avatar? If they’d landed that big a license, you wouldn’t have to ask if they’d landed that big a license. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/7 "2013-11-21T20:47:21Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Do the drones still need you, still look up to you? No. There are no "wonder"s to build. There are faction-wide achievement buffs you can get, but it’s done using the research mechanics, and not the city production ones. Each faction can discover them for themselves, no one is blocked by not winning the race. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alpha-centauri-successor-pandora-first-contact/674393/8 "2013-11-21T22:44:09Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > No. Well, fuck _that_. It’s like playing Warcraft without the “zug zug!”