Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

 PC
User Score
5.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1085 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 344 out of 1085
  2. Mixed: 375 out of 1085
  3. Negative: 366 out of 1085
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. redbeerd
    Oct 27, 2014
    4
    This mod for Civilization 5 might have been entitled: Civilization: Space Caravan Management before it was given to a group of energetic marketing people to hype up before release. It features the following astounding features:

    - Complete sci-fi reskins for all your favorite civilization units and concepts. Meet the warrior… in a spacesuit! Start the game by building a “monument”,    This mod for Civilization 5 might have been entitled: Civilization: Space Caravan Management before it was given to a group of energetic marketing people to hype up before release. It features the following astounding features:

    - Complete sci-fi reskins for all your favorite civilization units and concepts. Meet the warrior… in a spacesuit! Start the game by building a “monument”, a.k.a. “old earth relic”, and monitor your empire’s happiness… err… “health”. It’s all the concepts from 4000 BC you love, taken straight into the 23rd century!

    - Take your suspension of disbelief to new heights as colonists from earth land on a new planet and have no map of the surface, even after launching satellites. Watch in amazement as the borders of your space colony expand due to cultural influence, probably as the hostile insectoid aliens start wearing blue jeans and listening to pop music. Conduct sci-fi trade by caravan!

    - Which brings us to the best feature: spend 50% (literally: half) of your game time managing space caravans, of which there will be dozens and which have to be manually re-assigned every couple of turns! Yay! 3 caravans per city! EPIC FUN on large maps.

    - Watch real f_AI_l brought out of the AI, which will not attack you once during a full game at the hardest difficulty setting, but which will proceed to launch waves of suicide air strikes against an alien worm sitting in a harmless spot and doing nothing.

    - If you should divert from caravan management to anything else, like achieving victory conditions, you will be punished! Feel victory turn to ash in your mouth as, after 50+ turns of building wonders to communicate with the ancient alien race you get a popup saying “Congrats! You’ve communicated with the ancient alien race! Game over.”

    Seriously?    … Expand
  2. Sturmir
    Oct 25, 2014
    4
    Is this game bad? No.

    Does this game disappoint? Certainly. I've been playing Civilization games since the second game came out, and I've played pretty much every strategy game that has been released for English and German. I think I have a pretty good background in the field of strategy games. First: I won't be repeating a lot of what's being said. Second: I actually like this    Is this game bad? No.

    Does this game disappoint? Certainly.

    I've been playing Civilization games since the second game came out, and I've played pretty much every strategy game that has been released for English and German. I think I have a pretty good background in the field of strategy games.

    First: I won't be repeating a lot of what's being said.
    Second: I actually like this game.

    Now, if Civilization Beyond Earth was released without any Hype or expectations I had for it, this game would have been scored higher. It however, has the unfortunate pleasure of being compared to Alpha Centauri and it's expansion pack Alien Crossfire. As the developers noted several times, it was suppose to be a spiritual successor to the game, and repeated the mantra: "We made this for you" (Alpha Centauri fans)

    Unfortunately, with such a huge monolith in the field the game cannot stand a chance.

    The first thing I notice is the technically inferior selection of "sponsors" (factions.) that you have available to you (Compared to the base game of Civilization 5 of 16) - While this may be in more aligned with Alpha Centauri's faction selection and yet further expanded on by minor bonuses you can select upon planetfall, it fails to really touch 1 major problem:

    The fact is that the factions in Alpha Centauri were massively developed. They had unique story elements, unique faction dialogue and communications and a plot. The figurehead in Civilization Beyond Earth have snippets of information included in the loading screen showing the leaders outlook of the pre-planetfall situation which can be summed to the same 2 sentences about how all hope was lost, or that they are more ambitious than the rest and going to claim the galaxy for themselves. The ruler themselves and the faction they represent aren't unique in the slightest. They feel exactly the same, look exactly the same, and do everything exactly the same
    . At the moment of writing this I have 30 hours into this game and have played four games (all massive, all standard) which I purposely chose a new path each time. They were the same exercises in the limitations of terrain and the reduction of strategy.

    Which leads me to this point: I created an account here on metacritic, because I am fed up with this simplification mantra and the dumbing down of strategy games.

    Just a few things that this game is lacking from it's precursor:

    Weather effects
    Alterable terrain (raising and lowering it.)
    Water Cities
    Customizable units (and selecting units in a tier does not count as customization any more than selecting two different pieces of bread counts as making a new sandwich.)
    Interesting story elements (while I admit the quest system has a lot going for it, its exactly the same copy/paste material for each faction sprinkled oh-so-lightly with flavour.)
    Mindworms, Oh god the mindworms. - Aliens are about as much of a threat on frenzied aliens as the faction AI. That isn't a compliment.
    Effective strategy elements - 1UP Tile thing, Okay I get it, but Alpha Centauri solved the massive wave of death via Collateral damage. Should take a lesson.
    Massive map and strategy - I hate the fact that if I spend 18 hours on a game, and finally take the entire continent, my continent has about 30 cities. That may seem like a lot, and if you go by the tedious ****ing micromanagement of continually selecting the same traderoutes again and re-agreeing to deals that should just auto-continue indefinitely unless interrupted (or give me a prompt: "Do you wish to continue doing the same thing?") A hint to the developers - Shrink the cities, make them a bit more dynamic and interesting, increase the map size by about half again. Your 1UP Tile system might actually work then.
    Multiplayer that worked - At the time of writing this my friends and I have experienced 18 disconnects, over 8 crashes (seemingly at random.) and ungodly amounts of out of sync issues when doing things like launching a satellite.

    Now, there is a lot of things I do enjoy with this game. I enjoy the satellites, I enjoy the covert op (which is currently broken for it's ability to capture 6 cities at once, every 30~ odd turns if you focus it, and the AI functions like the lemming it seems to wish to represent.) I enjoy the purity/harmony/supremacy hooks. I enjoy this game.

    I do not enjoy what they squandered with the chance to deliver a real strategy game, with depth and choice.

    I'm sure after they've released 8 DLC sponsor packs, and 2 more expansions, this game might be worth buying. I know you will buy it but if you can, wait until it goes on sale. If you can't wait you know it'll be a long term investment towards a game; the real content will be released for the low-low price of 90$ over a period of 3 years. Sit back and wait for the next round of content.

    Thanks for reading this, and if you don't agree with this, well... there isn't accounting for taste.

    Final Verdict: Go play Alpha Centauri and wait for the DLCs.    … Expand
  3. timeknight
    Oct 24, 2014
    4
    This game is nothing close to what Alpha Centauri was. The diplomacy, for one, is absolutely terrible. It's worse than Civ 5. You can get allies easily, but you can't do anything with them. There are no trade or research agreements. There's no planetary council. Diplomacy is just bad.

    This game does not bring anything new to the table except for a new skin for Civilization 5. It feels    This game is nothing close to what Alpha Centauri was. The diplomacy, for one, is absolutely terrible. It's worse than Civ 5. You can get allies easily, but you can't do anything with them. There are no trade or research agreements. There's no planetary council. Diplomacy is just bad.

    This game does not bring anything new to the table except for a new skin for Civilization 5. It feels more like a Civ 5 mod. Is it a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri? No. Not even close.    … Expand
  4. MogRules
    Oct 26, 2014
    4
    This ladies and gentleman is another reason why we should not be pre-ordering or paying for games until they are released. I really had high hopes for this as I loved Civ 5 and didn't even get into the franchise until just before the last Civ 5 expansion.

    I wanted to like this, I really did despite early doomsday predictions saying that this was just a reskin of Civ 5 and it was going    This ladies and gentleman is another reason why we should not be pre-ordering or paying for games until they are released. I really had high hopes for this as I loved Civ 5 and didn't even get into the franchise until just before the last Civ 5 expansion.

    I wanted to like this, I really did despite early doomsday predictions saying that this was just a reskin of Civ 5 and it was going to be horrible. Does anyone remember the fallout from Battlefield 4? and all the people calling it Batlefield 3.5? Well apparently Firaxis and 2k didn't see any of that because they have gloriously recreated all of that here.

    Where do we start? Well the game is marketed as a new Civ game at the full $50 price tag for us here in Canada and as such you would expect just that....a new game, not a game that looks visually worse and uses most of the same concepts and ideas from Civ 5 and simply calls them something else...such as the health system.

    The first thing I noticed when I loaded up my first game was even the loading screen looks terrible...you are greeted to a galactic background with some horrible looking text that looks like it was thrown together in notepad at the last second. There is no voice overs, nothing to welcome you to your civilization and nothing that gets you excited. This isn't the only thing that they have eliminated the voices from, they also all but axed the voices when you completed a tech. Instead of a nice detail and quite following the tech you completed you get a generic "you completed X" and that's it.....

    The new research "web" is cumbersome and hard to navigate and generally a step back IMO. Yes, it does offer you some customization not available in Civ 5 but it looks terrible.

    The Graphics in BE are quite honestly just bad compared to the way things looked in Civ 5, and everything looks like an older game, not something new. Most of the terrains blend together and the gas is hard to see so you better hope you can notice your units taking damage and not rely on being able to see the gas on the map.

    All in all this is Civ, but it is NOT a new game in any way shape of form and you are basically paying a new game price for a re-skin or DLC pack for Civ 5 with less units and the same AI from the previous iteration. Even the text the AI uses is copy pasted from Civ 5 into BE when your talking to them...like how lazy do you need to be.

    Basically DON'T BUY THIS GAME. If we continue to support this crap then game companies will just keep trying to hawk it on us.    … Expand
  5. Mittsies
    Feb 18, 2015
    0
    Are you new to the Civilization franchise? Play Civ V instead - it's a more complete game that outshines Beyond Earth in almost every single aspect. Are you already a Civ fan? Steer clear. Beyond Earth adds nothing new to the franchise and has no style. It feels like a total conversion mod of Civ V, but with extremely limited features. I guess you can wait for 2K games to pump out a bunchAre you new to the Civilization franchise? Play Civ V instead - it's a more complete game that outshines Beyond Earth in almost every single aspect. Are you already a Civ fan? Steer clear. Beyond Earth adds nothing new to the franchise and has no style. It feels like a total conversion mod of Civ V, but with extremely limited features. I guess you can wait for 2K games to pump out a bunch of costly DLC and then maybe the game will be playable once you've bought it 3 times over, but even then I have major doubts.

    Bottom line: an extreme disappointment. Don't be fooled by paid reviews and hype.    … Expand
  6. GwionBach
    Oct 26, 2014
    3
    There are a handful of things I can sincerely praise about this game - the affinity system, the game setup screen, and the revamped tech tree.

    90% of the time, though, you're dealing with a horrifically broken and lazily-designed Civ V clone that's so achingly transparent in its crass and slapdash assembly that you wonder how a company like Firaxis could release such an insult to their    There are a handful of things I can sincerely praise about this game - the affinity system, the game setup screen, and the revamped tech tree.

    90% of the time, though, you're dealing with a horrifically broken and lazily-designed Civ V clone that's so achingly transparent in its crass and slapdash assembly that you wonder how a company like Firaxis could release such an insult to their own customers. Everywhere you look, you see a place where they:
    -Took an existing feature from Civ 5,
    -Hurriedly slapped a hopelessly generic name on it,
    -Added some lousy and nonsensical fiction on top of it,
    -Either kept the underlying game mechanics the same, or actually made them worse.

    Here and there, you see a few individual token efforts to really think about "hey, what would it be like to colonize an alien planet?" The affinity system, the game setup screen, and the miasma all fall into this category, and they all more or less work. If Firaxis had applied this kind of thinking to the entire game, we would have had something that felt fresh -- but alas, it's like tossing a bucket of sand on a dead dog and calling it a sand castle. There's too much of the old ugliness sticking out underneath that needed to be scraped away completely.    … Expand
  7. tobas1
    Oct 26, 2014
    4
    First of all this game have absolutely nothing in common with Alpha Centauri ... except one - both taking place in future. And really thats all!!!
    Alpha Centauri had unique ecosystem that felt alive and could really mess you up sometimes. Fungus was spreading and spamming mindworms and those could really do a lot of harm even lategame when apear in big stacks. Here alien life forms are    First of all this game have absolutely nothing in common with Alpha Centauri ... except one - both taking place in future. And really thats all!!!
    Alpha Centauri had unique ecosystem that felt alive and could really mess you up sometimes. Fungus was spreading and spamming mindworms and those could really do a lot of harm even lategame when apear in big stacks. Here alien life forms are normal barbarians from other Civ games - nothing to worry about. The only problem is siege worm that even dont do much damage if youre carefull arround him but when you take him down with your city's or mobile artilery there is absolutly no thread from alians any more! And if aliens really have some mechanics to promote 'green' thinking and not attacking, than i missed that totaly. They attack you even without doing them any harm at all, and when you killing them right from a start they attack you even less coz have less units. So green thinking here is dead - and Gaians were my favorite fraction in AC!
    Ah yes - fractions - except 1 small bonus that every one of them has they are all totaly the same! I cannot even name those that i played or played against coz they were to borring and uninteresting to even remember their names. And i can name EVERY Alpha Centauri fraction even now - and didn't play that game for years!

