- Publisher: 2K Games
- Release Date: Oct 23, 2014
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PC PowerPlayNov 30, 2014Beyond Earth is the finest thing that Firaxis has made and a game that we suspect we'll be playing for a long time to come. [Dec 2014, p.52]
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Oct 23, 2014Beyond Earth is Civilization V with a new souls. It delivers a bright, perhaps too optimistic view of the future, but its great design will set the goalpost for 4X in the years to come.
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CD-ActionJan 9, 2015Cancel all your plans and fill up the fridge, because once you launch Beyond Earth you will not want to leave your home. [13/2014, p.46]
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Hyper MagazineDec 2, 2014Almost perfect 4X fun. [Issue#255, p.45]
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Nov 25, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth takes the best that Civ V had to offer and liberates it from the baggage of history repeating.
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Nov 10, 2014Aims for the stars and reaches them.
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Nov 3, 2014The final result is a brilliant alteration of an old friend, shining a new light on a proven structure.
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Oct 24, 2014This is the bag of potato chips for turn based strategists: Once you start, you cannot stop. With aliens, satellites, xeno mass and all the other futuristic flair it not only plays distinctively differently, but culture, ideology, affinities and research are exceptionally connected. You can look forward to a sleepless fall and winter.
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Oct 23, 2014It brings a solid experience, with lots of possibilities and a new environment that makes it feel classic but fresh at the same time.
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Oct 23, 2014While the visual and stylistic choices may not prove to be to everyone’s tastes, there is plenty of both new and familiar to satisfy anyone willing to hop on aboard and see where Beyond Earth is able to take you.
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Oct 23, 2014This is a great 4X title that leaves little to be desired. You really feel the decades of experience behind Beyond Earth.
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Gamereactor DenmarkOct 23, 2014I can't remember when I last enjoyed a Civilization game as much as I have enjoyed Beyond Earth. I'm itching to jump on it again, raise the difficulty a notch or two, and see how fast my plans go down the toilet as I try to mount a panic-stricken comeback. It's an excellent strategy game, and despite minor problems it deserves a warm recommendation.
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Oct 23, 2014This is a must play for strategy fans, and if you’ve always been curious about the genre but never jumped in, your opportunity is here.
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Oct 23, 2014Another success in the line of Civ games. It does a good job of setting the scene and taking the player along on a story of hope, struggle and triumph.
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Oct 23, 2014This is a work of speculative fiction that allows the player to speculate for themselves, starting from a similar place each time but potentially reaching vastly different conclusions. It’s also a tightly-designed, well-balanced 4X game that is sure to consume many gamers’ free time in the coming months and years.
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Oct 23, 2014Packed with big ideas about science and science fiction, it meticulously interlocks dozens of strategic gaming systems that work together at a level that approaches genius.
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Oct 23, 2014The Civilization pedigree holds a lot of weight after all these years, and Beyond Earth more than lives up to its name.
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Nov 17, 2014It doesn't live up to the admittedly high expectations, lacks in presentation and feels more like an expansion than a standalone game. Yet what it does do, is deliver fun by the bucketload.
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Oct 29, 2014As first impressions go, Civilization Beyond Earth makes a staggeringly poor one. After a few games -- after you get your head around the affinities and the tech web and the dos and donts of living on an alien planet -- it becomes a gorgeous and engaging, if not revolutionary, 4X game.
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Oct 23, 2014Quotation forthcoming.
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Oct 23, 2014Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is Civilization V with planetary colonization theme and minor differences. It's a great game, but a great game well known.
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Oct 23, 2014It’s easy to look at Beyond Earth and see it as nothing more than an elaborate reskin of Civilization V. In many ways, it shares a similar interface and borrows many components. Yet as soon as you get to the end of your first game, you’re acutely aware of how different it feels. At this point, it’s cliche to say how time consuming Civilization can be, but Beyond Earth only lends further credence to the phrase “one more turn.”
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Oct 23, 2014Beyond Earth is a well done mix of Alpha Centauri and Civilization 5. The UI-design is modern an quite useful. The new designed Tech-Web offers plenty of gameplay mechanics. Though it’s not satisfying in all aspects, it has become a nice science-fiction alternative to the historic Civ Games.
