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Well, I just have to make a small addition here, since I have heard and seen things lately indicating that Microprose is not as dead as they appear. I've read an interview with Dave Ellis, the man in charge of the making of X-COM: Genesis who also says work is proceeding well with X-COM: Alliance. They have gotten a completely new and very good support section which may have been why the site hasn't been updatet for ages, and I hear Hasbro (the owner of Microprose) has talked to the people at Microprose and asked them what game they'd like to make and it seems the number one on their list is Master of Magic 2. So all you Master of Magic fans out there can only hope it's true.
Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen
Lately I have been thinking about the fall of Microprose… It seems strange to me that a company, which only one or two years ago seemed to be doing very well, has fallen so drastically. Microprose was for years the most important producer/publisher of strategy games. They have great titles like Civilization 1-2, the X-COM games (well, Mythos made the best ones), Master of Orion 2 (perhaps even better than Civ) and even further back several great Sid Meier-games as well.
Yes, Sid has left them and Brian Reynolds has left them, but still… As far as I know, neither Brian nor Sid ever worked on Master of Orion 2, and they certainly didn't work on X-COM. Still, the company seems lost, drifting away into oblivion. Their website never updates (a very bad sign) and you never seem to hear from them anymore. Even when they do make a game, you hardly know it was they who made it... I know they are working on more X-COM games, and that's just about all I know. I hope and pray (well, if I were religious I would) that those will be good, but I fear they won't.
This is a sad chapter in computer gaming history, as it seems the company that used to be an assurance of good strategy games now is dead. MPS were the kings of TB strategy-games, but it seems to be over, after several glorious years. I can't help but shed a tear for this old giant. I guess they couldn't make ”a company to stand the test of time” (see Civ1). It seemed like the sun would never set on Microprose and I simply assumed that they'd always be there to make more and better games, now hope fades that I will ever see a Master of Orion 3, and that, to all those of you who haven't played MOO2, would be very sad indeed. Even when they do make a new game, there's never any ”warning” and their website never informs you until the game's been out for a long time. Say what you like, but I believe Microprose is dead, and shows no sign of rising again. In a time where more primitive kill-every-poor-bastard-you-see-games are gaining popularity and Real-time strategy-games are taking over large parts of the market, the world could need a company like MPS. But they are not there, and I think to myself; ”Oh, how the mighty have fallen…”.
Sure, Firaxis is a somewhat promising new company that might, but just might, take over the role of MPS, but SMAC is not too assuring. It's quite a good game, it's not that, but it hasn't got that little unexplainable ”thing” that MPS Civ-games used to have. I know that Firaxis is still young, but I'm scared. SMAC tried to borrow some elements from MOO2 but didn't really succeed. It felt better in MOO2, and they didn't take it all the way. SMAC is too dark and sterile, and it doesn't really touch my heart, so as to speak. Here's what I thought was bad in SMAC:
1. The terrain is boring, with too little variation, and the raised terrain is hardly an improvement, since it usually makes the world look less realistic rather than more.
2. Only 7 different factions is not enough, it must be possible to play the game several times without just meeting the same people all the time, like in Civ 1-2 or MOO2.
3. Diplomacy is NOT what I expected, and felt Firaxis had promised. There are waaaay too few diplomatic options, both in faction-to-faction negotiation and in the council. No diplomatic actions should be forced - maybe I don't mind that the Hive nerve staples its citizens, because I'm the Morganites and the Hive are good business partners. That could happen in the real world. Besides, the diplomacy screen should cover the entire screen, the leader portrait should be larger, like in Civ2, and each faction should have their distinct "diplomacy song". A two years older game like MOO2 has MUCH better diplomacy than SMAC. Firaxis just doesn't seem to care much about the diplomacy. In real life you can't just start a war with whoever you want whenever you want, it just doesn't work that way!
4. I missed details like the throne room/palace, "view city" and different pictures/movies when conquering a city. There was not enough explanation concerning what different buildings actually are, just what they do. There are also no pictures of the buildings like all previous Civ-type games have had.
5. I was bored after I had won, a small picture and a little "interlude" is not satisfaction enough after days of playing! I want movies like in all previous games of this type! SMAC actually lacks several things that all previous (and thus assumed inferior) games have had, and things that have made those games better than SMAC. SMAC is just to sterile and dark, there is nothing to make you engaged, and glue you to your computer. SMAC is inferior to older games, and that is a sad thing to say about a game...
Call me a heretic or whatever you like, but this is how I feel. If you have anything to say on this, or other topics, mail it to me, and I'll put it in this section.