    What ele made AC great game for me? Terraforming - there you could drill rivers, buld improvements changing climate or even terraform up your land and flood other players with global warming. Here you can do **** You can cut trees and build improvements and thats basicly it. So your terraforming abilities are simmilar to Egiptian pessant with copper axe.

    Next is upgraing units - in AC you could take any unit and select what type of researched already wepon or armor or skill put in it and if you had enough money upgrade your units to this newer model. So for me it was brilliant. I needed fast artilery rover with no armor? or good armored garnison supressing riots with poor wepon? or mindworm catching unit? or maybe few types of terraformers to clean fungus faster or to move twice as much hexes? You could do EVERYTHING... if you could afford upgrating and first created prototype unit that costs twice as much as regular one. Here you can -again- do **** Through some strange God intervention every unit is upgrated without costs to new model after gaining point of whatever that was. Especialy strange coz newer model in production costs like 20% more so why the hell its free?

    And last thing is trade routes. In AC you could boost your production by sending suply crawlers to collect resources from not ocupied by your city hexes and this could significantly boost your production. Here you can do trade routs between your, neutral or other players cities. But those trade routs are ridiculusly good! Its not like 3 additional energy or production that you got from suply cravler, here from one trade route 2 cities will get for example 5 food+production each!! If you select your boosts wisely, you can just buy trade route building, teleport to that city 2 trade convoys (wtf is that anyway?) and send them to your cities (coz no point to send to other civs boosting their production) and from this your production in that city is 500% better - its crazy! and game killing coz the only limit for your expansion from now on is helth ... until you figure out that there is one terrain upgraide giving 1 helth each and you just build them all over your land. plus green upgraids giving you boost to trade routes and helth (why the hell its in the same branch if they are most important ones?) and in 100 turns in my playing for 2nd day i had colonised everything that i could being bigger than all other players combined. and it was supposed to be hard dificulity?

    Overall Alpha Centauri and this dumbed down thing that was supposed to be spiritual succeser have totaly nothing in common. And for me saddest part is that there is not even one thing that Beyound Earth did better than it was in AC - quite contrary! and Alpha Centauri is 15 years old! So really? people are getting so braindead that it's enough for them to be enterteined? Or just game developers are getting so lazy?    … Expand
  8. Boxtears
    Oct 26, 2014
    0
    I defended this game against the naysayers for so long but now I have to face facts and eat my own words. While BE isn't necessarily a bad game, it makes abundantly clear why there should have been an open beta. There's a thread on reddit right now that explains pretty succinctly what's missing or needs to be fixed, but suffice to say that there are a lot of amateurish missteps that neverI defended this game against the naysayers for so long but now I have to face facts and eat my own words. While BE isn't necessarily a bad game, it makes abundantly clear why there should have been an open beta. There's a thread on reddit right now that explains pretty succinctly what's missing or needs to be fixed, but suffice to say that there are a lot of amateurish missteps that never should've been allowed. This game is missing a lot of key UI features and shortcuts that were already in Civ 5. Why are we never told what a city JUST finished producing? Why do I need to refresh a gajillion trade routes without ever being reminded what they previously connected, or better yet why don't I have the option to leave them to continue until canceled? Why are victories completions even more lackluster than in Civ 5? Why am I never even told what victory condition another civ beat me with or keep track of their progress beyond vague quarterly updates? Why am I not able to see who is at war with whom? Why Why, Why, WHY?… Expand
  9. chakane048
    Oct 27, 2014
    0
    The quality of this game is a direct insult to Sid Meier. Beyond Exasperation. I might give this game a 1/10 score if they didn't slap my face by updating Civ5 today.
  10. ninepax
    Oct 25, 2014
    4
    Only 8 civilizations, same engine, same diplomacy, same interface and less options.
    Civ 5 with less options=Beyond Earth.
    I have played Civ 4,Civ 4 BTS and Civ 5. This Civ Beyond Earth is the worst of all.
  11. Kokoloris
    Oct 26, 2014
    0
    AI is completely terrible and passive. First game I played was on the middle difficulty and I got attacked ONCE. So the second game I went for the hardest difficulty and they didn't even attack me. Such an easy and boring game. I didn't know the mechanics and I won on hardest difficulty on my second game. No campaign to make up for it. And all in all, the mechanics are too similiar toAI is completely terrible and passive. First game I played was on the middle difficulty and I got attacked ONCE. So the second game I went for the hardest difficulty and they didn't even attack me. Such an easy and boring game. I didn't know the mechanics and I won on hardest difficulty on my second game. No campaign to make up for it. And all in all, the mechanics are too similiar to Civ(and where they differ the game is just worse than Civ5). If this where an addon it wouldnt even be worse 10€. I regret buying this game more than any other game.… Expand
  12. Ghostrider
    Oct 24, 2014
    3
    If you didn't like Civ5 (but liked Civ4 and older versions), then you are unlikely to enjoy Civ:BE. It has all of the problems of Civ5 and then some. Most game mechanics are Civ5, reskinned. Very boring. Most of the time you have nothing to do but click "Next turn" and wait for the really slow AI to do his turn.

    In Civilopedia list of units fits on a single screen. Techology tree    If you didn't like Civ5 (but liked Civ4 and older versions), then you are unlikely to enjoy Civ:BE. It has all of the problems of Civ5 and then some. Most game mechanics are Civ5, reskinned. Very boring. Most of the time you have nothing to do but click "Next turn" and wait for the really slow AI to do his turn.

    In Civilopedia list of units fits on a single screen. Techology tree unintuitive and confusing.

    Civ:BE continues the pacifist trend of Civ5. There is no one to fight with, there is no point in fighting and you hardly have any units to fight with. So why bother?

    It doesn't seem that despite buying the "deluxe version" (out of fond memories of Civ4 and the games before) I would bother to complete even one playthrough.

    The game is an utter disappointment.    … Expand
  13. BarimLee
    Oct 25, 2014
    0
    It ruined critical system of civilization. Each civilization has no characteristic ability like unit, construction, etc but small benefits. They should named it as "Tactical" not "Civilization". There is no pleasure to develop my civilization. Just dull and tactics remained
  14. Nikkolette
    Oct 24, 2014
    0
    Game is godawful to say the least.
    1. UI is atrocious. Queuing is so bothersome and that I don't use it - you have to click three times on different menus to put something on queue...only from city queue - no hotkeys, Ctrl or Alt modifiers from main map. In other words - you will waste more time on clicking than if you manually issue orders.
    2. Diplomacy somehow managed to become even    Game is godawful to say the least.
    1. UI is atrocious. Queuing is so bothersome and that I don't use it - you have to click three times on different menus to put something on queue...only from city queue - no hotkeys, Ctrl or Alt modifiers from main map. In other words - you will waste more time on clicking than if you manually issue orders.
    2. Diplomacy somehow managed to become even worse than in CivV, which is achievement on its own. With reduced unity types AI knows only ONE tactic - swarm of suicidal berserking human/tank waves.
    3. Absolutely primitive execution of advertized features. Ie. Alien agressiveness is linked only to alien nest destruction it seems. You can shoot dozens upon dozens of aliens standing outside 2 tile radius from their nest without any fear of counterattack - Ai cannot into attack.
    4. Absolute lack of any automation. If you have 10 cities then you have to manually isue each and every production order.
    5. Leaders lack any personality - they are just animated talking heads.
    6. Once again you are spammed with approvals, denouncations and gazillion other meaningless and useless notification via leader animation screen "we like that you like X", "We do not like that you like Y" etc every turn.
    7. Trade routes - Firaxis showed phenomenal ability to make their own idea as terrible a possible - if with CivV you had to deal with 5 or so TR now you have 3 per city, you have to manually reassign EACH an EVERY of them. I cannot imagine playing with 10 or so cities.

    Game miraculously managed to fall even below my lowest expectations. Firaxis used most primitive approach - dumb down everything, cut loose ends, wrap it up in shiny package and show into custumers' throats. This release shows their inability to solve major broblems - CivV AI was horrible and their put no effort in fixint it. Diplomacy was awful - it still is.
    Beyond Earth serves only one purpose - to show how much Alpha Centauri surpasses it in every aspect except for graphics.    … Expand
  15. ShooP
    Oct 24, 2014
    1
    Too similar to Civ 5 with very few innovation. A shame that AI is even dumber than in Civ 5, offering no challenge at all, even in higher difficulties. Game mechanics forces you to expand slowly and you have very few cities to manage even late in the game.
    Really disappointing.
  16. APCY
    Oct 24, 2014
    3
    I have tried this game and all I have to say is that im disappointed. Firstly nothing has been changed apart from sci-fi theme. Combat system, building, exploring and etc are same. Even materials do the same they just changed their icons so it would look diffrently. I would say brave new world dlc was a way bigger and more interesting, and this game counts as new and for 50 euro... imI have tried this game and all I have to say is that im disappointed. Firstly nothing has been changed apart from sci-fi theme. Combat system, building, exploring and etc are same. Even materials do the same they just changed their icons so it would look diffrently. I would say brave new world dlc was a way bigger and more interesting, and this game counts as new and for 50 euro... im really disappointed, they were very lazy, but ya money is more important for them I suppose.… Expand
  17. Qgal5kap
    Oct 29, 2014
    1
    Bah, this is just a reskinned version of CIV 5 with worse game mechanics. More micro-management, less automation. A total cash grab!! Avoid, avoid!!!!

    In the future, we have the technology to travel to alien planets, but we lack the technology of networking and computing?? We have the power of space flight, but we lack the ability to keep a geostationary satellite in orbit?!?!?! We    Bah, this is just a reskinned version of CIV 5 with worse game mechanics. More micro-management, less automation. A total cash grab!! Avoid, avoid!!!!

    In the future, we have the technology to travel to alien planets, but we lack the technology of networking and computing?? We have the power of space flight, but we lack the ability to keep a geostationary satellite in orbit?!?!?! We have the knowledge to settle on an alien planet, but we don't know how to build a settler???
    There are just so many breaches of logic here! Lazy work by the dev!!!    … Expand
  18. Raf_KR
    Oct 25, 2014
    4
    Graphic 2/5
    There is no info graphic.
    You must read text for getting information.

    Sound 3/5
    Not impressive.

    Gameplay 3/5
    Alien = Kinds of animal.
    limited type of units.
    No different from each civilization.
    Tech tree = sux. confused. meaningless tree.

    Replayable 2/5
    Very little volume.

    Conclusion 2/5
    Don't buy this game.
    Play again Civ5.
  19. ThiagoF
    Oct 24, 2014
    0
    Sry but this is another Scam.... this is not a new game, if you want to play wait for discounts this don't worth the price.
    This is a Failed DLC, they really screwed up this time.
    Really disappointing. So... now come the list os problems 1) The maps are small you can`t customize your planet; 2) The Leaders don`t have any personality, they are just talking heads and there are few;    Sry but this is another Scam.... this is not a new game, if you want to play wait for discounts this don't worth the price.
    This is a Failed DLC, they really screwed up this time.
    Really disappointing.

