As an Alpha Centauri veteran I was enjoying this game despite bugs, UI issues, idiotic AI, lack of wonder/victory movies, and other nitpicks. I was appreciating innovations like 1UPT, affinity, quests, ranged combat, trade, and virtues, and I was loving the science fiction setting, the map animations/unit design, and the minimalistic art style of the tech web. Although the atmosphere wasn't as rich, I felt Beyond Earth had potential to be a worthy spiritual successor to SMAC. I thought it would provide hundreds of hours more entertainment. But then the first patch was released...

The patch felt like it nerfed everything: trade routes were sometimes worse than useless and buying trade depots no longer possible. Level 4 unique units were suddenly redundant, and covert operations not worth the candle. Changes to the trade route UI which were meant to help, only cluttered things further, and the botch job done to the tech web where smears of colour were applied to the crisp black and white icon artwork felt to me like the defacing of Ecce Homo. Meanwhile that damned explorer animation bug remained.

The game I was playing one day, was drastically changed the next. Instead of a polished game, it now felt like I was playing a beta.

We could argue all day about balancing issues, and I admit the game was easy even on the highest difficulty setting providing one enjoyed a good start location (there was challenge if the start location was less than ideal or on small maps with limited real estate), but such a dramatic adjustment so early leaves me little confidence in the development team. It feels like an overreaction to appease negative feedback, rather than a measured effort to fine tune an already solid system. A change necessary of this magnitude should have been weeded out long before release.

My conclusion is that Firaxis depend too strongly upon fan feedback, rather than the talent and vision of their own game designers. It should also be noted that Firaxis seem unable to deliver polished games without the need of subsequent expansion packs. Therefore I do not recommend this game, and I will certainly avoid getting sucked into any hype regarding the inevitable Civilization 6. I can only hope that as with Civilization V, Beyond Earth eventually finds it feet, and that those who preferred the original design get their game back.

Edit in reply to comments:

As stated, I was enjoying the game before the patch. I think I played the patched game for an hour or two before quitting. So it would be safe to say that 320 hours were logged before the patch. If all the first patch had done was fix the 'Cultural Burden' quest and the Explorer animation glitch, I'd probably have logged 500 hours by now.

Later patches I'd have liked to have seen trade route management improved, e.g. a sorting option from best to worst yields, and a means to automate trade routes entirely. Also I think the affinity victory conditions should have been pushed back to level 16 or even 18. Level 13 was way too early, and left much of the tech web unexplored. But in general I was very happy with the game.

I avoided Civilization V entirely because it had a similarly rough start. Therefore this was my first TBS game since Civilization IV. All the innovations since that game, including graphical improvement, explains the 300+ hours. I was playing Beyond Earth every opportunity I had and was suffering one more turn syndrome like a junkie hanging for a fix. This was no reskin for me.

Then the patch ruined everything. Instead of having confidence in the original design, I feel that Firaxis hastily kowtowed to upset fans who thought the game was too easy. In my first experiments with the patch, I felt handicapped to the point of absurdity. For example, I built a trade route that gave me zero in return, and provided my rival with one energy. That is some nerf!

No doubt one could learn new ways to overcome such a disadvantage, but why should I put effort into learning a new system when the developers could up and change everything at the drop of a hat once again?

Therefore my complaint and bad review is not so much against the fundamental game, which I still believe has potential, but the way Firaxis have handled things.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

I also question the validity of this review with the hours logged, esp just in the last 2 weeks. Are you going to revise your review after playing the latest patch or what? What's the deal? Downvoting.

When the game comes to a final state, perhaps after an expansion, I'll certainly revise my review. I'm still hoping further patches might arrive at more elegant solutions than what has been implemented thus far. I'm more hopeful that mods will improve gameplay, but that won't be to the credit of Firaxis.

I really tried to like this game but I have to give it a thumbs down.

Short review:

- the game lacks personality.
- the leaders are bland.
- diplomacy is worse than Civ V
- colour palatte/graphics make it hard ot distinguish tiles
- buildings are boring and non-descript
- wonders are underpowered and unimaginative
- there are better games out there (Endless space, endless legend, Gal CIV III (when it comes out).

