How is Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth?

[Kozmos]

I finished a whole game and found it disgusting there wasn't even an option to exchange maps. Game is unfinished, full of apparent slots for expansions and worst of all has a bland personality and dead writing.

 

[RedRover57]

I voted worse than Civ 5, but that is comparing apples to oranges since Civ 5 has undergone many patches and DLC since vanilla. BE could improve greatly with equivalent patches and DLC - time will tell. Currently it's fun but not challenging, so I question its longevity in its present state. In many ways it's one step forward (unit upgrade system is good) and two steps back (insert numerous complaints here).

 

[Melchizedek]

I like these games but in truth we may be paying too much for them. BE costs $50, and doesn't feel complete or capture the spirit of SMAC. Having my units gain the aesthetics of an affinity feels like a glib homage to the engaging philosophical drama of SMAC.

I agree with everyone saying this may be a really awesome game after two or three expansions, especially if the expansions are focused more on substance than form--but will it be worth the ~$150 it'll cost altogether?

 

[whiteguide]

I voted "worse".
The idea is much better, the implementation is bugged and disbalanced.
Looking forward to patches and (sigh) addons.
Feeling sad because I can't play the game which is not ready yet.

 

[prideaux]

Im confused, why does it have to be better than CiV?

Cant both be good for different reasons. I like both beer and cider. I drink one when I am in the mood for one, then the other on other days.

CiV was far from perfect when it came out (likewise IV before that), BE is still a rough jewel, so comparing it to a finished four year old game seems pointless?

 

[elder abuser]

BE is still a rough jewel, so comparing it to a finished four year old game seems pointless?

BE was just copy pasta'd from CiV so it is far from pointless to compare the two.

 

[darkskies]

I'm over 4000 hours on Civ5. Alas in BE they damaged one of my favorite parts, exploration, so I expect to be going back to Civ5 soon, once I've played around with the new tech tree etc. a little more. But I'll hold off judgment a bit longer maybe see if they fix it up a bit, I do wish they had just called this early access/beta, but of course I could have held back my $50 and waited (knowing the problems when Civ5 was released) but I wanted to see for myself and I'm a Sci-Fi addict.

I'm determined I'll wait a bit until after Civ6 comes out before I buy it (if my will power will hold up). I sometimes buy early access stuff if it looks far enough along to be worth what I'm paying (e.g. GCIII and Kerbal Space Program) but I get annoyed when I buy something that obviously isn't finished yet but claims to be (e.g. Total War Rome II and BE)...once bitten twice shy.

And to be fair there are aspects of BE that do seem finished: the graphics I like and it runs well even on my old Tablet (not counting the tablet specific bugs).

 

[lamaros]

As someone who only moved I to CiV last week after finally upgrading my computer I can very clearly say that coming to them both fresh CiV is a far far better game.

Beyond Earth needs a lot of work to catch up. It lacks a decent UI, is eye bleedingly ugly (fluro green does not a pretty game make), is more fiddly, and has almost no personality.

 

[whiteguide]

BUMP!
Let's vote folks!

 

[RevengeofNewton]

It's worse than Civ V BNW, but not worse than Civ V.

 

[CaptainPatch]

Probably too late, but I would suggest waiting until there's a couple expansions and a few content DLCs out before getting the whole set on a Steam sale at 75% off. And by that time there WILL be a bunch of decent mods available for free as well. (If I wasn't getting on in years with deteriorating health, that's the gameplan I would have taken.)

 

[Raptor42]

From my eyes, It is definitely better than Civ V at launch. However, there are several small issues, and therefore I cannot say that it is better than BNW. Maybe better than G+K, maybe not. I'm not sure.

 

[freshmaker]

It's worse. It isn't entirely un-fun, but it doesn't even try to put up a fight, so don't expect any meaningful interaction with the AI players. You ignore them until you have to wipe them out. I'm a terribly Civ V player by the standards of this board (< 50% win rate at King), and I've only lost one BE game so far, by two turns, because I missed a notification telling me Kavitha was going for a victory herself.

I don't understand the attitude, very common around here, that this game should only be compared with "vanilla" Civ V. Why? If you have a choice between buying one or the other, the only sensible option is to buy Civ V. If you want to talk about patches and fixes, wait five years before buying Civ:BE.

I have a policy against pre-ordering games. I bought Civ:BE because I had a day off the day it was coming out and nothing to do. I figured, worst case was I'd waste $50. I feel that's basically what happened. I should have installed something else and waited five years.

 

[Pietato]

Plays like a beta.

 

[CraigMak]

It is dramatically worse than Civ 5 BNW in every conceivable aspect. However, Civ 5 has had many patches and expansions. Let's hope BE gets polished, balanced and fixed eventually. Maybe in 3 years it will be on par with BNW.

Right now it's barely better than Civ 5 Vanilla was which is a huge step backwards because Vanilla was complete and utter garbage.

 

[UnderKingDuck]

I'm going to have to agree with Krajzen points here. I am beyond upset that nothing as been done to improve the AI and the overall state the game was released in. Like I can understand a few issues here and there when a game comes out, but there are so many issues in BE that it really makes me wonder if anyone was testing it for balance. Between the AI being...well bad, quest either being one sided in choice and some of them can't even be done, the factions feel a little dull, we are missing unit archetypes (melee ship where?), trade routes are a problem, and I can go on but ill stop there because this post will be really long then.

Point is the game feels really unfinished. I want to play online so I don't have to vs the AI, but I don't even want to do that unless we get a patch that fix some big issues with the game. I have to use a mod to somewhat enjoy the base game to begin with...which I can't even use online which is another thing that greatly upsets me.

 

[Germnoble]

On par with CIV5 vanilla, worse than BNW.

This.

 

[bladex]

game needs A LOT of work. though i still play it once a day

 

[blacai]

Better than Civ V but worse than BNW

 

[Resipsa]

Overall I enjoy CivBE more than CiV and that's saying alot since I have sunk a ton of time into CiV.
The main reason why is that I enjoy the combat mechanics of the new game more than CiV. I don't like how the AI will bombard your city with gunboats but fail to take it but otherwise its pretty solid.

There is a use for every unit type in your composition, the units evolve depending on your affinity and the way you can use Espionage to aid your war effort. I've played through about 5 games and 4 were domination victories.