    So... now come the list os problems

    1) The maps are small you can`t customize your planet;
    2) The Leaders don`t have any personality, they are just talking heads and there are few;
    3) The made the diplomacy even worth then Civ5;
    4) You have to do everything by hand, managing trade routes on many cities its a NIGHTMARE!;
    5) The UI is abysmal, sometimes you need alot of clicks just to Queue stuff;
    6) The tech web is a mess and you don't fell any diferences after you complete stuff;
    7) The aliens are stupid the A.I. make no sense and the creatures at the see they are REALLY unbalanced almost everything can easily kill your ships.
    8) The lack os inovation kills the game;    … Expand
  20. Crimson
    Oct 24, 2014
    1
    This is an extremely simplified re-skinned Civ V, with far worse graphics, and absolutely nothing new that is interesting or worthy of praise. I could pick apart every new system, all of which are extremely flawed and cumbersome but there's almost no point. Its clear this is just nothing more than a money grab, with 2K trying to milk its fan-base. This feels like a 'direct to VHS'This is an extremely simplified re-skinned Civ V, with far worse graphics, and absolutely nothing new that is interesting or worthy of praise. I could pick apart every new system, all of which are extremely flawed and cumbersome but there's almost no point. Its clear this is just nothing more than a money grab, with 2K trying to milk its fan-base. This feels like a 'direct to VHS' sequals of popular a franchise.… Expand
  21. Loki64
    Oct 24, 2014
    0
    Terrible game. In fact mod for civilization 5. With a terrible interface, bad textures.
    Even in alpha Centauri was able terraformable, you could raise mountains, stop the rain, and the enemy had died of starvation. You could build a city on water, under water.
    Sordid AI,the same terrible diplomacy inherited from civilization. The computer is behaving inappropriately. The developers have    Terrible game. In fact mod for civilization 5. With a terrible interface, bad textures.
    Even in alpha Centauri was able terraformable, you could raise mountains, stop the rain, and the enemy had died of starvation. You could build a city on water, under water.
    Sordid AI,the same terrible diplomacy inherited from civilization. The computer is behaving inappropriately. The developers have promised the ability to customize the space Shuttle before launch.
    In the end, we have a couple of paragraphs the settings and all...
    The creators were too lazy to do a proper icons for buildings.
    Also, the developers promised the possibility of fine adjustment of units-in the end, we have three options for the development of the unit without the ability to change weapons,armor. In alpha Centauri it was all you can do... what can we say about the alpha Centauri,low-budget Studio made the game Endless legends,where there is an interesting battle system, the ability to customize units and just very beautiful graphics! What have you spent money these developers I personally don't know.    … Expand
  22. Harold_Lanchest
    Oct 24, 2014
    4
    The developers got away with Civ 5. Huge slap in the face, which made me abandon the Civ franchise entirely in favor of far better strategy turn based games. I have no idea how they're getting away with Civ 5: the addon standalone.
  23. horepung
    Oct 27, 2014
    2
    After playing Civ 5 and now playing Civ: BE I can only say that this was a huuuuge let down. What a disappointment!

    1: The A.I. is dumber than ever in this game. It's not even fun to play this when the different factions played by the A.I. have like no personality at all. They're all the same in every way. Spamming you with the same **** meaningless praises and requests over and over    After playing Civ 5 and now playing Civ: BE I can only say that this was a huuuuge let down. What a disappointment!

    1: The A.I. is dumber than ever in this game. It's not even fun to play this when the different factions played by the A.I. have like no personality at all. They're all the same in every way. Spamming you with the same **** meaningless praises and requests over and over again.
    2: The UI is lack luster to say the least. Confusing and strange placements.
    3: After playing like 2 games some of the design choice you encounter are so **** aweful that I don't even believe the game designers even played their own game. Like the constant renewals of the trade routes and the workers that simply cannot be automated when researching the teraforming tech, they will ruin you with building stuff that drain all of your energy.
    4: There's no strategic depth at all. The game is bland in every corner and it seems like you could just pick every affinity, virtue and tech at random and it would mean nothing for the outcome of the game.

    Summed up, if you wonder if you want to buy this or Civ 5, go for Civ 5. This is basically Civ 5 only stripped to the bare minimum. This game should be no where near a 50$ price tag. If you really want to try it, try the demo or wait for a steam winter sale or something. I regret buying this game.    … Expand
  24. kuburga
    Nov 4, 2014
    2
    I'm a huge Civilization V fan. However this game turned out to be very shallow, very disappointing. Nothing that is worth the price, gets boring pretty fast.
  25. herpderp69
    Oct 28, 2014
    2
    This game has no real challenge. This failing is not just a balance issue, it undermines the central story of the game: colonising a strange, unhospitable, dangerous planet. The dramaturgy of this game does not work, you start out in a good position and then it just snowballs from there.

    I played my first game at the second highest level without knowing what I was doing and I still    This game has no real challenge. This failing is not just a balance issue, it undermines the central story of the game: colonising a strange, unhospitable, dangerous planet. The dramaturgy of this game does not work, you start out in a good position and then it just snowballs from there.

    I played my first game at the second highest level without knowing what I was doing and I still ROFLstomped the AI. One wonders how a decent player might lose the game? The AI is slow to reach victory and do not put up much of a fight and the aliens ar much more of a nuisance than a threat.

    Trade routes are brokenly good and tediously micromanagable. The rate of return on a trade route is 3-5 turns whereas most buildings have a rate of return of 30-50 turns. There is no challenge in colonising this inhospitable planet, you just build a trade depot and two trade routes in every city and then it can more than sustain itself. They seriously need a redesign.

    The tech web looks neat but it is too easy to get to the really strong things early, especially if you take one of the 2 sponsors that get free technologies. If they had used the fourth orbital for more than one tech, it might work better. It is one of the fe places in the game where there are real meaningful decisions.

    After four years Civ V is still unbalanced with some game-breaking bugs. Is there any reason to believe the same will not be the case with Beyond earth? That being said Civ V is till miles ahead of beyond earth at the moment by virtue of being fun.    … Expand
  26. Hellseele
    Oct 28, 2014
    4
    I was sadly disappointed with this game. While it plays much like Civ V, it feels like a lazier, cheaper copy. The game is full of new features, some which work well and some that don't, but ultimately operates more like a Civ V expansion than a proper next installment to the game.

    In the end, I only wanted 3 features fixed from Civ V: mods in multiplayer, improved diplomacy AI, and AI    I was sadly disappointed with this game. While it plays much like Civ V, it feels like a lazier, cheaper copy. The game is full of new features, some which work well and some that don't, but ultimately operates more like a Civ V expansion than a proper next installment to the game.

    In the end, I only wanted 3 features fixed from Civ V: mods in multiplayer, improved diplomacy AI, and AI which contacts players in multiplayer games. This is a list that a lot of people agree with, and have been waiting for since 2010, and not one of them was touched.    … Expand
  27. theirrelephants
    Nov 19, 2014
    1
    There are few things that can make me mad enough to rate a game lower than 5. The game has to be completely broken, bug filled, or just genuinely not fun at all. Or, in the case of Beyond Earth, a reskin of an existing game with no new features (unless you count bugs as a feature) repackaged and sold as a new game for full price in an attempt to cash in on an old, dead series that wasThere are few things that can make me mad enough to rate a game lower than 5. The game has to be completely broken, bug filled, or just genuinely not fun at all. Or, in the case of Beyond Earth, a reskin of an existing game with no new features (unless you count bugs as a feature) repackaged and sold as a new game for full price in an attempt to cash in on an old, dead series that was actually good (Alpha Centauri).

    I'm not sure exactly when things like this became acceptable to do, but it certainly explains why pirating video games is now so widespread. When you can't trust your brand new purchased game to actually be a new game, pirating becomes a must in order to save your wallet.

    This is over fifty dollars I'm never going to get back, so yeah, I'm a little mad I got ripped off like this. Civilization V didn't hold a candle to Civilization IV, but at least it was a new game.    … Expand
  28. psybient
    Nov 14, 2014
    1
    Made an account here just to warn people about this game. Do not buy. It is an overwhelmingly mundane and even boring experience. The game doesn't make you care about the world at all. The different faction leaders have no personality and compared to SMAC the game is an absolute let down. Being Australian I paid almost $100 for this game and feel completely ripped off. Also the game hasMade an account here just to warn people about this game. Do not buy. It is an overwhelmingly mundane and even boring experience. The game doesn't make you care about the world at all. The different faction leaders have no personality and compared to SMAC the game is an absolute let down. Being Australian I paid almost $100 for this game and feel completely ripped off. Also the game has issues on some PC's (even top model PC's with latest specs) and keeps crashing on my main gaming rig before I can even load a map so I've been playing it on a laptop.

    The game looks nice (as long as you don't choose an Arid climate otherwise even the graphics are dull) but there is so substance to it whatsoever. It is a mashup of popular sci fi concepts with the very heart and soul ripped out of them leaving you clicking your mouse doing repetitive tasks and not really caring what happens to your civilisation. Winning the game on hardest difficulty is very easy if you just always max out trade routes. It's a shame when you have more than 5 cities you spend half your play time clicking just to manage the trade routes.

    Judging by the difference between user reviews here and critic reviews I can no longer trust big gaming website's reviews: they are obviously just in bed with the developers and were paid to write glowing reviews of a garbage game. Play SMAC instead and I've just purchased Pandora as I've realized that might be the game I've been looking for all along.

    Don't pay full price. Wait for the mods and the patches and get it on sale if you're going to spend your money on it at all.    … Expand
  29. Stevie_D
    Nov 21, 2014
    3
    I was worried that this would be just a graphical total conversion of Civ 5, and be me wasting my money.

    I was largely right. The bit i wasnt right about was just how convoluted and bogged down in frivolous ideas it is. They obviously felt they needed to -try- and add something other than just new graphics, so kudos for trying, but the ideas themselves are lackluster afterthoughts that    I was worried that this would be just a graphical total conversion of Civ 5, and be me wasting my money.

    I was largely right. The bit i wasnt right about was just how convoluted and bogged down in frivolous ideas it is. They obviously felt they needed to -try- and add something other than just new graphics, so kudos for trying, but the ideas themselves are lackluster afterthoughts that feel pointless and meaningless.

    The developers would have been better served by thinking "lets not worry about keeping it SO close to the original Civ5 experience, and introduce some bold new ideas that may disgruntle 1 or 2, but make it more fresh for everyone else."

    Its game design by attempting add safe, little ideas that dont change it from being Civ5. But Civ5 was already at that point of being streamlined enough, but having enough features to keep it interesting.

    I felt bored. I felt bogged down, and like i was being asked to play Civ5, but with a lot more pointless-feeling tasks, and a tech tree that was counter intuitive and lacked playtesting.

    And because of all this, it still felt like just an expansion, and not worth the money of a new game in its own right. A large disappointment for me indeed.    … Expand
  30. Vagiclean
    Oct 26, 2014
    3
    Games I left not all that well, expectations were grandiose in connection with idea, and execution was poor. Concerning a gameplay, the branch of researches with sad badges simply kills, sad units look as a toy for children from 5 to 10 years, diplomacy didn't change in any way. Game needed to be let out as addon to Сivilization 5.
  31. a20012322
    Nov 6, 2014
    2
    Disappointing game. Nothing like alpha centauri other than it is sci-fi theme.

    1) Turns are slow, actually everything is a bit slow and it gets worse as the game goes on (Worse than Civ5 when it clearly is using the same engine, so there is some regression in their optimization that is for sure). 2) Boring, there is very little to differentiate anything everything comes from the base    Disappointing game. Nothing like alpha centauri other than it is sci-fi theme.

    1) Turns are slow, actually everything is a bit slow and it gets worse as the game goes on (Worse than Civ5 when it clearly is using the same engine, so there is some regression in their optimization that is for sure).

    2) Boring, there is very little to differentiate anything everything comes from the base set of units and just has a skin that changes with alignment.

    3) Three alignments are basically the same thing, wonders are useless, and so on...

    Terrible, seems like a mod of Civ5 not a full price game.    … Expand
  32. atr577
    Nov 28, 2014
    3
    A boring reskin of Civ5.
    I quit when I suddenly realized I was making myself to make that one more turn. Nothing new was going to happen anyway.
    In 30 minutes I lost that feeling, I was doing something meaningful; I was simply gathering resource to gather more resource to build that victory condition. Hard to say exactly why, but in CivV I constantly feel like I am choosing a way for my    A boring reskin of Civ5.
    I quit when I suddenly realized I was making myself to make that one more turn. Nothing new was going to happen anyway.
    In 30 minutes I lost that feeling, I was doing something meaningful; I was simply gathering resource to gather more resource to build that victory condition. Hard to say exactly why, but in CivV I constantly feel like I am choosing a way for my people to develop. Here, I dig res.