Don't buy it.

Long review:

Problems:

(1) Leaders: It's certainly been said before, the leaders are boring. They have no personality. They're animations are basically the same as well.

(2) Diplomacy: Civ V's diplomacy was a huge stepdown from Civ IV but what made it passable was the excellent leader animations which made the model tolerable. With BE, you have the exact same diplomacy from V but with bland leaders.
They had a real opportunity to make this game stand out but they decided to add in feature after feature rather than refining what was there. One common complaint regarding Civ V was the diplomacy but it seems the Devs here could really care less. Too bad. Great diplomacy could have rescued this game

(3) Graphics: Certainly the graphics are different than what you see in V but they are ultimately forgetable and very frustrating. The biggest complaint I have is it's impossible to tell what some tiles are without hovering the mouse over them. On some planets you'll have purple tundra which looks very simlar to purple grassland which looks similar to plains. ARRGH.

(4) Too many buildings: I think what ended up happening is when they were making the game the Devs realized you run out of things to do quickly since the game isn't very deep. Hence, they added more buildings to give you something to do with your cities rather than just allocating them to wealth, research, production. The end result is you get building 1 which give 1 health, and building 2 which gives 2 health and 1 science, and building 3 which gives 2 health and 2 science. None of them are interesting or something you'd b-line a tech to get because it will help you. They are all forgetable.

(5) Wonders are horrible: Wonders in every Civ game were something that ultimately could give you a good boost. In BE they are basically slightly more powerful verisons of the normal buildings you'd already build but they cost 5-10 times as much. I don't even remember the names of any of them. Again, they're forgetable.

(6) Victory conditions are too similar: Three of the 5 conditions are pretty much the same: Build special building, then in 30 turns you win the game if you remember to click the buildling every turn (yes, this is a simplification but that's pretty much it). Again, forgetable.

Really the entire game is: forgetable. There are other games I'd try before spending any money on BE. Endless space, despite it's shortcomings really had more charm and gameplay. Endless legend is way better.

If you doubt my review, check out the latest game play stats. Despite getting a huge patch a day ago the number of players hasn't jumped beyond 6200. Civ V, 4 years since release, is still at 35000.

Firaxis dropped a rare bomb here. I truely hope that the Devs who worked on this don't play any significant role in Civ VI.

Beyond Earth tried to bring back the Alpha Centauri goodness back from 1999 combined with the strengths of the Civ 5 engine. Unfortunately the effort fails, and fails big time. There are so many holes and short comings in this game, that it's hard where to hard start. Don't get me wrong, the game has generally good mechanics and is visually appealing, but overall it just maybe good, but definitely not a must-pay-game.

• The biggest drawback is balancing. The game is way, way too easy. In any Civ game before I didn't dare to play the highest difficulty level. Not so in BE. I skipped two or three levels inbetween and played my 4th game at Apollo and won it easily within 180 turns.
  
• Currently trade-route-spamming is the most effective way to win/dominate a game. With 3 traderoutes (Auto Plant!), the bonuses you get from trade routes are eclipising any early or mid-game buildings you use in a city. And the boost is enormous.
  
• The AI is just too passive. Even on Apollo level it rarely attacks, and if so its forces are too weak to make a prolonged and effective attack work.
  
• The aliens, while interesting at the start, soon lose any appeal and become cannon fooder as soon as you build your first affinity specific unit.
  
• No proper feedback. I just build a unit or a building, but where?? I have to check the logs to find this information??
  
• No in-game videos. I build a wonder, just a textbox. I won the game, just a textbox, and so on ..

Would I recommend this game? In the current state (first version; unpatched) I would only recommend it only to the die-hard Civ fans, and even for those the long-term motivation is minimal due to the lack of balance and challenge. Maybe 6 out 10 would be a fair rating, imho.

Anticipated this game a lot. Hoped for a space themed Civ5 and some more.

