When Civilization II came out, I spent an entire summer playing it for several hours a day. The only check on my binging was the fact that my parents would eventually come home and force me to pretend, for a few hours at least, that I cared about things other than Civilization II.

I was a senior in college when Civilization IV arrived. I’d barely played strategy games at all for the previous four years, and “senioritis” brought with it a case of intense nostalgia. I bought it in the spring before graduation. It was still consuming my days and nights when the leaves fell later that year.

That was probably the last time my enjoyment of a 4X game was pure and uncomplicated. Lately, I’ve been wondering where that joy has gone, and why so few games seem to add anything essential to those old experiences.

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As we prepare to cast judgement on Civilization: Beyond Earth, Firaxis’ latest voyage into the unknown, we cast out minds back to Alpha Centauri’s treatment of humanity’s future. With a stronger emphasis on narrative, rigid factions and a malleable Planet, Alpha Centauri changed the Civ formula significantly and to great effect. We asked author and Icon deputy editor Will Wiles to examine the impact of future past.

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The version of Pandora: First Contact that I’ve been playing since last week is far from complete – it’s stable and packed with potential but the tech tree and map generation are just two major features that are due to experience major overhauls. When the game in question is a strategic task of exploration and colonisation on an alien planet not a thousand light years from Alpha Centauri’s neck of the universe, those aspects are important, so I can’t provide an informed opinion as to what Pandora will achieve. But I can say that many of the pieces are in place and it is, at the very least, a pleasing echo of Firaxis’ finest.

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