    Things I did not like:
    - Resources are a copy paste from CivV with different names. Not bad in itself, but not good either.
    - Civilizations are all the same. Bonuses differ, but leaders do not feel unique. Just random talking heads saying all the same. No feeling "that civ has a background" like in CivV.
    - Civilizations do not do anything interesting. The only things I got from them was "stop killing these aliens" and "give me something, and I will be grateful to you for that". Was fun the first time I received these, but then they just kept spamming same messages repeatedly. They never tried to push me in any manner.
    - Units are all the same. They start to differ when you develop an affinity, but still, they feel all the same. Just units, able to deal damage. I did not feel the need to think like 'ok, i will place an archer behind that militia so that if the barb moves that way, he would be blocked and if that way, he will be stuck in mountains'. Just push with whatever...
    - Units have no tactical promotions. They just increase in strength (the only promotion is +10% str). In CivV I had to think whether I want strength bonus to deal with barbs, or ranged def to attack a civ soon.
    - Units get upgraded to next tech tier at once. No need to plan your finance to be able to upgrade the army for upcoming war. Just research the tech.
    - Tech web is confusing. It is probably not bad, but confusing. The development variants are quite numerous (which is good!), but unless you studied and memorized the whole tech web, a good decision cannot be made. Each time I opened the web I pondered for several minutes, thinking what I would get from a tech, and which techs I will access after that. I do not want to spend time studying game mech, I want to feel I can make a valid, if not optimal, game decision on spot.
    - Wonders are stuff you build to get resource bonuses. No wonder picture, just some blueprint. No short and clear description what that thing actually is. No feeling you build something unique. Just another resource factory.
    - Caravans now originate from each city and have to be assigned manually. You also have to remember if you have max number of them in every city. Tedious.
    - It is probably just me, but I did not like the landscape colors. Overall, the land is bleak and inexpressive. Again, I liked it first, but it became a boring view soon.
    - (Fun part) In intro, a priest is crossing the Russian vessel before launch. I know they really do it (sadly) nowadays, but flying on holy spirit is a slap in the face of science. Disliked it.

    Things I liked:
    - Affinity system idea. Not how it was done.
    - Aliens. Piu-piu.
    - Space theme. Unit models look good.

    Definitely not worth the money, probably not worth to play at all. Might get better with DLCs, but unless they get REALLY positive reviews, it is hard to believe BE will ever surpass CivV.    … Expand
  33. Reiver1
    Nov 8, 2014
    1
    I have specifically signed up to this site just to warn others how bad this game is. Civ 5 has a lot of flaws, this is a re skinned version of the same game.
    I played it for a day - then bought Alpha Centuri and spent the rest of the week playing that! So i suppose that's where the score of 2 comes from.
  34. MongoLloyd
    Dec 20, 2014
    3
    five dollar game at best. why that requires a hundred and fifty characters to get across is absurd. the beauty of language is the minimal effort it takes to say, "the game is not so good. 310. wait for it to be five dollars" done.
  35. vjosullivan
    Nov 27, 2014
    3
    Early days yet but very disappointed, so far. CBE appears to be little more than an "alien" theme or skin thrown over Civilization V. The game play is identical and the various bonuses and hazards dotted about the landscape behave in much the same way as before, albeit while looking totally different. Side quests are new and welcome but are little more than a distraction on the way toEarly days yet but very disappointed, so far. CBE appears to be little more than an "alien" theme or skin thrown over Civilization V. The game play is identical and the various bonuses and hazards dotted about the landscape behave in much the same way as before, albeit while looking totally different. Side quests are new and welcome but are little more than a distraction on the way to WORLD DOMINATION (oops, I meant world harmony, peace and love).

    The empires are very impersonal and I am experiencing little of the "one more turn" drive that comes from the motivation to make your own empire bigger and better. Here, I find myself mildly interested but not really engaged with my "colony".

    Graphics are very dark and very cluttered making it very difficult to see exactly what is in front of you.    … Expand
  36. faelinn
    Nov 30, 2014
    3
    Once again, extremely disappointed.

    Game is a cash grab. It has new art, and new music. With a tech tree that makes 0 sense, wonders that do not have ANY benefit to any victory and 95% of the military units are useless.

    I strongly advise you stick to Civ 5. This game was undoubtedly a project from a junior producer.

    Stay very far away
  37. Vendaron
    Nov 27, 2014
    4
    Graphically the game is impressive. However if you've been playing Civ 5 there's not enough newness to justify paying $49.99 for this game. If you haven't played Civ 5 before then maybe the $49.99 is justifiable.

    Given the hype of the game before launch my expectations were high, however they were dashed soon after I started playing. :(
  38. Ragotag
    Nov 12, 2014
    1
    Civ5 caused me to loose faith in the Civilization franchise; with Beyond Earth I've now lost all faith in Firaxis and Sid Meier. What a huge disappointment.
  39. KyleSearle
    Nov 17, 2014
    4
    Civ: Beyond Earth is a giant meh, that compares rarely poorly with it's prior art, Alpha Centauri. Here I was hoping for something with some novelty, like Sid Meier's Colonization, but in space. Instead we get the same old Civ formula, with some new skins. The gameplay itself is very cookie cutter and lacks any of the energy that Alpha Centauri carried to the table. AI is also massivelyCiv: Beyond Earth is a giant meh, that compares rarely poorly with it's prior art, Alpha Centauri. Here I was hoping for something with some novelty, like Sid Meier's Colonization, but in space. Instead we get the same old Civ formula, with some new skins. The gameplay itself is very cookie cutter and lacks any of the energy that Alpha Centauri carried to the table. AI is also massively inferior to Alpha Centauri, and provides no challenge even on the very first playthrough. This was a good opportunity to try and explore colonization on an extra-solar world and the designers were -far- too conservative and made a very dull reskin.

    Short answer: get Alpha Centauri on Gog.com.    … Expand
  40. Dethmar
    Jan 12, 2015
    4
    I've been coming to metacritic for years to read reviews and opinions. You always have to read the user reviews with a grain of salt as there are far too many gut reaction reviews thrown in. However, I've put in a good 20 hours into this game and can't help but feel utterly and completely cheated and disappointed.

    I am a big fan of the series, recently playing Civ V for over 60    I've been coming to metacritic for years to read reviews and opinions. You always have to read the user reviews with a grain of salt as there are far too many gut reaction reviews thrown in. However, I've put in a good 20 hours into this game and can't help but feel utterly and completely cheated and disappointed.

    I am a big fan of the series, recently playing Civ V for over 60 hours...I absolutely loved that game. Beyond Earth takes so many of the things that were good in Civ V and either simply rehashes them with space-like skins or removes them from the game entirely. Believable AI personalities with character? Gone. A good variety of units for each race? Gone (yes you get more variety as you progress through the game but a lot are just a very slight variation on the previous unit). Building an empire through various Ages in technology and innovation? Gone (instead a dependent-based tech tree is utilized and it's not pretty).

    Beyond Earth uses the same graphics engine as Civ V...this isn't necessarily a negative b/c I love the art style in both games. However, it makes it feel like a professional mod instead of a full priced game. In fact, almost every aspect of the game could have been created with a mod. If the game sold as a $25 expansion, it would have been a good addition to the series.

    In my over 20 years of gaming, I've never been so upset and disappointed in a release. This past fall saw some great games drop (see Dragon Age, Destiny, Endless Legend, Divinity, Talos Principle) and I was looking forward to Beyond Earth above them all. All in all, the game has a great concept that is lazy in its execution and innovation.    … Expand
  41. uenoparker
    Feb 20, 2015
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After having a great time playing Civ IV and Civ V, I confess to being very disappointed with Civ BE. When you think of a futuristic game, what comes to mind? Advanced technologies? Maybe that's too much... what about modern, 21st century technologies? Still too much? How about mid-20th century? No?

    This game purports to have you as an interstellar colonial mission, and yet you are unable to map the planet's surface before landing. You are unable to develop a satellite that actually orbits the planet. You rely on trucks and ships to move materials rather than aircraft. Your scouts are ground-bound.

    What is the point of this? Civ V (and even Civ IV) plays better. Skip this over-priced offering and stick to one of the older games that's likely available much cheaper and with less room to disappoint.    … Expand
  42. RickAucoin
    Jun 16, 2015
    1
    Talk about incredibly disappointing. Had no one in the dev team ever looked at Sid Meyers Alpha Centauri or Alien Crossfire?
    Did they not take note of how much atmosphere and character the SMAC devs managed to include in that game from low rez still images and voice-overs? How distinct the factions were from each other and how there was never any confusion as to what the goals and    Talk about incredibly disappointing. Had no one in the dev team ever looked at Sid Meyers Alpha Centauri or Alien Crossfire?
    Did they not take note of how much atmosphere and character the SMAC devs managed to include in that game from low rez still images and voice-overs? How distinct the factions were from each other and how there was never any confusion as to what the goals and actions of the various factions might be if you found yourself opposing them?
    If Sister Miriam ended up next door you knew what you were in for.
    So much incredible CHARACTER was in that game, and it was established by the technology voice-over quotes and the world wonder quotes as much as anything.
    Beyond Earth has NONE OF IT.
    And everything that is bad about CivV is included here in spades, just in case you missed needing a space the size of Nevada to make a u-turn in your bomber plane or needed a space the size of the Great Plains to have two tank divisions and an infantry squad maneuver.
    What was the point of this game? It's not even a good CivV reskin!
    There's no character. There's no FEEL to it. There's no distinction between the "factions" you get to pick from. There's no significant difference in how one or the other will behave when they are your neighbor. You will NEVER feel dread from discovering "Oh, no, Whatsername is my neighbor!" It just doesn't matter.
    And the Wonder Movies? Hah! The endgame? Hah!
    How, HOW, can an entire highly paid developer team not get ANY of the aspects that made SMAC a true classic of the genre right in this game? It doesn't appear that they even TRIED to do so.
    Trying and failing would be one thing. But this... this is just basic CivV with all its many flaws and shortcomings, with a mediocre sci-fi style mod set.
    I wouldn't approve of this if it were a freebie mod I downloaded for CivV. Much less as a full priced game.
    And the worst part? Firaxis will look at this game's poor performance in sales and critical reviews and just say "Well, there you go, turn based strategy just doesn't do well these days. Let's go spend all our time making Call of Duty knockoffs!"
    When it's not the game genre that is the problem. It's the utter lack of Firaxis even TRYING to make this game include all of the amazing stuff SMAC had.
    SMAC was Firaxis's first real success. There's no way I'll believe Firaxis doesn't know exactly what was awesome about that game. I just can't believe that.
    So why is none of it IN THIS GAME??    … Expand
  43. owen1218
    Dec 14, 2014
    4
    Exactly what Firaxis said it wouldn't be: a mod of Civ V. For the standards of a mod it isn't a bad one, but it's absurd to sell this as if it was a new game.
  44. Boras
    Nov 12, 2014
    4
    Is this game Bad? YES! definitely. I felt so disappointed when I saw that this was another Civilization 5 with new graphic, a stupid techtree and a meaningless Victory.

    They tried to add narration with Quest System, it could work, but why there is no conclusion at the end of the Game? no explanation, no story, nothing, you go back to the main menu and that's it... so contraddicting    Is this game Bad? YES! definitely. I felt so disappointed when I saw that this was another Civilization 5 with new graphic, a stupid techtree and a meaningless Victory.

    They tried to add narration with Quest System, it could work, but why there is no conclusion at the end of the Game? no explanation, no story, nothing, you go back to the main menu and that's it... so contraddicting

    no new mechanics, it is Civilization 5 with new graphic, nothing more.    … Expand
  45. Megatanis
    Mar 23, 2015
    4
    Sid Meier's last good game (and it was very good..) was Civilization IV. Ace patrol was nice, yeah.
    Beyond Earth is boring, it's a reskin of Civ5 (which I absolutely disliked), and as a successor of Alpha Centauri it doesn't even get close. I still remember those secret project videos, absolutely brilliant. Alpha Centauri was (is) a much better game. Beyond Earth is not a terrible game, I    Sid Meier's last good game (and it was very good..) was Civilization IV. Ace patrol was nice, yeah.
    Beyond Earth is boring, it's a reskin of Civ5 (which I absolutely disliked), and as a successor of Alpha Centauri it doesn't even get close. I still remember those secret project videos, absolutely brilliant. Alpha Centauri was (is) a much better game. Beyond Earth is not a terrible game, I just find it uninteresting, boring and easy. Would deserve a 5 but I'm angry, because I know the Man can do a lot more, even though it's ten years things got a bit..streamlined.    … Expand
  46. paranoid77
    Jan 20, 2016
    3
    Please, please; dont put civilization and Respectful Sid Meier name on this game. Its a shame and disappointment to make a game like this from S.Meier. A very very bad imitation of civilization.
    They just change the terrain and units and buildings and science. But where is AI. Its soo stupid.
    Dont buy this game, buy CIV 5 and play with mods, Mods created by players are much better then    Please, please; dont put civilization and Respectful Sid Meier name on this game. Its a shame and disappointment to make a game like this from S.Meier. A very very bad imitation of civilization.
    They just change the terrain and units and buildings and science. But where is AI. Its soo stupid.
    Dont buy this game, buy CIV 5 and play with mods, Mods created by players are much better then this and its free.    … Expand
  47. FreeAsInBeer
    Dec 29, 2014
    2
    Let me start by saying that I've never played Alpha Centauri, so I don't have any expectations for this being a "spiritual successor," etc. However, I have spent hundreds of hours with Civilization V, its expansion packs and some of the previous Civilization games. That said, my expectations for this game were quite high. And unfortunately, I was disappointed.