What I got was a game that consists mainly of clicking 'next turn'. Even on medium-high difficulty the game is just incredibly shallow.
There's a new 'virtue' system that allows you to go through 3 different paths, but you scan score points in these paths only through research and literally three random quests that you might, or might not run into.

I'd recommend waiting a couple of months for the next updates and content packs and hope that firaxis steps up their game. Right now, Civ5 on launch day was more complex than this.

The price is not even close to being justified.

Latest patch (Fall season) that was supposed to fix all the previous problems entirely broke a perfectly working installation on my system. I can't create a new game, nor load a saved game. Nothing else has changed except this patch that I couldn't choose to NOT install, nor revert.

Considering how long it'll take 2K to get around to even recognize this issue (based on their last record of 2+ months), DO NOT attempt to look at this game for at least another year until some heads at 2K roll.

Firstly, I wish I could give this game a neutral rating.

I'm an avid Civ V fan and I did enjoy Civ BE. But BE is overpriced for the amount of game content, and the multiplayer is too unreliable to be counted upon unless gaming with a known premade group of friends. I have given up on even attempting public mutliplayer at this point in time. Basically don't buy this game if single player isn't enough for you.

BE offers a refinement on Civ V's mechanics in many ways, the tech tree, automatic Civ-wide instant unit upgrades, and the "explorer" mechanic instead of old scouts being three major ones. But other game mechanics just don't exist (yet, I'm sure they will charge $30 for them later). Religion, culture wars/tourism, great works, great people, and world congress all do not presently exist yet in BE and have no replacement mechanics. The number of military units is less than those found in vanilla Civ V as well.

The tech web is probably the greatest concept of BE, but I didn't understand why until I actually used it. It allows players to diversify and focus on wonders other players will never even attempt to go for, and it rewards players that focus on one "branch" of the web as opposed to Civ V where everyone was researching the same techs and fighting over the same wonders all the time.

Unfortunately, the tech web by itself isn't the game. For all the beautiful graphics and (much appreciated) game optimization done, it feels like there is less "game content" here than there was in the original Civ V at its launch. There's only 8 "civs" but most of the original V AI was carried over with all it's idiosyncracies and inability to win without ignoring all the game rules. The AI itself is not as dangerous either, and presently seems to be bugged so that it will only ever use ~20% of its forces at a given time. Any Civ veteran will be capable of beating the highest Apollo difficulty AI in a normal game on a normal map 1v1 once they understand BE's mechanics.

Civ BE is a good game in of itself if you enjoy single-player city-building, but I'd suggest waiting for a steep sale or the inevitable steep discount when major DLC gets released. The single-player AI will make for an unsatisfying challenge for Civ V veterans and the multiplayer will only lead to a hopeless waste of many hours per failed game.

It's not a bad game, but honestly it is better descripted as a Civ 5 expansion pack than a stand alone game. The leaders have no personality to speak of, the world is a mostly blue green mass of indistinguishable tiles, and while it probably shouldn't be compared to SMAC it doesn't compare well. The only thing superior to the 15 year old game is the graphics and wide screen support.

Just doesn't have the same re-playability as Civ V. Needs so much more content

Broken program. Overpriced and unfonctional since the patch. Do not buy this useless piece of junk. Even if you could run Civ V, the Beyond Earth demo or the game itself when it was released, chances are the game will still not work. Hundreds of people who bought and played the game are now unable to do so. The only response from the 2K, Firaxis support is that their cutomers should buy the $200 ADM graphic card and that those same customers were pretty stupid to believe that if you could run their demo, you could run their game.

Fail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9gC1GiSDDA ...YUP that about sums it up! Next to Civ V It's a flop and I got pre order.. Kinda painful sense I was so excited for this game, It is however in no way shape or form worth the price tag on it.

I jumped on board the Civilization train when Civ2 came out. Since then, I have been a dedicated fan on the series, and in fact all of firaxis' works since then. I even played that facebook civ, which was surprisingly good (except for the constant puzzles). Yet.. this is the first civilization game for which I have felt compelled to leave a review..

