Biologist
Emperor
Saw Civ: BE had a free weekend on Steam and decided to try it out. I'd been kept away by the negative reviews and high price tag, but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and had nothing to lose (aside from some time I could have spent playing Dragon Age Inquisition). Here's my impressions after two lengthy play sessions in which I completed about 3/4 of a game on Quick speed, Vostok difficulty:
UI
One of the first things I noticed was that the UI feels stripped down and utilitarian compared to Civ V. Think of the transition between Rome: Total War and Total War: Rome II and you'll have the idea. At least, it should be utilitarian, but it's actually gotten in my way several times. Finding out what level my various units were at took a while, and I still have no idea how to tell where my specialist slots are and whether citizens are allocated to them. Diplomacy interface is disappointingly bare-bones, and the pidgin English spoken by some of the leaders I encountered is somewhat jarring. The Jarvis-like advisor was helpful at first, but I quickly got tired of it pointing out that I could assign trade routes or conduct espionage missions every other turn. I GET IT ALREADY!!! I like the new Civilopedia. Very straightfoward, and without much of the awkward...childishness of the Civ V version. Sometimes it does its job a bit too well, though; many entries have so much technobabble and psycho-pseudomystical-New Age gobbledygook that my eyes glaze over by the end, and that's coming from someone who's read all of Asimov's Foundation books. It does set the tone nicely though, and I particularly liked the last paragraph of the entry for "Cynosure"
Combat
Surprisingly, I have fewer gripes than most people on this score. I spent a *lot* of time at war with Supremacy Polystralia, so I got to observe the AI using a number of different tactics. At first it just suicided all its units into my cities, and I thought "here we go again". Then it pulled back and was quiet for a while, and I found it had built an airforce and an army of hovering tanks that attacked from unexpected angles. When I countered this strategy, the cyborgs added in naval bombardments of my coastline. Finally, they began launching orbital laser satellites everywhere and blasting my cities and armies to rubble until I could get artillery into position, which was hard to do with their tanks forming a screen around the satellites. Granted, the AI had technological superiority over me for most of the game because I had no clue what I was doing research-wise, but the tactical variety was encouraging. I even saw the AI perform an air sweep once to clear out my interceptors. One thing that bugs me: why do some of the unique units seem pointless? My Battlesuit soldiers had no discernable advantage over my generic Sentinels except production cost. Was I supposed to have gotten access to them earlier, making them relatively more useful, or is there a real balancing issue here?
Aliens
I am sad to report that aliens are not actually unfamiliar but are simply barbarians... IN SPAAAACE! Early game the alien hordes seem unstoppable when provoked, and it's all i can do to hack my way through to destroy a nest before my marines and gunners get obliterated in retaliation.... and I'd better hope I don't encounter a hungry Siege Worm. Later in the game, I decided to go bug-hunting during a lull in my endless war against Polystralia, and one of my Sentinel infantry units slaughtered wave after wave of aliens without breaking a sweat. They'd gone from unpredictable, terrifying killers to insignificant roadblocks. I'm wondering if Harmony is a more interesting alien interaction than xenophobic Purity.
Diplomacy
Without exaggeration, it feels like Civ V vanilla diplomacy all over again. Civs will beg again and again to enter a nebulous "cooperation pact", then throw it all away the moment they decide they don't like how you've redecorated your patch of Terra Nova. Hutama denounced me (or "condemned", if you prefer) about 20 turns after signing such a pact, and then declared war on me about 10 turns after that, all while massing troops on his border. You can imagine my shock. That said, it seems that factions who pick the same affinity as you make a genuine attempt to befriend you, so maybe it's best to just ignore diplomacy until everyone decides on their philosophy. Ultimately the ideological blocs feel like an oversimplified version of the late-game diplomacy from Civ V. Only here, we don't even have an inter-factional council to agree on some ground rules. Diplomacy is definitely the most lacking aspect of the game, in terms of both gameplay and presentation.
Espionage
Espionage is powerful and feels like a meaningful part of the game, which is good. It may be too powerful, which could be bad if you're not a fan of using exploits to make life easier. Even as a complete newbie to BE I could see the potential inherent in Espionage spam. My economy was in the tank for virtually the entire game, so I just funded my army by stealing money from my enemy - over and over and over again. Need reinforcements? No problem, I'll just steal a few tanks and artillery batteries from the Kavithans. They didn't really need them anyway. There are countermeasures to espionage, but the AI seems to be inconsistent at best in employing them. To be fair, sometimes the rewards aren't all that great (stealing a bunch of Explorer units is more of a burden than a help). Stealing tech can change the game in unexpected ways, which is fun. I used the miasma-condensing tech I got from those bug-loving Kavithans to form a buffer zone between myself and Polystralia, then surround their cities with the noxious alien gas.
Technology
Unlike many players, I enjoyed the nonlinear tech web. The only problem is, I suspect that once I discover (or Google) the optimal path through the web for my chosen victory, I'll just beeline those techs with little deviation, except from theft. It was fun to have some freedom in deciding when to pick up certain "basic" techs in favor of getting more powerful stuff, and having a free technology rewarded to you feels more meaningful now, since you get to make a choice with multiple options, rather than just clearing a bottleneck from a linear decision tree.