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Oct 23, 2014Although its foundation in Civ 5 makes it familiar, Beyond Earth is full of interesting surprises that are pleasantly difficult to master.
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Oct 24, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth may be a spin-off but one that can stand on its own. Things are more unpredictable but the gameplay is still very familiar. More important: Beyond Earth is more than just Civilization V in space.
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Dec 23, 2014Passive AI and lackluster online support from the community isn't enough to make Civilization: Beyond Earth a total wash. If you've enjoyed the series over the years, you'll likely spend many hours with this entry as well.
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Oct 28, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth doesn't offer a staggering amount of changes but that doesn't affect the gameplay in a negative way. Beyond Earth is a classy stand alone game. Basic rules from Civ V guarantee great fun and on top of that you get a new world and some aliens which make you think of new strategies. There's no revolution but a well executed evolution, and that's more than enough.
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Oct 27, 2014If you've spent dozens and dozens of hours with Civilization V, Beyond Earth will probably be your favorite game of the year. The new work by Firaxis built a fortress on the foundations laid by his predecessor, and comes to offer a more complex, customized, comprehensive and demanding experience.
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Oct 26, 2014It takes a little time to get used to (especially the controls), but thanks to Tech Web and the Affinities this is an awesome Civilization game. It is unpredictable, it looks great and there is a lot of freedom to do your own thing.
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Oct 26, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth is a game that grew on me. I started skeptical, fearing it would simply be a gussied-up Civ 5 mod. But I’m now convinced it’s a damn fine game in its own right.
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Oct 24, 2014Beyond Earth is just as innovative when it comes to the mechanics of the turn-based strategy series as Civilization V was before it and gamers will need a bit of time to become accustomed to the increased customization, the tech web and the powerful challenge posed by the alien life.
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Oct 23, 2014Beyond Earth translates the praised Civ-formula to a sci-fi setting very well. The freedom you get with shaping the future of human kind, makes every playthrough unpredictable and exciting.
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Oct 23, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth is a rightful heir to the IP, with everything in it to make it a great Civ Game with the added touch of an SF context. Don't expect to have found the legacy of Alpha Centauri because this is not it.
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Oct 23, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth refreshes the saga, even if it had to move light-years away from its original setting. It offers a wide variety of choices making each game different from the last... Although it needs an important improvement on its AI. Civilization: Beyond Earth will give us many hours of fun, playing alone or with friends.
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Oct 23, 2014It’s got its problems. But it’s a game that will have you staying up late at night, itching to complete just one more turn.
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Oct 23, 2014Hopefully the game grows as well as Civilization 5 with future patches and add-ons for the game that satisfy my inner Jean-Luc Picard.
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Game World Navigator MagazineSep 23, 2014The only Big Mistake that could plunge the Earth into chaos in three hundred years would be to never develop or publish Civilization: Beyond Earth. Thank God it had passed. Firaxis fully succeeded where only Gollop bros were successful before: it brought the role-playing element as influential as the strategic one into the turn-based strategy. [Oct, 2014, p.68]
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Games Master UKDec 21, 2014Prepare for tech tree troubles, but the amount to discover and overall quality wins out. [Christmas 2014, p.64]
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LEVEL (Czech Republic)Dec 3, 2014Firaxis Games already know exactly what we want from Civilization so they gave it to us. They could try a little harder though not just play it safe. [Issue#247]
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Pelit (Finland)Nov 15, 2014Beyond Earth is a solid turn based strategy game, but playing it feels a bit too much like playing Civilization V. Compared to the classic Alpha Centauri game, Beyond Earth kinda fails to properly sell the feeling of colonizing a strange new world. [Nov 2014]
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Nov 12, 2014With Beyond Earth, Firaxis looks back at Alpha Centauri with dignity. Interaction between different gameplay features and the gamer's free will shape this strategic game into a fine gem. Structurally speaking, however, the new Civilization game does not appear polished, which is the reason preventing the game to be among the best ones.
