[Spoilers] Shallow Old Human Tourist Hit the beach!

[shallow_thought]

Do you know of any modern recapture of the SMAC majesty shallow_thought?

I tried playing SMAC but it is way to archaic for me to really get into (I'm too spoiled graphics and interface wise, grew up playing Age of Empires and Empire Earth), even though I love it's concepts. I've tried several so-called "spiritual succesors", but none of them really clicked for me. Pandora: First Contact is needlessly overcomplex in some ways (the micromanagement OMG) and extremely shallow in others (the entire game is a pure conquest rush with the occasional nod to SMAC with a quest). Beyond Earth is just an insult to the original, even I can see that and I've barely even played the original!

While it's fantasy rather than SF, personally the game that most gave me the Alpha Centauri feel (as hinted in the review) was Fall from Heaven (and it's wealth of modmod improvements). The edges are even rougher, if anything, but the core engine is Civ IV, with all the goodness that brings. I don't want to say much more, as we will probably get up to city "F" quite soon (love that IMP), although there's plenty of competition in that alphabetic slot. I've never come across an SF strategy game that felt the same. I've never played Beyond Earth, and nothing I've read makes me regret that.

These reviews are likely to accentuate the positive. I re-bought AC from GoG last year, inspired by the SFDebris review, and I played it exactly once. Graphics I can cope with, but there are parts of the gameplay that it's hard to go back to after Civ IV (no hard borders, that "collateral damage" in stacks...). So, yes, I guess you had to be there .

EDIT: I was going to suggest maybe looking at Endless Space 2 (I've barely started that game) but I see you're already over there in the thread I was going to link.