    This game feels like a    Let me start by saying that I've never played Alpha Centauri, so I don't have any expectations for this being a "spiritual successor," etc. However, I have spent hundreds of hours with Civilization V, its expansion packs and some of the previous Civilization games. That said, my expectations for this game were quite high. And unfortunately, I was disappointed.

    This game feels like a reskin of Civ V, but not as polished; most aspects of the game have a one-to-one correlation with it. Instead of gold, you have energy. Happiness is now health. Workers now ride in robot machine things (which can enter water tiles, so that's cool). Espionage is still there, founding cities works relatively similarly, and fighting is exactly how it did in Civ V (with the exception of getting mutilated by incredibly overpowered and sometimes aggressive aliens).

    There are several negative changes to the game as well. Some of those include:
    - Barbs have been replaced with aliens, which are even more random and difficult to deal with. They don't attack your cities as frequently, but they can utterly destroy early game units. If you're unfortunate enough to have several nests located near your founding city, and you're playing on anything beyond easier difficulties, exploration can be hindered because of this.
    - When you research a tech or build a wonder, a dialog pops up with a quote (and no picture). The quote is entirely fictional and doesn't carry emotional/historical weight like the quotes from Civ V.
    - No religion. I know this was part of a Civ V expansion, but without this system the game feels less complete. Being in space there are tons of new systems they could incorporate that wouldn't work as well in a historical setting. It seems like this could have been in vanilla BE, and they simply chose not to include it.
    - Victory conditions are not equally difficult to achieve, meaning that most players will opt for the easier win conditions.
    - Owning a sprawling empire is simply not economically possible like it was in Civ V. If you own any more than a handful of cities in the first 150 turns, your economy will tank.

    Perhaps I'm judging this game too harshly because I know what Firaxis can achieve, and this simply misses the mark. Perhaps I'm being unfair comparing Civ V + expansions to a recently released title. But even comparing BE to vanilla Civ V, this game is a disappointment and would be better offered as an optional expansion pack to Civ V than a standalone game. I recommend waiting to purchase this game until an expansion comes out that balances what's there, and adds more systems to make the game feel more complete. Maybe I'll give it another shot when that happens.    … Expand
  48. Swiftright
    Jan 1, 2015
    3
    Writing this review kills me, I wanted to love this game, I really did. But it is just a re-skinned version of Civ5 minus all of the character that made civ5 enjoyable. It's especially disappointing considering that SMAC was possibly the greatest "world" that a 4x ever existed in.

    Factions feel like spreadsheets. Units might as well be archers and musketmen in SPACE! and while the tech    Writing this review kills me, I wanted to love this game, I really did. But it is just a re-skinned version of Civ5 minus all of the character that made civ5 enjoyable. It's especially disappointing considering that SMAC was possibly the greatest "world" that a 4x ever existed in.

    Factions feel like spreadsheets. Units might as well be archers and musketmen in SPACE! and while the tech web is an interesting idea its really just a different way of displaying a tech tree. I understand that SMAC has gone to the IP graveyard but come on, why couldn't they have just done Sid Meier's Beta Sirus??

    Sales wise the game has not faired well which I expect will be blamed on a lack of demand for sifi 4x vs consumers rejecting a poorly thought out game which means that we won't see another game like this for years. And 2k, how much money did you spend on reviews??? Rarely do you see a game with such a huge divide between professional critics and gamers. SMBE might have been a decent game if 2k would have taken the money spent on review writers and hired a professional scifi writer to flesh things out for their game.    … Expand
  49. Dartboard
    Mar 11, 2015
    4
    Feels like a comprehensive mod for Civ V, if anything. The AI is as incompetent as it has ever been, the diplomacy is lacking, and the decisions you make start to have little meaning to you as a player as time goes on. The lack of eras really gives you a feeling of little progression. There is nothing genuinely innovative to this game that keeps you hooked, either. When compared to Civ V +Feels like a comprehensive mod for Civ V, if anything. The AI is as incompetent as it has ever been, the diplomacy is lacking, and the decisions you make start to have little meaning to you as a player as time goes on. The lack of eras really gives you a feeling of little progression. There is nothing genuinely innovative to this game that keeps you hooked, either. When compared to Civ V + expansions, it really pales.… Expand
  50. ddkehr
    Nov 17, 2014
    4
    I've been playing Civ since the beginning and each version has grown to be better for the most part, however, Civ:BE is a different case. I was really looking forward BE, a new Civ and Alpha C combined! NOT...It is for lack of a better description Civ 5:Lost in Space, but somehow more boring...Even with fast play on it drags to the point I have actually fallen asleep playing. I'm not sureI've been playing Civ since the beginning and each version has grown to be better for the most part, however, Civ:BE is a different case. I was really looking forward BE, a new Civ and Alpha C combined! NOT...It is for lack of a better description Civ 5:Lost in Space, but somehow more boring...Even with fast play on it drags to the point I have actually fallen asleep playing. I'm not sure where they were going with this game or even if they cared. If they put as much though in the game as the trailers it would be a great game. I like the mapping, units and tech web, even though it is a bit confusing at first. The game play is what really sucks here, it's slow and tedious, making for a boring game. I've actually provoked other civ's to attack me so I had something to do. Could have really been something wonderful, too bad, this will probably kill the franchise.… Expand
  51. condythug
    Jan 15, 2015
    1
    Terrible game and not fit to bear the Civilization name. Sid Meier must be nearing his retirement if this is the sort of trash that he is turning out nowadays. i stopped playing it once i got into the early turns; boring graphics, strange bugs, stupid gameplay and quest goals. looks like games nowadays are all following the same formulae, "go there get that, come back get rewards"Terrible game and not fit to bear the Civilization name. Sid Meier must be nearing his retirement if this is the sort of trash that he is turning out nowadays. i stopped playing it once i got into the early turns; boring graphics, strange bugs, stupid gameplay and quest goals. looks like games nowadays are all following the same formulae, "go there get that, come back get rewards" repeat 100000 times.

    thank god i manage to get a refund for this piece of trash. advise to PC players, save your money and go play the old Civilization games instead (Civ 4) if u want a really good Civ game. This one is for the dustbin.    … Expand
  52. michael__b
    May 19, 2015
    4
    as of may 2015 this game is veryu buggy at best , worker automation is not working ( after some time they just stand there and do nothing but it spend there movements as if they did work ) the tech tree is horrible , so large and confusing you have no idea what to do or where to go to even build some new combat units , the affinity part is also broken you need to level up on one of 4as of may 2015 this game is veryu buggy at best , worker automation is not working ( after some time they just stand there and do nothing but it spend there movements as if they did work ) the tech tree is horrible , so large and confusing you have no idea what to do or where to go to even build some new combat units , the affinity part is also broken you need to level up on one of 4 style of game but have no clue how to .

    this is basically a haft baked civ 5 wannabe -- just get civ 5 or ANY other 4k game

    this game is simply not worth it - pending some massive updates I will stop playing    … Expand
  53. AnarchyAus
    Oct 26, 2015
    4
    I decided to play the game because of how much I loved Civ 5 and to say I was disappointed was an understatement. I would make the comparison that it feels like more of a Civ 5 mod then an actually stand alone game but that honestly would be insulting to the Civ modding community considering I have played mods for Civ 5 that have more more depth than Beyond Earth.
  54. diehard-gamer
    Jan 17, 2015
    1
    Slow. Slow. Unplayable slow. My basic Win 8 laptop will happily run Skyrim (low settings, game controller, all DLC plus 50 or so mods) at 25FPS. But Civ Beyond Earth (small world or tutorial, min graphics settings) runs like a snail swimming uphill through treacle. It takes so long to load the game and menu screens I'm never sure whether its crashed - then simply scrolling around the mapSlow. Slow. Unplayable slow. My basic Win 8 laptop will happily run Skyrim (low settings, game controller, all DLC plus 50 or so mods) at 25FPS. But Civ Beyond Earth (small world or tutorial, min graphics settings) runs like a snail swimming uphill through treacle. It takes so long to load the game and menu screens I'm never sure whether its crashed - then simply scrolling around the map in game is a frustrating jerky nightmare. This is a sim FFS - so how much graphics power does think it needs! It may be a good game, but I doubt I'll ever find out. The developers need to get the programming sorted.… Expand
  55. Ehriggn
    Dec 28, 2014
    1
    In no way deserving of a high score, large important parts of the game do not work properly.(covert ops, improvement repair, station spawning, line of sight), and the parts that work perfectly are poorly thought out(Affinity system is imbalanced at end game, sponsors and cargo choices are imbalanced at start).

    There would be a lot of good things to say about BE if those things were in    In no way deserving of a high score, large important parts of the game do not work properly.(covert ops, improvement repair, station spawning, line of sight), and the parts that work perfectly are poorly thought out(Affinity system is imbalanced at end game, sponsors and cargo choices are imbalanced at start).

    There would be a lot of good things to say about BE if those things were in anyway new. or even improved from Civ 5. The list of things that are copy/pasted from Civ V is long and shameful. (DIplomacy, city management, trade, SAME BUGS like planes not finishing an animation, just repeating it over and over, worker improvements, Multiplayer instability, Even the opening screen that states the game has a HISTORICAL setting and any similarity to people is coincidence, etc, etc)

    Beyond Earth is half the game Alpha Centauri is, and not even a fraction of the game Civ 5 is. I would recommend either of those games over Beyond Earth.    … Expand
  56. Stefanakis
    Jan 24, 2015
    2
    Lots of gamers awaited this game for a long time. Too much time passed between this and Alpha Centauri. Me of course among them. But I am sad to say this is a shadow of a game. Did they try out the mechanics ? Every time you end up micromanaging a fleet of trade vessels while waiting. There is no real choice in anything. This game needed another 6 months of testing and/or development.Lots of gamers awaited this game for a long time. Too much time passed between this and Alpha Centauri. Me of course among them. But I am sad to say this is a shadow of a game. Did they try out the mechanics ? Every time you end up micromanaging a fleet of trade vessels while waiting. There is no real choice in anything. This game needed another 6 months of testing and/or development.

    And I can proudly say that I am a Sid Meier fan. Civilization is the game I played and am playing more than any other game combined. I hope they take another good look at it . Maybe a DLC and another 50 bucks will fix it ...... /irony off    … Expand
  57. Quinma
    Oct 29, 2014
    3
    Disappointing.

    I expected a lot more than civ 5 on an alien world with half the functionality.

    On my 3rd game i beat the game on the hardest difficulty with a domination victory mostly because the combat AI is terrible.
  58. DINISA
    Oct 26, 2014
    4
    I was expecting something different, inspiring, fresh, instead I came upon a shallow and boring game. The terrain is somehow pale, nothing shines or bring your attention. The cut-scenes for wonders gone just simplistic images with no substance. There are no unique units, barbarians became aliens and that's it. Quests are actions you would take anyway just playing the game so you don't evenI was expecting something different, inspiring, fresh, instead I came upon a shallow and boring game. The terrain is somehow pale, nothing shines or bring your attention. The cut-scenes for wonders gone just simplistic images with no substance. There are no unique units, barbarians became aliens and that's it. Quests are actions you would take anyway just playing the game so you don't even have to bother reading. Some animations just hang like in the previous version, you have to wait until the plane stops spinning over a city. Same dialogs, same texts, same bugs, different skin (much worst skin). This is one of the best examples I can think of on how a company will make money using a former successful title with little effort. After minutes of game-play you'll find yourself hitting "next turn" over and over looking forward something interesting happens but there's nothing, just boredom. Disappointing.… Expand
  59. MaxFource
    Oct 27, 2014
    1
    Spiritual successor to SMAC? NOT...EVEN...CLOSE!!

