14 DAY TRIAL // They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if that’s true, then the development team at Firaxis that created Alpha Centauri is feeling very flattered at the moment given how close the recently launched Pandora: First Contact is to the classic experience.
The basic structure of the title is the same, the core story premise is very similar, factions bear an uncanny resemblance to each other and even plenty of the presentation of Pandora is heavily inspired by the game that Brian Reynolds put together.
My initial reaction when playing First Contact was to simply look for all the similarities and disapprovingly nod my head when I spotted a new one, thinking about the industry’s inability to improve on a game that’s already more than 10 years old.
But I then understood that Pandora, created by Proxy Studios, is a labor of love, probably created by people who, like I did when I was younger, spent hundreds of hours on the unnamed planet trying to map a path towards one of the victory objectives and then execute it.
And the old game, as much as I love its purity, needed a few improvements here and there, especially in the presentation department.
Pandora manages to make it appealing for gamers who might have not been born in 1999 and it’s easier than ever to understand what’s happening, create new units and deal with combat.
And, as I played, I discovered that First Contact does make some interesting innovation when it comes to unit design and creation and tweaks the main mechanics in ways that surprised me.
It’s unlikely that Brian Reynolds, the main designer of Alpha Centauri, will ever create a sequel, so for now, the Proxy created Pandora is the best modern option for those who loved the old title and it truly shows how great it was.