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SMAC was a really great game, ahead of its time in many ways and laid some groundwork for ideas later worked into Civs 3+.

It's a shame the totally-not-a-SMAC-sequel Civ: Beyond Earth did not not do it justice.

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I agree! With all the debate about Civ vii vs Civ vi, the group I play civ with sometimes debates what was the best version of civ. SMAC might be my choice! It was only a single player game but as a single player game it had great balance and strategic choices. The map art was a little ugly and customizing units was not that interesting.

SMAC had network and hot seat multi-player. It didn't come with a server or any form of matchmaking but I remember playing some games over the internet in the early 2000s. Probably through MSN Gaming Zone but I can't be certain.

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