    -No Unit Workshop -No Terraforming -No Social Engineering -No Secret Projects that actually excite you to pursue them SMAC, a 15-year old game, is kicking C:BE's ass up and down the field when it comes to creativity, excitement and intrigue of gameplay. One more turn, just one more turn? NOT!! C:BE is nothing more than a    Spiritual successor to SMAC? NOT...EVEN...CLOSE!!

    -No Unit Workshop
    -No Terraforming
    -No Social Engineering
    -No Secret Projects that actually excite you to pursue them

    SMAC, a 15-year old game, is kicking C:BE's ass up and down the field when it comes to creativity, excitement and intrigue of gameplay. One more turn, just one more turn? NOT!! C:BE is nothing more than a super-skinned mod that Firaxis threw together at the last minute and decided to rest on their laurels
    with the success of Civ V; and then to make it sting like the dickens they had the audacity to put out their hand and say, "That'll be $50, please." Once this game moves to the $5 bin, it MAY be worth it.
    Better yet, play Civ IV:BTS with the cool Planetfall mod if you want a nice sci-fi civ experience.

    Was Sid Meier even an active member of the design team when this was being created? Because it doesn't seem like it. I mean...he did make the design team at least play SMAC for a weekend before coming together to start making this game, right? I would hope so, but that doesn't seem to be the case; not from what I'm seeing with C:BE - so devoid and bereft of creativity and nuance.

    Ever since 2K Games became the publisher for Firaxis, the Civilization title's pull on gamers has been dwindling. Once 2K got involved in the franchise, it's been nothing but a money-grab and wallet-milking enterprise. You want new stuff? DLC..."gimme your money". You want expansions? Here's some stuff we
    deliberately left out of the game at the beginning..."gimme your money" if you want it back. In case no one has really noticed, with 2K, they purposefully publish games with missing content so that they have a reason to release DLC or expansion packs just to charge you again and again; all the while making you
    believe that they've come up with new and exciting content material to add to the game. They did that when they went from Civ IV to Civ V, and they are doing it again with Civ V to C:BE. Civ V:BNW was well-polished and brimming full of content and gamplay, but what does 2K/Firaxis do? They purposefully strip out all of the advancements and richness of BNW and give us a barren, lifeless C:BE, just so they have some place to go in the future and ultimately charge us more money for things that should've been in the game from the get-go. Hello...2K/Firaxis...you're burning through loyal customers by doing this, and they're not coming back. There are TONS of indie gaming studios that are turning out great, engaging games for far less and they reward you for buying their game by offering free add-ons and free DLC. You should try that, Firaxis.

    Buh-bye 2K and Firaxis, Buh-bye!

    I do NOT recommend this game to SMAC enthusiasts.    … Expand
  60. CakeSpork
    Oct 30, 2014
    0
    The only sensation you will have while playing this game is boredom and extreme disappointment in Firaxis. Perhaps these feelings will show a hint of regret for just having spent 50 euros on a product that should not even be offered on Kickstarter as an Alfa preview to early adopters. It will prepare you for the real world, and the feeling you get when you're home after a long week of workThe only sensation you will have while playing this game is boredom and extreme disappointment in Firaxis. Perhaps these feelings will show a hint of regret for just having spent 50 euros on a product that should not even be offered on Kickstarter as an Alfa preview to early adopters. It will prepare you for the real world, and the feeling you get when you're home after a long week of work to find everything overhauled and a broken window, your TV gone and a mess to clear.

    Don't buy this clickfest of nondecisions. Event though it will probably be amazing in a year after 5 DLC's, I would still advise against spending money on supporting the company that decreased it's standard so much that it let this get past initial QA.    … Expand
  61. Baud
    Oct 28, 2014
    3
    Its just CIV5 with an Alien Theme. Same mechanics, same stupid AI, same useless diplomacy system... god even units and resources where the same. It felt like a CIV5 DLC.
  62. flemieux
    Nov 12, 2014
    0
    A 50$ mod and an ugly one at that. I am a Civ fan. Played Civ 2 on my 486 for days.... Loved Civ 4 for ages, have learned to enjoy civ 5 since.

    But BE dissapoints on so many levels.... I have finished the game several times in several several ways. I gave it a go, gave it a chance, hoping my initial impression was wrong, that it wasn't just an oversimplified Civ 5 with ugly graphics.    A 50$ mod and an ugly one at that. I am a Civ fan. Played Civ 2 on my 486 for days.... Loved Civ 4 for ages, have learned to enjoy civ 5 since.

    But BE dissapoints on so many levels....

    I have finished the game several times in several several ways. I gave it a go, gave it a chance, hoping my initial impression was wrong, that it wasn't just an oversimplified Civ 5 with ugly graphics.

    It is.

    It is now shelved and will remain shelved.    … Expand
  63. Discreter
    Oct 27, 2014
    2
    I don't normally write reviews but after playing this disappointment and seeing the high scores from "professional" critics I felt I had to.

    Being a CIV and Sid Meiers's veteran and growing up with these games, I agree with the Negative scores for this game. CIV 5 when it original came out wasn't the greatest game, only with DLC and mods did it start having potential. Maybe the    I don't normally write reviews but after playing this disappointment and seeing the high scores from "professional" critics I felt I had to.

    Being a CIV and Sid Meiers's veteran and growing up with these games, I agree with the Negative scores for this game.

    CIV 5 when it original came out wasn't the greatest game, only with DLC and mods did it start having potential.

    Maybe the previous hit's were just too good and everything that comes out now just can't compare.

    The innovation of creating games in people garages and not in studios has meant a loss in creativity.

    When I buy the next release I'm not looking for (necessary) the best graphics, but great game-play and something new to enjoy.

    This game is ok, but not great and the innovations are the technology web, 3 playing styles, questing and varying ways to win.

    The Bad:
    No improvement on diplomacy has even been made worse
    I'm landing from outer-space the map should be revealed and I should choose where to land. They need to come up with a fog of war or the landscape changing over time option.    … Expand
  64. Agilio333
    Nov 21, 2014
    3
    8/10 according the the " professional critics". Clearly they are neither professional (paid off shills who refuse to rate bad games bellow 8/10) and certainly aren't critical of anything.

    Beyond Earth is an over hyped, under developed game. Maybe if the franchise spent more money in actually developing the game, instead of paying off "professional critics" and marketing the game, they    8/10 according the the " professional critics". Clearly they are neither professional (paid off shills who refuse to rate bad games bellow 8/10) and certainly aren't critical of anything.

    Beyond Earth is an over hyped, under developed game. Maybe if the franchise spent more money in actually developing the game, instead of paying off "professional critics" and marketing the game, they would actually have something. this game looks like it is pre-alpha. Nothing you do is of any consequence, the colors of the terrain looks like a rough draft. Nothing in this game has any strategy to it. It's a mere re-skin of the original, but with many of the features and polishing removed, never to be re-added. Oh wait, maybe you can buy the "rest" of the game as an expansion for $100. This is scam-ware, and the company is paying off it's gamer gate reviewers because nobody would actually buy this game if they played it beyond 8 hours.    … Expand
  65. vandana
    Nov 7, 2014
    4
    I should start this review by saying that I love Civilization and I have played all games in the series since Civilization II. Although the vanilla version of Civilization V was rough, I loved that release as well - one unit per hex combat, new graphics and leaders full of character were refreshing enough to bear with the game until the expansions made it truly great (especially Gods &I should start this review by saying that I love Civilization and I have played all games in the series since Civilization II. Although the vanilla version of Civilization V was rough, I loved that release as well - one unit per hex combat, new graphics and leaders full of character were refreshing enough to bear with the game until the expansions made it truly great (especially Gods & Kings). I believe Beyond Earth is somewhere at the stage where Civilization V was at the release gameplay-wise (much to be improved, but can be easily achievable with expansions and patches). At the core design level however, affinities (affinity decides the way you play the game - it is a philosophy deciding your path of progress and victory) have been separated from leaders and that is something that took all character from the game away. The leaders and writing are generic and dull, lacking any emotional connection known from previous games. Moreover, I believe this core flaw cannot be fixed unless many more affinities were introduced and linked to leaders somehow which I simply cannot see happening at all. The result is a bland game, with potential for growth mechanically, but lacking character and because of design decisions simply not capable of getting anywhere near the legendary status of Alpha Centauri, of which the game is supposed to be a the spiritual successor. I hope I am wrong and the designers will find a way of making this game alive but right now it is a pretty space game, with marvelous music, unpolished gameplay that will be fixed in expansions and zero character. Not worth £30 and not a must play. I'll wait for the expansions and I regret not buying it on sale. I guess most people buying this game wanted another Alpha Centauri and this is not it and probably never will. Even comparing to Civ5 with expansions, already cheaper bundle, this game simply cannot stand its own and such comparison is inevitable when the engine is basically the same and the game plays like a glorified mod.… Expand
  66. Parragu
    Nov 7, 2014
    4
    Lets be frank here Civilization:BE was really a disappointing game. Basically a expensive re-skin of civilization 5 there is no new content. In the beginning it's awesome to see new units, new civs and worlds. But after a few hours of game play, the game becomes uninteresting. Following the same plot every game, along with same quests. This game had the potential to be an awesome game butLets be frank here Civilization:BE was really a disappointing game. Basically a expensive re-skin of civilization 5 there is no new content. In the beginning it's awesome to see new units, new civs and worlds. But after a few hours of game play, the game becomes uninteresting. Following the same plot every game, along with same quests. This game had the potential to be an awesome game but 2k and Firaxsis kinda screwed it up. I feel like this game we a major let down for a Civ player like myself and I would not recommend it to huge Civ fans.… Expand
  67. PaladinF1
    Nov 2, 2014
    3
    After first game on mid difficulty it was pretty nice - new techs, quests, etc. Probably I was going to rate game 6/10. At the end of game and in 2nd game on high difficulty I found that AI is completely not working like it have to - automatic workers are bugged, alien scripts are bugged, and also enemy fractions are bugged too - they don't even move units to your borders after declaringAfter first game on mid difficulty it was pretty nice - new techs, quests, etc. Probably I was going to rate game 6/10. At the end of game and in 2nd game on high difficulty I found that AI is completely not working like it have to - automatic workers are bugged, alien scripts are bugged, and also enemy fractions are bugged too - they don't even move units to your borders after declaring war! Also they are not declaring you war when you are winning, most of very important features missing. I can't imagine how they suppose to make game on civ5 engine that have in fact worse AI than civ5 itself! Bad interface - even miracle projects are not highligthed in research tree. That's just crazy, game is simply unfinished at all. 3/10 only cause game is partially done. No replayability… Expand
  68. WalkinWoundd
    Oct 28, 2014
    1
    I had high hopes for this game having played and loved all the other Civ games.

    If this was a new release from an unknown company franchise then it would have scored a 3 but they score a one because they took everything that was great about Civ 5 and got rid of it leaving an empty shell of a game. I hated it from the first hour of playing but I wanted to be fair before writing a    I had high hopes for this game having played and loved all the other Civ games.

    If this was a new release from an unknown company franchise then it would have scored a 3 but they score a one because they took everything that was great about Civ 5 and got rid of it leaving an empty shell of a game.

    I hated it from the first hour of playing but I wanted to be fair before writing a review so I played it for a few more days. I can now say confidently that I hate almost everything about this game and having spent £30 on it will never play it again. Here are a few of the worst changes:
    - Other civilisations are now completly lacking in personality and, because they are not based on real historical figures, they all merge in to one homogenous, bland AI during the game
    - The new technology web is horrible... just so horrible. I didn't like it at first because it was complex and confusing. Now that I understand it I hate it even more because it is so illogical and unnecessarily complex.
    - The alien lifeforms are just minor background noise. You learn very quickly to just leave them alone and they will leave you alone. So one of the main features of the game becomes a minor irritation instead.

    There are many other things that I hate about this game but I can't be bothered to write them down. Don't buy this game and whichever work experience person was responsible for it should find another industry.    … Expand
  69. DocDAT
    Oct 29, 2014
    3
    Massively disappointing, overpriced and bug-ridden.