As much as it pains me to say, this Civ release does not merit a full title price tag. In terms of gameplay, Civ:Beyond Earth does in fact feel like a glorified mod of Civ5, and not the best one either. The new sci-fi graphics and sound are very nice and well done. Graphically, the game looks much better than civ 5, even though this may not be apparent in screenshots.. however this is not enough to cover up the fact that the core game underneath it all is quite boring.

Though the affinity and starting condition customizations seem like a huge step forward for the franchise, they actally take away all sense of identity for individual players. The AI civs have been axed even further due to the fact that they have a lot less dialogue and options of interaction. The lack of technological ages and culturally themed buildings also detract from the sense of character that the game has. The overall result of the gameplay changes in Civ Beyond Earth make the game feel like a mad dash towards a specific goal. This is very different from the epic, multi-staged journey that civ fans expect. I found it very hard to become attached to my civ, or to care much about winning, as the game quickly becomes a "assign production and trade routes, end turn and repeat cycle." The devs on this game admit to being fans of Endless Space, and the game actually suffers from the same major flaw.. of being extremely well polished, functional, and pretty, but utterly devoid of character.

The flow of the game feels very bland, especially in comparison to the brave new world expansion for civ 5. Being on an alien world provides the game developers with a vertually unlimited number of interesting scenarios to throw at the player, thanks to decades of accumulated fiction that can be drawn upon. Instead, the game presents all of that intrigue in the form of a box of flavor text each time you build a new type of building.

Among some other missed opportunites that are uniquely available to the setting of beyond earth which were missed are..Under-water or subterrainian settlement, more robust and fleshed out space units, natural wonders and catastrophies, sci-fi themed luxury resources.

All in all, this game was a letdown, and quite overrated. Lets hope Civ6 brings a more memorable experience to the table.

EDIT: The AI's aggression needs to be fixed. They are far too passive. I have played 3 games and the only war I have been a part of thus far was one of my own making.

EDIT2: The game lacks a victory summary.. of any kind. What is up with that?? Seriously.

They cant even fix Civ 5 Multiplayer which has been broken nearly 2 months now. To be honest multiplayer in this game barely works. Do not buy this game until they get this stuff fixed. I am tired of being a beta tester in games recently. It has pretty much killed gaming for me in general. From halo mulitplayer not working to now this. Dont be a fool and buy any game until you read good reviews. Learned my lesson.

Edit: They fixed Civ 5 multiplayer so its playable again but its still quite a pain to get a game to last long enough without having some sort of bug happen. I really would like them to focus on multiplayer so its not such a pain in the ♥♥♥. I still dont recommend this game unless you get it for half price which wont happen till expansions drop.

The past Civilization games are pretty much just upgrades of each other, but with Civilization: Beyond Earth, the developers have thought different. This time the "story" takes place after you launch the rocket in Civilization 5 to search for a new place for humanity to continue it's living. The game includes new creatures, space stations and a new life beyond earth.

I really like the new thinking and the idea of this game, it's a step in the right direction. However, this game could have been alot better, it's not on the same level as the rest of the Civilization franchise, yet. I don't feel like paying another $40, 3 times, for DLCs, I want the game to be good on release due to the price tag of $60.

To be honest, I do not recommend this game to anyone, atleast not in the current state and it's price tag, but some free DLCs makes no harm huh?

Pros
- New interface
- Creative and new environment
- Well done
- Decent graphics

Cons
- Expensive
- Overhyped
- Many functions are the same as before
- Expensive DLCs in the future
- Bad multiplayer

I cannot recommend this game. I've put in only 33hrs and already find myself not starting it up anymore, as opposed to the 600+ hrs on Civ V. (+DLC)

I was so excited about the new systems and the rpg/story elements, the new opportunities the space exploration setting would allow for that i bought CivBE as a pre-order, a first and certainly a last for me.

The problem, as stated in other reviews, is that there's no soul to this game. I'm contantly asking myself 'why should i care?' and the mid-to-end game even has me clicking next turn without making any moves, something that would never happen in the previous Civ games.

