So I picked up BE back when it released, because my MacBook could supposedly run it, though that turned out not to be the case. I basically forgot about it until about a week ago when I saw it in my steam library and decided to try it on my current MacBook, where it runs smooth-as-silk, and then a few days later I added Rising Tide. I can legitimately say that, as much Civ as I've played in my life (thousand and thousands of hours), no game in the series has sucked me in as powerfully and immediately as this one. I think there are a few reasons for this:
1. It's a 6-7 year-old game running on my newish machine, meaning almost no time spent checking emails or facebook between turns. This alone is huge.
2. The engine is Civ V's, and the mechanics very much adapted from it, but not exactly so, such that it feels both new and familiar in a good combination.
3. It's gorgeous. Especially with Rising Tide, the look of it is just stunning, even today. The way that the different worlds look and just feel different is amazing, and it feels distinct from messing around with map type / temperature / rainfall settings in Civ.
4. Coming in without pre-conceived notions of the AI personalities, it's been fun to see how my opinions of them develop over a number of games. A week in, I know that Han Jae-Moon will always hate me and eventually declare war on me, even if he only has one poorly-defended aquatic city and is already at war with several AI players. Hutama will always be friendly at first and then backstab me mid-game. Arshia and Barre will be my besties from beginning to end, etc. But an interesting thing about this is that I have no idea if this is the case for everyone. The respect system (which I haven't looked under the hood on) makes it feel as if they're just responding to my priorities in gameplay, and that if I shifted around and adapted, their reactions might change. No idea if that's accurate, though.
5. Tech-Web, as a concept, is just way cooler to me than Tech-tree. I imagine I'll tire of it soon enough, but it's a neat twist on the concept that really fits the idea of Future-Tech.
6. Affinities! Affinities Affinities Affinities! Such a great concept, that makes so much more sense narratively than CivV's Ideologies.
7. Traits! Traits Traits Traits! Much like the aforementioned Ideologies in that you can change them for a price, but seriously, what a cool way to do Diplomacy! The fact that developing these helps to develop the agreements available to the AI, and that those agreement benefits improve with a better relationship status, is awesome.
8. I never go to war in Civ if I can help it, and have gotten very good at avoiding it. It just stresses me right out, for whatever reason. BE and BERT don't give me that option. There will be war and you need to be prepared for it, which adds real tension and difficulty in choosing how to deal with science, industry, colonization and generally just how much you should be pumping out units vs. getting your infrastructure up. When I switch back to Civ6 from this, I fully expect to have my gameplay-style changed, probably for the better.
9. Expeditions and Marvels make it worthwhile to explore every inch of the map, even though resource allocation and AI behavior discourages settling wide.
So, what are my criticisms, even though I'm having a ball with this?
1. Games feel same-y. The victory paths lead to different endgames, but not different enough, and 20-40 turns of waiting, followed by a sudden victory screen, isn't satisfying. Especially since you're going to be crushing it if you've managed to survive to the endgame, it turns things into a slog in those endless final turns.
2. Affinity Flavor feels mostly cosmetic. Don't get me wrong - I love the cosmetics of it. But so far I haven't felt a big difference with units or gameplay going down different paths, and that's me playing a style of choosing my techs based on trying to get affinities raised as quickly as possible (so that everyone kicking around in their Cutters will stop mocking my unit strength, which I now realize might be about Veterancies rather than Upgrades... hmmm...)
3. Leaders have personality... but not enough of it. This is probably me spoiled from Civ6 in terms of civilization/leader distinctiveness. Especially with all of the DLC and expansions in that game, they've really gone down a route of making every civ play uniquely and every leader feel like someone you know and understand. CivV was baby-steps into doing this, which BE and BERT reflect. So while I'm always happy to meet PAU and Al Falah, and start gearing up for war as soon as I meet Chungsu, the "narrative" of the game feels like it rests way too much with the player, except inasmuch as the war-happy AI can push you towards a Domination victory being just easier and more actively engaging than waiting for the Mind Flower to bloom. It'd be preferable to have opinions about the leaders, but have that lead to situational cooperation/alliances depending on the individual circumstances of the game. Right now it already feels like walking into a party and already know who my friends are and who they aren't.
4. The customizability is fantastic, but the dearth of Sponsor-uniques is disappointing. Beyond just making playing with different leaders feel, you know, unique, they could have been a great balancing tool. Imagine if Brasilia had an early unit that could either stand toe-to-toe with Aliens in the early game, or else be produced much more quickly than a soldier or a ranger? Or if Slavic Federation had an early Orbital unit that granted sight over unexplored parts of the map? These are just top-of-my-head ideas for making hay out of underwhelming traits that, in the game, are the only things making one sponsor distinct from any other.
5. Naval Units kinda feel like the only units that matter, now that I'm talking about it. Maybe if I played on Protean that would feel different, but with roads being so costly (especially in the early game) and Aquatic cities so worthwhile, everyone seems to settle on the coast, or near enough to bombard from the ocean, so building up a formidable land-army is a waste of turns, and since you can only build the dry-dock in aquatic cities, this becomes a feedback-loop (much as, if Land Units were the ones that mattered, the Repair Facility restriction would make Aquatic cities rare.)
6. Again, no real balance for the Sponsors. ARC might not be "strictly better" than Chungsu in a technical sense, but come on. Slavic Federation's bonuses are practically non-existent, especially with resources being plentiful, evenly distributed, and - most importantly - unnecessary to make the Solar Collector, the bread-and-butter of Orbital Units. This goes on and on. Ideally, I'd want more more more in terms of available sponsors, but if twelve is all we get, they should be more universally well-thought-out.
But all that said, I'm loving it. Flawed, underrated gem indeed.