    This game basically amounts to a less than fully functional and not very interesting DLC for Civ5 at the price of a full game. One playthrough is all I'm willing to give it. One of the more aggravating "features" is trade caravans that have to constantly be restarted without an auto-renew option. If you win, there are not cut-scenes or    Massively disappointing, overpriced and bug-ridden.

    This game basically amounts to a less than fully functional and not very interesting DLC for Civ5 at the price of a full game. One playthrough is all I'm willing to give it. One of the more aggravating "features" is trade caravans that have to constantly be restarted without an auto-renew option. If you win, there are not cut-scenes or celebrations. There are no end stats. If you lose, there is no explanation. No info about which NPC won or how.

    It's also mindblowing how badly it's working at release. Even betas usually have a game that can start and is compatible with 1080p. With a fairly standard 1080p 120hz monitor it won't even start properly, but you have to ALT-Tab back and forth to get the main menu showing. Then you can select 1280x1024 as the highest resolution?! Really? Yes, you can get it to work in 1080p by running it windowed, but that's nothing more than a short term bandaid. It's now been out nearly a week and there still hasn't been a single patch out...    … Expand
  70. Timmah
    Nov 7, 2014
    0
    I have spent 1000's of hours on each and every Civilization since the first one, well until you guys took 5 bloody years and decided to charge $50.00 on a game that could have been sold as a mod to Civ 5 for a few dollars. I really hope lots of people were fired over this game. Why in the world would Cid Meier put his name on this steaming pile of monkey Crap!

    Take Civ V, strip away 80%    I have spent 1000's of hours on each and every Civilization since the first one, well until you guys took 5 bloody years and decided to charge $50.00 on a game that could have been sold as a mod to Civ 5 for a few dollars. I really hope lots of people were fired over this game. Why in the world would Cid Meier put his name on this steaming pile of monkey Crap!

    Take Civ V, strip away 80% of the content, slap a coat of Sci-Fi paint on it and ship it out the door.

    Very disappointing. Beyond Earth should have been sold as a Civ V mod for a fraction of the price. This game has slightly more content and replayability than the Steampunk DLC released for Civ V.

    There are only 8 civs to choose from, but that doesn't matter because they are effectively identical anyway.

    There are only about 8-10 units in the game, and it's the same 8-10 units regardless of which civ you choose.

    The landscape is crowded with features and resources that have very little purpose. You can comfortably set your Workers on auto and ignore them.

    All 5 Victory Paths are Science driven, making everything else largely irrelevant. Even the Domination Victory depends heavily on the Science resource in order to unlock the automatic upgrades for the 2 or 3 units you will need to win.

    Trade is crucial to success, but very tedious and not fun at all to manage. Every turn, I would get 1 or 2 messages from Trade units asking me to confirm that I still want it to keep doing what I told it to do the last 20 times it asked.

    Diplomacy is irrelevant. All other Civs can be safely ignored unless you feel like conquering them. Other leaders will frequently harass you with pointless offers or empty threats, though, and that gets annoying fast.

    Exploration is largely pointless and unrewarding. The whole world is one homogenous smear of resources. Clear out your own little plot of land and don't bother going anywhere else.

    Seriously, I want my money back on this one    … Expand
  71. Awesumo
    Oct 26, 2014
    4
    Beyond Earth just feels a bit hollow. Take civilization and strip out the history -or take Alpha centuari and strip out the unique civilizations. What you are left with feels like a rather soulless game.
    The planet - effectively an extra opponent/ally in AC feels like nothing but large numbers of barbarians that have their aggression turned right down. Another disappointment.
    There    Beyond Earth just feels a bit hollow. Take civilization and strip out the history -or take Alpha centuari and strip out the unique civilizations. What you are left with feels like a rather soulless game.
    The planet - effectively an extra opponent/ally in AC feels like nothing but large numbers of barbarians that have their aggression turned right down. Another disappointment.
    There just isn't enough here, it looks nice but plays like a half finished mod.
    One last thing - the Diplomacy is ridiculous and the AI openly cheats.    … Expand
  72. Trainor
    Oct 25, 2014
    4
    The AI in this game needs serious work. Linking your in game Ideology to a Strategic Resource makes the AI impossible to maintain any kind of alliance with. AIs of opposing ideologies hate you for your belief even if they are the other side of the world and AIs of the same belief covet the Strategic Resource linked to your shared beliefs with a Dark and Terrible Lust. Other aspects of theThe AI in this game needs serious work. Linking your in game Ideology to a Strategic Resource makes the AI impossible to maintain any kind of alliance with. AIs of opposing ideologies hate you for your belief even if they are the other side of the world and AIs of the same belief covet the Strategic Resource linked to your shared beliefs with a Dark and Terrible Lust. Other aspects of the game are good but this is making the game extremely frustrating to play, the AI needs to be fixed for me to recommend it.… Expand
  73. Adolphobia
    Oct 26, 2014
    0
    if you have ever played Alpha Centauri stay away from this CIV5 expansion...

    this is the first time i write a review, because i feel ripped off and disappointed, once again the publishers manipulated our love for a classic game, when i saw the "made with staff from the original Alpha Centauri" i instantly pulled out my credit card and bought this full price, i guess by "staff" they    if you have ever played Alpha Centauri stay away from this CIV5 expansion...

    this is the first time i write a review, because i feel ripped off and disappointed, once again the publishers manipulated our love for a classic game, when i saw the "made with staff from the original Alpha Centauri" i instantly pulled out my credit card and bought this full price, i guess by "staff" they meant the people that moped the floors in Firaxis back in the day...

    i can't believe that 15 years later, nothing has improved, the design was better, the writing, better and darker, the whole atmosphere, music, sound effects, graphics, AI, i could go on and on... did anyone that played the old Alpha Centauri had anything to do with this? i'm sick of this guys ruthlessly making money out of the loyal fan base, instead of giving us the games we want, watered down adult themes, no videos after completing wonders, combat has been simplified to a point its not even tactical...

    welcome to the age of glorified Rock, paper and scissors.

    i guess i'll have to wait another 15 years for the DLC of the DLC 60$ reboot of Alpha Centauri.

    oh and NONE of the problems from civilization V have been fixed.

    Great job Firaxis, you just alienated and infuriated all the loyal gamers that grew up playing your games, i'll never buy another game from this ruffians, **** you SId...    … Expand
  74. kacperf10
    Oct 26, 2014
    4
    While I hate this game, I certainly can see people enjoying it. If you've liked playing Civ V on lower ( by lower I mean lower than 6) difficulties, if you aren't look for challenge, but for simple empire building&wars winning game-CBE is for you. For me AI is completely ruining gaming experience. I'm sick of catching up on tech with completely over-buffed AI and on the end demolishingWhile I hate this game, I certainly can see people enjoying it. If you've liked playing Civ V on lower ( by lower I mean lower than 6) difficulties, if you aren't look for challenge, but for simple empire building&wars winning game-CBE is for you. For me AI is completely ruining gaming experience. I'm sick of catching up on tech with completely over-buffed AI and on the end demolishing there endless armies using couple of ranged units and city to defend.… Expand
  75. RaiKoi
    Oct 29, 2014
    1
    What a disappointment. I was expecting a new game, with new gameplay elements. Instead it has become a horrible example of all that is wrong in the gaming industry. Leeching as much cash with as little work as possible. 0/10 would recommend.
  76. kumailnaqvi
    Oct 29, 2014
    1
    Not at all worth it! I never would have thought I would ever say this for a Sid Meiers game but as painful it is to say, its true. This game is just Civ 5 repackaged and skinned, but sadly it's also lost almost all of the charm that Civ 5 had. My biggest disappointment is the banal factions and leaders. Leaders have absolutely no personality. Another issue is the horrible quotes, unlikeNot at all worth it! I never would have thought I would ever say this for a Sid Meiers game but as painful it is to say, its true. This game is just Civ 5 repackaged and skinned, but sadly it's also lost almost all of the charm that Civ 5 had. My biggest disappointment is the banal factions and leaders. Leaders have absolutely no personality. Another issue is the horrible quotes, unlike the charming and fascinating Civ 5 quotes these ones are made up and spoken out in a boring and ultimately angering voice. The wonders are extremely disappointing as there is no awe when built, they give a terrible quote and a lame blueprint picture of them. This is not a game, but merely an add-on to Civ 5, it's worth no more than 5$. Wait for a sale and then pick it up.… Expand
  77. MegaOrca
    Oct 29, 2014
    3
    Disappointing...

    Very simple and at the same time confusing game.
    A lot of work for nothing.
    It has got that Civ feeling but in the end you feel like you have been ripped-off...
  78. hoochieminh
    Oct 28, 2014
    4
    I am sorely disappointed in this game, it does not deserve Sid's name on it. This game is not as deep as Civ 5, even without the DLC. This is more of a turn masher than a strategic anything -- the path to victory is simple, the AI atrocious, combat basically meaningless. It's not a bad game, but boredom is achieved rather early. Skip it.
  79. Vel
    Oct 28, 2014
    4
    This game is pretty bad. It's not terrible, but it's pretty bad. The easiest way to describe it is to imagine that they took Civ 5, re-skinned it with different graphics, got rid of some of the more enjoyable aspects (Like picking different civilizations with different bonuses at different ages), and emphasized some of the more annoying aspects of the game (ever get annoyed by randomThis game is pretty bad. It's not terrible, but it's pretty bad. The easiest way to describe it is to imagine that they took Civ 5, re-skinned it with different graphics, got rid of some of the more enjoyable aspects (Like picking different civilizations with different bonuses at different ages), and emphasized some of the more annoying aspects of the game (ever get annoyed by random barbarians? Well say hello to an occasional SUPER barbarian). The game doesn't feel like you are really playing or advancing towards anything, it just feels like you are making a never-ending series of random decisions that have no real effect on the game. Not to mention the fact that the new "health" system (which replaced the happiness system) is not well balanced, if you conquer even one or two enemy cities you will probably have a negative effect on your civilization for the foreseeable future. Honestly, just avoid this game and go back and play more Civ 5 (at least until the price drops below $20).… Expand
  80. Deathmarch
    Oct 31, 2014
    4
    BORING! the AI is passive and makes illogical decisions ie: declaring war for no reason then offering all their goods and credits 10 turns later.
    Nothing in this game can be discerned "at a glance".
    Tech web is a confusing mess. Glance at the "tech web" and point out a wonder with in 30secs you cant without playing the game for a few hours and alot of reading. The map is muted and dull    BORING! the AI is passive and makes illogical decisions ie: declaring war for no reason then offering all their goods and credits 10 turns later.
    Nothing in this game can be discerned "at a glance".
    Tech web is a confusing mess. Glance at the "tech web" and point out a wonder with in 30secs you cant without playing the game for a few hours and alot of reading.
    The map is muted and dull , you cant tell a desert tile from a plains tile. you can barely tell which tiles have miasma. You'd expect wild contrast in terrain its Fantasy alien worlds there are no rules, you can have yellow oceans and purple deserts!
    combat might be better if Ai get improved but once you build elite units the ai has no chance.
    Missing immersion, ui is dull and lifeless no original artwork like Civ5, the leader scenes they just float on your screen no background to give you a sense of there culture; like Montezuma in his temple.
    If its was another developer I would say its a ok game around 70% buts its Civ Game and with it come higher standards and I feel like I paid full price for a indie game. hopefully they are working hard on improvments and not paid dlcs!!    … Expand
  81. Gamling
    Oct 30, 2014
    4
    Aplha Centauri was a piece of art, this game is unbalanced and there is a mayor lack of story compared. The affinty systems feels interesting but is unfortunately mostly driven by the big wheel of technology which is a mess. There are to many buildings do the same things and no graphics to describe them giving any feeling what you are building. The wonders just feel like a couple of stats.Aplha Centauri was a piece of art, this game is unbalanced and there is a mayor lack of story compared. The affinty systems feels interesting but is unfortunately mostly driven by the big wheel of technology which is a mess. There are to many buildings do the same things and no graphics to describe them giving any feeling what you are building. The wonders just feel like a couple of stats.

    The trade lanes are ridiculously good and you can build 3 per city which have to be reset each 30 turns. So if you have lots of cities you are not doing much else late game.

    In Alpha Centauri it felt like you had the power to change the map and the nature of the new planet here the tile improvements dosnt affect each other at all.

    The jump in strength between the different units are so huge you can´t do anything with your units if they get behind. The alien is somehow boring and easy to handle.