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Nov 12, 2014It doesn’t live up to what it could, what it SHOULD, be. It has some cool ideas, it has some that need work and it needs more content. It survives because it has a solid parent of a game to draw upon but it hasn’t done enough to distance itself far enough away.
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Nov 10, 2014For me however, I’ve found Beyond Earth to be the Civ-equivalent of reading a John Grisham novel: you know it’s not really the best of its kind, but at the same time it is quite more-ish.
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Nov 6, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth is a successful mixture of Sci-fi and Civilization V. While the newest Civilization manages to introduce an addictive and innovative playstyle, some game aspects like AI and Tech Web needs to improve further.
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Nov 4, 2014Overall, I would say that Civilization: Beyond Earth was fun, at least as fun as Civ 5. It just wasn’t mind-blowing, which is a shame because all the Alpha Centauri fans out there were kind of hoping for that.
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Oct 31, 2014Taking the playstyle from Civilization V and launching it into space, Civilization: Beyond Earth introduces a number of interesting concepts into the series’ tried-and-true strategy formula. While the gameplay remains addictive, the learning curve here is steep, with lots of small details that demand your attention. What you make of it depends on your patience and ability to adapt to the cruelties of space.
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Oct 28, 2014Its series of interconnected systems are well balanced and while some of them will feel disappointingly familiar to series veterans, there’s sufficient diversity and flexibility here to feed the series ongoing evolution.
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Oct 26, 2014It is certainly more polished than Civ 5 was when it was released, and feels much more like a finished game, where as the predecessor was merely alright until it was elevated by its expansions.
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Oct 24, 2014Beyond Earth takes the solid foundation of Civilization to offer a more immersive experience, perhaps the best since Alpha Centauri, if not better.
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Oct 23, 2014Despite a few pre-existing flaws carried over from Civilization V, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth evolves the franchise and has the potential to become an outstanding spin-off of its own.
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Oct 23, 2014Boasting some clever innovations and generally smooth execution, Civilization: Beyond Earth is a sure bet for fans of the long-running series.
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Oct 23, 2014Beyond Earth is more Civilization V than Alpha Centauri, and its gameplay is smooth and far less linear than the past. But it can't have the magic of Civilization that, with its artists, monuments and links with our story, has more appeal.
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Oct 23, 2014Do not start playing this game if you have somewhere to be – work, school, surgery, your wedding – in the next several hours.
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Oct 23, 2014Ultimately, Beyond Earth is an exceedingly polished 4x experience, taking you and humanity through space exploration, frustrations and all.
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Oct 23, 2014If you like strategic turn-based games and futuristic settings, it's hard not to recommend Civilization: Beyond Earth, even if it doesn't revolutionize the series and still suffers some flaws.
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Gamereactor SwedenOct 23, 2014Innovative, addictive and well structured.
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Oct 23, 2014Firaxis' latest 4X is not without annoyances or bugs - one mistake can still lead to a lengthy bleeding out, units still get stuck on long journeys, hotseat multiplayer is currently a mess of missing buttons and there are still some moments where you're almost hypnotised by the endless procession of incidental choices you're presented with - but it is a surprisingly profound experience at times.
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Oct 23, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth may seem a bit too familiar for a game supposedly set on a distant planet, but the roving packs of aliens and the new quest system make it an expedition worth embarking on.
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Oct 23, 2014Civilization: Beyond Earth is a good game in the context of the Civilization franchise.
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Oct 23, 2014A solid title that will make fans of the Civilization franchise extremely happy, and might even attract some new players - if they can survive the initial challenge.
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Oct 23, 2014An excellent spin-off that uses the science fiction setting to focus and expand the gameplay in interesting new ways, and yet remains as accessible and thoughtful as ever.
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Oct 23, 2014I was worried going in that Civilization: Beyond Earth would be little more than a re-skinned Civilization V with a few added bells and whistles; but thankfully, the flow, structure, and overall feel of the strategy makes for a very different game.
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Oct 23, 2014The Civilization series is one of the biggest names in strategy for a very good reason, and Beyond Earth adds some wonderful ideas on top of all that, but the underlying systems have remained largely untouched.