I wonder if 2K/Firaxis realise the shortcomings of this game have nothing to do with polish (it looks good!), ui (still quite allright), the concept (it's Civ!) or the mechanics but rather with it just being uninteresting. I do not feel as if i'm a representative of (a faction of) planet earth fighting for a new place among the stars to continue human civilization.
The ingredients are there but it just doesn't come together. And no tweak-patch is going to fix that i'm afraid.

Guess we'll have to wait for the expansion packs before it is a game worth your time.

Imagine someone took Civ5, disassembled it and put all parts of it into a pot with some bits of Endless Space, then mixed it up and gave the result a reskin.
That's what Civ BE feels like; Civ 5 all over, except different enough that you have to relearn how to play the game, but not different enough that it is a new, interesting game.

Also, Civ BE just isn't fun; it's entertainment value seems to be very low.

a rip off... a bad, expensive DLC for civ5.

no depth, no personality for AI. I want to like it, but it's horrible.

If I could give it away I would.

To think Sid's name is on this...... sigh

The Demo worked great! And the game looked extremely promising, but now that I actually bought and installed the full game, it WON'T RUN. I tried getting technical support, but not having much luck there.

Is it my favorite game? No. Is it lots of fun with serious potential to become a great game? Yes. My main problem with the game is the endings seem to fall flat. No cutscenes when ya win just text. overall i give this a solid 7/10. Game seems unfinished and this is no replacement to Alpha Centari. Also there are no nukes in the game. I want nukes.

When talking about Civ:BE and when trying to decide if you want to buy it or not, there are two very important (different, yet related) questions: Is it a good game, and is it different enough from the previous game, Civ 5? I'll talk about the first question before moving on.

So, is it a good game? Most definitely yes. It's different affinities provide much diversity to the game, the alien bugs provide a unique challenge (and differ enough from the barbarians of Civ 5 to be new and unexpected), the different factions each have different personalities, the graphics look fairly nice, the tech. web has many diverse and new paths to take, and you could spend a long time achievment hunting. However, it does have some small, (yet not game breaking) problems. First, the leaders themselves. While I like the way they change in look over time due to their affinities, I feel like I'm talking to a robot sometimes (well, technically I am, but that's not the point). When doing deals or when they come to talk to me about something, they often say the same thing over and over and over again. For example, I declared war on and destroyed ARC just because I was tired of her saying "Trade is the lifeblood of nations." Just shut up lady! Or at least say something differernt!?! There are also some small bugs, like sometimes my scouts continue moving their wheels/legs continuously (and make the movement sound when doing it, which is annoying), sometimes the planes circle for a good 20 to 30 seconds before finishing their turn, stuff like that. Again, not game breaking, just small stuff that could be easily fixed with a patch.

Now, is it different enough from the previous game, Civ 5? Well, maybe. If you are a diehard Civ fan, than sure, I would say try it out. However, if you didn't really like Civ 5, well, you might want to skip this game. Peronally I think it was different enough (I'm planning on enjoying every moment :p), but I'm not sure how others might feel about it. Maybe wait for a DLC or 2 to come out, then buy it. Also, just like the original Civ 5, they took out meele ships, which is quite annoying. I honestly have no idea why they would do that. However, you can get floating units late-game, so it isn't as big a problem in Civ:BE.

So, what is my overall conclusion? Civilization: Beyond Earth really is a great game, it really is. If you liked Civ:5, chances are you'll like Beyond Earth. Frankly, I feel that yes, it is indeed different enough from the previous game to be worthy of purchase, at the very least a purchase after a DLC or some patches come out.

I give it an 8.5/10

I have been wanting to put off writeing this review for some time, but i just cant wait for this game to get patched anymore. I would love to give you a review of the units, the factions and what i think needs to be balanced/changed. Saddly that would involve being able to launch the game.
Now my system is no sloth in terms of gaming performance, but only once when the stars have alligned have i been able to get past the opening movie to the menu. The "patch" released to fix this issue has caused more issues then it fixed. I actually think that this game should be removed from steam, it doesnt work and if the developer thinks that it is acceptible to spend 2 months developing a patch to fix issues only to have it only introduce more issues and reduce the amount of players that can play even more. I'd avoid at all cost's.