Overall, I enjoyed Civilization: BE. I did not enjoy it $50 worth. I may not even have enjoyed it $30 worth, but I did enjoy it. The makings of a very fun game are in there somewhere, *if* Firaxis and the mod community give it the attention it deserves in due time.
UI
One of the first things I noticed was that the UI feels stripped down and utilitarian compared to Civ V. Think of the transition between Rome: Total War and Total War: Rome II and you'll have the idea. At least, it should be utilitarian, but it's actually gotten in my way several times. Finding out what level my various units were at took a while, and I still have no idea how to tell where my specialist slots are and whether citizens are allocated to them. Diplomacy interface is disappointingly bare-bones, and the pidgin English spoken by some of the leaders I encountered is somewhat jarring. The Jarvis-like advisor was helpful at first, but I quickly got tired of it pointing out that I could assign trade routes or conduct espionage missions every other turn. I GET IT ALREADY!!! I like the new Civilopedia. Very straightfoward, and without much of the awkward...childishness of the Civ V version. Sometimes it does its job a bit too well, though; many entries have so much technobabble and psycho-pseudomystical-New Age gobbledygook that my eyes glaze over by the end, and that's coming from someone who's read all of Asimov's Foundation books. It does set the tone nicely though, and I particularly liked the last paragraph of the entry for "Cynosure"
Combat
Surprisingly, I have fewer gripes than most people on this score. I spent a *lot* of time at war with Supremacy Polystralia, so I got to observe the AI using a number of different tactics. At first it just suicided all its units into my cities, and I thought "here we go again". Then it pulled back and was quiet for a while, and I found it had built an airforce and an army of hovering tanks that attacked from unexpected angles. When I countered this strategy, the cyborgs added in naval bombardments of my coastline. Finally, they began launching orbital laser satellites everywhere and blasting my cities and armies to rubble until I could get artillery into position, which was hard to do with their tanks forming a screen around the satellites. Granted, the AI had technological superiority over me for most of the game because I had no clue what I was doing research-wise, but the tactical variety was encouraging. I even saw the AI perform an air sweep once to clear out my interceptors. One thing that bugs me: why do some of the unique units seem pointless? My Battlesuit soldiers had no discernable advantage over my generic Sentinels except production cost. Was I supposed to have gotten access to them earlier, making them relatively more useful, or is there a real balancing issue here?
Aliens
I am sad to report that aliens are not actually unfamiliar but are simply barbarians... IN SPAAAACE! Early game the alien hordes seem unstoppable when provoked, and it's all i can do to hack my way through to destroy a nest before my marines and gunners get obliterated in retaliation.... and I'd better hope I don't encounter a hungry Siege Worm. Later in the game, I decided to go bug-hunting during a lull in my endless war against Polystralia, and one of my Sentinel infantry units slaughtered wave after wave of aliens without breaking a sweat. They'd gone from unpredictable, terrifying killers to insignificant roadblocks. I'm wondering if Harmony is a more interesting alien interaction than xenophobic Purity.
Diplomacy
Without exaggeration, it feels like Civ V vanilla diplomacy all over again. Civs will beg again and again to enter a nebulous "cooperation pact", then throw it all away the moment they decide they don't like how you've redecorated your patch of Terra Nova. Hutama denounced me (or "condemned", if you prefer) about 20 turns after signing such a pact, and then declared war on me about 10 turns after that, all while massing troops on his border. You can imagine my shock. That said, it seems that factions who pick the same affinity as you make a genuine attempt to befriend you, so maybe it's best to just ignore diplomacy until everyone decides on their philosophy. Ultimately the ideological blocs feel like an oversimplified version of the late-game diplomacy from Civ V. Only here, we don't even have an inter-factional council to agree on some ground rules. Diplomacy is definitely the most lacking aspect of the game, in terms of both gameplay and presentation.
Espionage
Espionage is powerful and feels like a meaningful part of the game, which is good. It may be too powerful, which could be bad if you're not a fan of using exploits to make life easier. Even as a complete newbie to BE I could see the potential inherent in Espionage spam. My economy was in the tank for virtually the entire game, so I just funded my army by stealing money from my enemy - over and over and over again. Need reinforcements? No problem, I'll just steal a few tanks and artillery batteries from the Kavithans. They didn't really need them anyway. There are countermeasures to espionage, but the AI seems to be inconsistent at best in employing them. To be fair, sometimes the rewards aren't all that great (stealing a bunch of Explorer units is more of a burden than a help). Stealing tech can change the game in unexpected ways, which is fun. I used the miasma-condensing tech I got from those bug-loving Kavithans to form a buffer zone between myself and Polystralia, then surround their cities with the noxious alien gas.
Technology
Unlike many players, I enjoyed the nonlinear tech web. The only problem is, I suspect that once I discover (or Google) the optimal path through the web for my chosen victory, I'll just beeline those techs with little deviation, except from theft. It was fun to have some freedom in deciding when to pick up certain "basic" techs in favor of getting more powerful stuff, and having a free technology rewarded to you feels more meaningful now, since you get to make a choice with multiple options, rather than just clearing a bottleneck from a linear decision tree.
Overall, I enjoyed Civilization: BE. I did not enjoy it $50 worth. I may not even have enjoyed it $30 worth, but I did enjoy it. The makings of a very fun game are in there somewhere, *if* Firaxis and the mod community give it the attention it deserves in due time.