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Oct 23, 2014It still does what it does incredibly well, and every new campaign in a Civilization game brings originality and variety on its own. I thought the extra-terrestrial setting was badly wasted, but even without any real innovation it’s still a very solid game, just not one that’s much different from Civilization: V.
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Oct 23, 2014Beyond Earth is nowhere near the strongest game in the more than 20-year-old Civilization series, but this big collection of interesting experimental ideas definitely still kept me playing long after I should’ve gone to bed.
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Nov 11, 2014Should you read lengthy Internet discussions on what is missing now in Beyond Earth, you may think that the game is simply guilty of being not enough like Alpha Centauri, when, in fact, the problem lies elsewhere. Beyond Earth is worse than its 15-year-old predecessor in all regards, and it has nothing to make up for it. Firaxis made a decent, but shallow game that gets old after 2-3 playthroughs, which is not a good sign in a 4X genre.
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Nov 6, 2014Truth be told, though, Beyond Earth likely won’t have quite the staying power of either Alpha Centauri or Civilization V. Ultimately, Firaxis’s latest effort feels more like a sci-fi mod of Civilization V than a fully-formed project in its own right. But perhaps we should not be so quick to dismiss it, if not for play, then at least for thought.
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Nov 3, 2014In the end, Civilization: Beyond Earth is just a really average game. Firaxis has some nice new idea's - like the tech-web and the way aliens behave -, but they don't cover the fact that the title has some flaws.
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Oct 29, 2014It’s perfectly enjoyable, but for every smart innovation it seems to have lost a portion of both complexity and character. There’s potential here, but we’ll have to wait for a couple of meaty expansions to see Beyond Earth’s promise fully realised.
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Oct 23, 2014Beyond Earth's combat suffers from some balance issues though, and that's curious for a game that leans so heavily on proven systems.
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Oct 23, 2014While the Affinity system lacks the kind of personality and flexibility that other Civ games have, I'll admit that it is an interesting twist. Even after multiple playthroughs, I can't really say that I'm completely comfortable with the technology web.
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Oct 23, 2014That’s the thing about Beyond Earth: I feel like for every considered, clever addition to Civ’s formula, there’s always a near miss. War is fun, but the AI is not. Aliens are novel, but humans are dreary. I enjoyed playing it, I’m still playing, but it just hasn’t gripped me like previous games. I want it to be better, more interesting, than it is.
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Edge MagazineDec 6, 2014Very much a sidewards step for the series rather than a bold leap forwards for its kind. [Christmas 2014, p.118]
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Oct 29, 2014Its best parts are aesthetic in nature, changes to a visual palette that evoke a world of futuristic possibility. Yet the game itself feels regressive compared to the many changes made to Civ V's formula throughout its lifespan.
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Oct 23, 2014An overall solid turn-based strategy game that suffers from information overload resulting in analysis paralysis for the player, Beyond Earth has a few really interesting systems but ultimately doesn't transcend those mechanics into something unique or awe-inspiring.
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Oct 23, 2014The solid mechanics of the Civilization series are not enough to lift this game up to its potential. It fails to differentiate itself from Civ V and is lacking in inspiration and soul. A missed opportunity to create something great.
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Dec 11, 2014Firaxis' ambition may be great, but their inspiration seems to be left behind on our home planet. We've gone maybe out to Mars in this one, and it's a shame that Civilization's foray into the future is one that reminds us only of how inspired things were in the past. I'd love to see something more inventive in a full release, but maybe that will appear in a less fiscally-demanding expansion at some point.
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Oct 25, 2014All the decisions I’ve made have snowballed into a massive unwieldy clockwork of inconsequence, lumbering towards an inevitable conclusion like a giant Katamari ball consisting of all those little decisions, none of them steering it in any meaningful way, but each of them lending the monstrosity a tiny bit of mass. Then the ball reaches the requisite mass and a screen tells me I’ve won and I’m back at the main menu. No recap, no score breakdown, no map to admire, no ranking. Poof.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 344 out of 1085
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Mixed: 375 out of 1085
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Negative: 366 out of 1085
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Oct 25, 2014
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Oct 24, 2014
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Oct 24, 2014