Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire

"An expansion that makes an already great game even greater"

Released about a year after the original game, Alien Crossfire is the expansion pack to the undiscovered jewel of turn-based strategy, Alpha Centauri. With tons of new factions, technologies, improvements, and unit parts, this is quite the formidable expansion to the original game. What's better is that it is quite easy to find it bundled with the original game for a very low price.

The game's basic “addition” to the story is this… The factions each have settled into the new world, and several years following landfall, two alien probe ships arrive, both shooting at each other. Both ships reach the point of destruction, and they send out escape pods to the surface of the planet below. Now, the human factions are caught between the struggle of these two feuding alien groups in “alien crossfire.” They seem to both be after some power hidden on this planet in the “Manifold Nexus.” Of course, this doesn't happen if you don't include the aliens in your list when deciding what factions will be in the game. The two alien races are always at war, no matter what you do, and often it is difficult to befriend both at the same time. On the up side, they aren't in the Planetary Council, so you don't have to worry about earning their votes.

In terms of graphics and sound, everything is pretty much the same. There are tons of new combinations of units, and all of their icons are pretty much the same. The new graphics for the alien races are also well done, with quite “unique” looking cities and colony pods. There aren't many new additions to sounds, so this is an area that is pretty much untouched.

The planet has also gotten a few new additions to its barrage of forces. There are three new planet-psy units… the defensive fungal towers, the ranged spore launchers, and the sea lurks, giant sea monsters that lurk in the depths of the aquatic Xenofungus.

There is a great set of new improvements for your bases. To start out, there are some major secret projects: The Cloudbase Academy, which counts as an Aerospace Complex in every base, Manifold Harmonics, which gives you a bonus on production from Xenofungus and monolith squares, the Nethack Terminus, which produces Probe Teams that get a -25% cost bonus and automatic Algorithmic Enhancements (a new special ability that raises the outcome probability of probe teams) if they use a reactor of fusion or higher, and the Planetary Energy Grid, which gives you an Energy Bank in every city.

The new regular improvements are the Aquafarm, which gives bonuses to Kelp Farms, Brood Pit, which gives a +1 Lifecycle Bonus to all native life forms bred in the city, and makes them cost 25% less, the Covert Ops Center, which gives all probe teams built there a +2 Morale, the Flechette Defense System, which protects the area from conventional missiles, and has a 50% chance of stopping non-conventional missiles, the Geosynchronous Survey Pod, which gives the base a 3-square sight radius, the Subspace Trunkline, which gives bonuses to Mining Platforms, and the Thermocline Transducer, which gives bonuses to Tidal Harnesses.

Finally, the last new additions are the new factions themselves. There is the Cult of the Planet, a cult dedicated to returning the planet to its original state, the cyborg faction, the Cybernetic Consciousness, the seafaring Nautilus Pirates, the hacker-friendly Data Angels, the Free Drones who have escaped the wrath of their “oppressors,” and the two alien factions, the Manifold Usurpers and Caretakers.

Overall, this expansion adds tons of new features to an already great game. This expansion is a must for anyone wanting to enjoy the full potential of this amazing side-saga of the Civilization series. With tons of new additions, this really completes the game, earning this expansion the well-deserved 10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/03, Updated 05/20/04