Players may micro-manage their cities, down to assigning the population to specific jobs, such as farmer and miner, worker and scientists. Also the native Pandoran wildlife can be antagonistic and will often attack human units and even cities. Further, some terrain is actively hostile to humans, such a fungus that attacks human units passing through it. Pandora, being an earth-like alien planet, has some of the usual resources, like forests and gold, but also some new ones like the Gaia Forests and the Garden of Eden. Cities control the surrounding hexes and uses formers (terra-formers) to develop and exploit the surrounding resources. Cities are built by colonizer units (each faction starts with only one colonizer). Meanwhile, Imperium gets a bonus to its military units but the units cost 50% more, and so on with each different faction.Īs with Civilization the basic production and control unit is the city. For example, Togra University receives a research bonus but a negative to morale because of a lack of social disciple and motivation. Each of the factions has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. In Pandora the player assumes the role of the leader of one of six factions: Terra Salvum, ecological greens Noxium Corporation, aggressive capitalists Divine Ascension, religious fanatics Solar Dynasty, authoritarian communists Imperium, militaristic expansionists Togra University free-wheeling rationalists. In fact Pandora is, as the Matrix Games website proudly announces, “a spiritual successor to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.” Pandora: First Contact is a great-looking and fun to play 4X (eXplore the environment eXpand control eXploit the resources and eXterminate opponents) game, similar to the vaunted Sid Meier’s Civilization Series.

Passed Inspection: Glorious graphics, short learning curve, very short turn delays.įailed Basic: Needs a “real” manual, difficulty settings need adjustment, fairly weak AI. Price: $29.99 digital download $44.99 boxed edition and digital download. Pandora: First Contact – Game Review By Patrick Baker

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