Pandora: First Contact Trailer Short

In the future, factions have risen up from opportunities and ideologies independent of governments. Private corporations and religious movements have started wars over greed, ideology and power. Many have died and many lands lay in ruin. Planet Earth has been exhausted and colonial attempts on other planetary bodies have been in vain.

Finally, after decades of exploration, an interstellar probe has brought promise of a new world many light-years away. The most powerful factions have gathered their best men and women to send on a long journey to Pandora. Far from desolate, the earth-like planet has been found to host a plethora of indigenous life forms. While the gigantic monstrosities inland and at the oceans seem relatively calm, human-sized bugs and fungus are threatening to stop mankind's expansion.

As the various factions strive to take control, each will research and develop numerous new technologies, discovering new weapons and industry, whilst opening trade agreements and forging alliances with other factions to gain a foothold.
As they spread, they will discover ancient ruins and artifacts from alien civilizations that will grant them advantages over their rivals.

Features:

Explore a new world harboring a variety of eco-regions, from the frozen ice lands of the north, to vast deserts and lush tropical forests in the south.

Survive encounters with the planet's dangerous wild life. Deadly swarms walk the lands and agile predators fly in the skies. There is even talk of a giant creature in the oceans.

Live in harmony with nature or use it to further your cause. The indigenous life will react to your actions and treat you accordingly.

Discover ruins and artifacts, the relics of an ancient alien civilization long forgotten that can give you an edge against the planet life and other rivaling factions.

Found new cities to expand the borders of your empire. Manage cities by adjusting the tax rate, choosing production and assigning colonists to jobs.

Operate a fully globalized and pooled resource and growth system. Specialize one city to harvest minerals while churning out units in another.

Adapt your empire to pressing demand. Your colonists will migrate between cities based on factors such as pollution and living space.

Construct farms, mines, forts, and other improvements to increase the productivity of your colonies or to fortify positions.

Progress through a vast randomized research tree spanning dozens of technologies providing operations, buildings, units, weapons, and more.

Negotiate trade and research pacts with other factions for mutual benefits. Forge alliances to stand united against common foes.

Design your own units by choosing from a range of different classes, armors, weapons, and devices to maximize the strength of your forces.

Command vast armies across the battlefield against enemy factions, making use of the variety of terrain types to gain an advantage.

Unleash hell on your opponents with powerful military operations, ranging from drop pods behind enemy lines to black hole generators eradicating entire landscapes.

Prove yourself in multiplayer with friends or strangers and discover entirely new strategies.

Customize your experience through easily moddable XML data and well-known image and audio formats.

[fozzibab]

Stop calling alien planets Pandora. CAN YOU SEE THESE WORDS? NO MORE! Jump on a random name generator and grab some OTHER word and use *that* for fuck's sake. 

[Deadomen]

As a huge SMAC (and Civilization) fan I really wanted this game to be good and in it's own terms it is good (some might argue it is better than vanilla Civilization V), but in it's current state the game is broken. AI is extremely aggressive and spamming units when in war, even in Very Easy difficulty settings. 

My first game ended, because I met Divine Ascension and after a few turns they started a war against me... they were just spamming non-stop units to attack my only city and after 20 turns of defending I had to quit the game, because the only thing I can do it defend my city. My second playthrough went slightly better (still in Very Easy difficulty settings), because I chose more peaceful counterparts, but I ended up losing the scientific victory. I had the biggest empire and more money than anyone, so I wanted to try have a small war against my neighbor (who had only three cities)... it was a big mistake. As soon as the war started, he sent about 200 units against me - the screen was literally full of units. Even Civilization V had problems because of non-stacking, I believe it handled it better than Pandora. There should be some kind of unit limit...

But even I sound negative, they have done pretty good job with this game. There are many good ideas and the atmosphere is close to SMAC (the holy grail of gaming). Hopefully they will make updates and it will sell enough, because I would really like to see an expansion pack (including espionage, improved diplomacy etc.)