Final Beyond Earth

OK, it's time. The fact that I haven't written about Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth has bugged me for some time now.

I wanted to play some more before before critiquing it, but other things have come up. And that's a tell. Although I really like Beyond Earth, I haven't had the urge, no, the need to play it like I've played Civ 5.

The reason for this isn't just real life getting in the way, or other games being more alluring. No, it's that Beyond Earth is missing something. I have no idea what it's missing though. When I started playing Civ 5 it was bundled with the Gods & Kings DLC, so I've never played vanilla Civ 5. My version of Civ 5 is now complete with all DLCs, but I get what others have told me about the base game being good but incomplete. This is how I feel about Beyond Earth.

Maybe it's the AI, I'm not sure. I do think the diplomacy system is weak, including the trade. Usually when an AI faction wants to trade, they offer one favor (generic payment) for X resources for thirty turns, but they refuse to return the favor, even if they like you.

I haven't as yet had a war with the AI, so no comments about that, but one thing that bugs me is that all factions start whining if you start killing aliens. Even the factions that don't like aliens, i.e. Purity factions. Seems they should be on your side, after all. (Purity = Humanity is best, screw the rest).

Also, since you can research everything you want, the choices of which paradigm you want to go for becomes somehow lessened. There's just not much of a sacrifice to make.

Otherwise this is a really fun game to play. The overall feel is great, and I love the fact that the first time you build something, you have to make a choice. So when you build, say a laboratory you get to choose if all your labs produce more health for your people or more energy. This allows you to fine tune your needs as you go.

The tech system is also good, and I like the units and the graphics, the music etc. All in all Beyond Earth is a very robust game, that can in time turn into a real classic.

And speaking of classics, I never played Alpha Centauri. The game that was lauded as civilization in space. It always bothered me that I missed such a classic. But now, I see lots of people online complaining that Beyond Earth isn't more like Alpha Centauri, and I think that's a shame. It is after all NOT Alpha Centauri, and it was never meant to be. I of course can't even make such a comparison, and I'm grateful for that.

Actually, come to think of it, one of the somethings that bothers me, is that the factions, led by their distinct leaders lack the personalities that their Civ 5 counterparts have. Sure, this makes them less hemmed in and predictable, but it also means that I can't get a grip on them as easily. I can't really relate to them, I suppose.

Final verdict time. If you like sci-fi and building civ's this is a game for you. To be honest I hope they release a DLC for it soon, but I'm not going to stop playing it either way. And it's actually refreshing to play a sci-fi builder that's not set to an empire scale, and “just” build a large thriving colony.

So, there we are. Job done. Come back next week, and we'll see what I can cook up. Have a great week!