    The one thing that is better than in Civ V is the spying system which is a great improvement which I hope they bring to the main game.    … Expand
  82. Vayra
    Jan 20, 2015
    3
    C:BE is a difficult game to review negatively when played only for a short period of time. At first glance, you are offered a new Civilization game with a completely overhauled tech tree, new units, new surroundings and a new setting. It holds promise until you have finished a couple of games and realize the truth behind this Civilization V reskin.

    Did I just say 'Civ V reskin'? Indeed.    C:BE is a difficult game to review negatively when played only for a short period of time. At first glance, you are offered a new Civilization game with a completely overhauled tech tree, new units, new surroundings and a new setting. It holds promise until you have finished a couple of games and realize the truth behind this Civilization V reskin.

    Did I just say 'Civ V reskin'? Indeed. Every resource has been converted into a seemingly different, yet extremely similar mechanic. Gold has become Energy, for example, and Happiness has been changed to 'Health'. Sensible choices for the setting the game is in, but these design choices make C:BE feel, play and look like a reskin. The game is not helped either by the minimalistic UI and the complete lack of backstory or CGI movies, every pop up feels like a glorified text box with little flair or soul to it.

    The above is especially disturbing when you consider this is a 4X developed by Firaxis, a company that released a game such as Alpha Centauri. There are loads upon loads of hidden references to that game, but not one single moment does C:BE aspire to that level of greatness, polish or immersion.

    Every faction in the game feels like a lifeless husk dropped onto an alien planet with an odd and surreal backstory, supported by what is supposed to be the backbone of the game: Affinities. It is through this mechanic that you progress to stronger units with more unique abilities. Affinities can be combined, mixed and matched in any way the player sees fit; another example of a game mechanic that just hasn't really been fleshed out and thought over critically, because it results in every game becoming an 'affinity race' and having access to more than one at high level is always a huge advantage. End result? Every game is exactly the same: you rush a few cities, a few starting techs to boost production or fill the blanks in your economy, and the affinity race starts. Early game units are nowhere near strong enough to rush enemy cities or really make a lasting difference, since the alien population will most likely destroy those attempts completely, while becoming utterly worthless and underpowered once you obtain the first Affinity-based unit. Oh, and don't even think those aliens will ever be an issue, or the planet will ever be a threat to your growth and prosperity. There IS no threat in C:BE. There is only the 'next turn' button, which you will find yourself clicking like a madman to finish that affinity race and finish the game.

    C:BE misses the mark completely as an enticing, deep or challenging 4X. It looks nice, sounds good, and that about sums it all up. All the rest feels like an incomplete shell of rehashed Civ V mechanics that lack in every respect.

    My two cents: avoid like the plague, maybe revisit after it has been expanded and properly fleshed out. C:BE is a shameless copy of tried and tested concepts with a price tag of a whole new game, which it is clearly not. There are dozens of 4X games that do literally every single thing a lót better.    … Expand
  83. Gethrow
    Nov 1, 2014
    2
    Very frustrating for the game to work one day, and without anything changing to my computer, not work the next. When it does load however, it is a very disappointing game lacking any sense of connection with the player.
  84. dhegelund
    Nov 26, 2014
    0
    I feel tricked into buying an unfinished game. I love Civilization games. This game, however, feels like they didn't even try. It doesn't feel finished... at all.

    I feel tricked into buying it, because the trailer and ads made me think this would be another awesome Civilization game. Instead it seems as if the sole purpose of this game is to make some quick bucks. The game has no soul,    I feel tricked into buying an unfinished game. I love Civilization games. This game, however, feels like they didn't even try. It doesn't feel finished... at all.

    I feel tricked into buying it, because the trailer and ads made me think this would be another awesome Civilization game. Instead it seems as if the sole purpose of this game is to make some quick bucks. The game has no soul, no sense of awe. It does not qualify as a new game. It hardly qualifies as an expansion.

    Don't even think about it. Do not buy this game. Not yet, anyway. Maybe after they release some expansions. What a waste of hard earned money, tie and expectancy.    … Expand
  85. Jack_TheRipper
    Jan 25, 2015
    0
    This game is nothing but a watered down pos re-skin of civ5 with a plethora of bugs almost no new content over civ5 but some content from civ5 striped out or dumb ed down and at a price of $49.99 its a insult to any gamer please do yourself a favor and pass on this game that will not even be respectable until it gets its 2 mandatory firaxis expansions priced at $29.99 and a few dozen minorThis game is nothing but a watered down pos re-skin of civ5 with a plethora of bugs almost no new content over civ5 but some content from civ5 striped out or dumb ed down and at a price of $49.99 its a insult to any gamer please do yourself a favor and pass on this game that will not even be respectable until it gets its 2 mandatory firaxis expansions priced at $29.99 and a few dozen minor dlcs priced at about $5-$15 a piece just to make it worth taking a look at. But at that point you have to spend nearly $100 usd to make this game good; now ask yourself this should you have to pay that much for a OK game. NO! so send a message to firaxis and pass on this gold painted turd… Expand
  86. Joker85
    Oct 25, 2014
    2
    This is a poorly made mod. Every bit of life, soul, or polish that made BNW a relatively fun experience was completely left out.

    The UI is god awful. No scaling. Drab, boring colors. Rome 2 total war UI with space blue instead of black. AI is non existent. The planet terrains are hideous and uninviting. 95% of the mechanics under the hood are literally copy/pasted from Civ5.    This is a poorly made mod. Every bit of life, soul, or polish that made BNW a relatively fun experience was completely left out.

    The UI is god awful. No scaling. Drab, boring colors. Rome 2 total war UI with space blue instead of black.

    AI is non existent.

    The planet terrains are hideous and uninviting.

    95% of the mechanics under the hood are literally copy/pasted from Civ5.

    Tons of features that actually worked in Civ5 were left out for some reason.

    This game is basically an unfinished mod. If the creator of this mod released and stated he needed another 10-12 months before it got into a release state, I'd believe him. But for a company trying to charge for this?

    Unacceptable.    … Expand
  87. iceiceice
    Oct 26, 2014
    0
    Better stick with civ 5. this is just a reskin of civ 5. No major improvements. More like a civ 5 mod with a more horrible ai,ui, trade system,units etc. They messed up everything. Theres no sense in playing these unless you really like scifi or hitting next turn button.
  88. Szlomka
    Oct 27, 2014
    0
    You saw the nice launch cinematics? Well then, You still have a Chance to walk away with profit! Since that's probably as much pleasure as You can walk away with, once You buy the game You will have thrown money in the furnace.

    The whole game is a re-skinned civ 5 with some additional focus on barbarians. Sadly, the interaction with these barbarians - aliens does not create the feeling    You saw the nice launch cinematics? Well then, You still have a Chance to walk away with profit! Since that's probably as much pleasure as You can walk away with, once You buy the game You will have thrown money in the furnace.

    The whole game is a re-skinned civ 5 with some additional focus on barbarians. Sadly, the interaction with these barbarians - aliens does not create the feeling of being in a galaxy far far away, instead You receive familiar burdens from civ 5 that must be overcome and annoyingly irrational opponents... judging by whose behavior they probably should be alien themselves as logic and sensibility don't figure prominently in their stratagems.

    The whole thing makes me completely lose any sense of immersion. The glitches and bugs from civ 5 are still there, however I don't have the stamina to bear through a large world campaign to confirm the return of the onset of sluggishness post around turn 150 or so - which used to be attributed to memory leaks in civ 5 - that's how bad it is. Tried multiplayer twice - game crashed for one of us at turn 47 and 65 the second time around. The solo campaign felt obscurely lifeless with no sense of accomplishment.

    The graphics are fine. The glitches I guess could be lived with (knowing that they never do get fixed), but the simple offering of a change of colours and names on a previous title doesn't merit this price nor this publicity.

    So in summary...; Dear Sid, please when You release Beyond Earth II ( and I have no doubts You will - as there always will be people who blindly pre-order or buy on impulse based on 50+ super positive "professional" reviews) take the time to take a page from Your own book. Marry civ 1-4 with Master of Orion 1-2 and snap on a mini tactical component that Master of Magic had. Stop the dumbing down and promoting mundane clicks in place of rewarding planning ahead and tactical flavour.    … Expand
  89. Agliolo
    Oct 25, 2014
    1
    Beyond Disappointment.
    I cannot believe how lazy game company have gotten in the last few years, and this game is a perfect demonstration of such. By saying it is a re-skin of Civ 5 would lead you to believe it is at least as good looking as Civ 5, it is NOT. The graphics are cheep and the only thing that looks half decent is the Civilization Leaders. Multiplayer bugs still exists, and    Beyond Disappointment.
    I cannot believe how lazy game company have gotten in the last few years, and this game is a perfect demonstration of such. By saying it is a re-skin of Civ 5 would lead you to believe it is at least as good looking as Civ 5, it is NOT. The graphics are cheep and the only thing that looks half decent is the Civilization Leaders. Multiplayer bugs still exists, and parts of the game have been removed such as strategic mode. The UI has been flipped around and some of the basic information (such as trade routes) are just MIA. A used unit is nearly impossible to see on the map as they go to a 90% transparency. This game look like it is in early Alpha stage in comparison to Civ 5. None of the menus are as well designed, the tech web is ugly and hard to browse. Generally this game needs to go right back to the developers as incomplete. My review would be slightly higher if this was a $10 DLC pack as it should have been. I realize this sounds like a rant, so try it out for yourself, it is literally this bad. 2K and Firaxis should be ashamed to put their name and Sid Meier's on this title.    … Expand
  90. Shatosen
    Nov 19, 2014
    2
    Beyond Earth lacks many of the features that made Vanilla Civ 5 so good - luxury resources, natural wonders, and other features. As a whole, it is a lesser game when compared to its predecessor.
  91. skarr
    Nov 1, 2014
    2
    The ideas/features introduced in this game are quite new and interesting. Affinity is a nice addition that really impacts the gameplay in all its aspects. However, compared to the Franchise, a lot of elements seem to have been stripped bare. Overall, the game seems to have been rushed for release with fewer mechanics, features that it ought to have had. It just feels more like a patch/modThe ideas/features introduced in this game are quite new and interesting. Affinity is a nice addition that really impacts the gameplay in all its aspects. However, compared to the Franchise, a lot of elements seem to have been stripped bare. Overall, the game seems to have been rushed for release with fewer mechanics, features that it ought to have had. It just feels more like a patch/mod of civ than a full blown game of its own. Finally, the difficulty is a joke, you will beat Apollo on your first run. For the hardcore fans/collectors of Civ-like games, this is of course a must have and it will give you some new strategic decisions and new aspects to take into account while playing this game, for the rest, I am not sure if this title is worth getting.… Expand
  92. SoakerCity
    Oct 31, 2014
    4
    Very disappointing. Alpha Centauri was one of the best games ever made. It seems as though this one was dumbed down, leached of mature content and graphics (these are too cartoony), and light on the serious depth of the spiritual predecessor.

    Also, the lack of an Anglo, Japanese, Scandinavian, German, Canadian, and other cultures make this a big miss. I was going to buy it but its a    Very disappointing. Alpha Centauri was one of the best games ever made. It seems as though this one was dumbed down, leached of mature content and graphics (these are too cartoony), and light on the serious depth of the spiritual predecessor.

    Also, the lack of an Anglo, Japanese, Scandinavian, German, Canadian, and other cultures make this a big miss. I was going to buy it but its a pass, and I will stick with the amazing Endless Legend, the current king of TBS games.    … Expand
  93. Brabizon
    Oct 27, 2014
    3
    A long time fan of the series, from the original up to Civ 5 BNW, and SMAC in between, I was expecting something special in line with the former games. After almost 12 hours of gameplay it's evident BE falls short in a number of areas:
    - Bland, uninspiring, murky graphics where it is difficult to discern resources and land types.
    - Boring civ factions without distinctive attributes and    A long time fan of the series, from the original up to Civ 5 BNW, and SMAC in between, I was expecting something special in line with the former games. After almost 12 hours of gameplay it's evident BE falls short in a number of areas:
    - Bland, uninspiring, murky graphics where it is difficult to discern resources and land types.
    - Boring civ factions without distinctive attributes and personality, and only 8 of them.
    - Pathetic AI (aliens and competing factions) far too passive and weak
    - The Tech Web and the UI in general is cluttered and could use colour coding for better understanding
    - Game lore/sci-fi concepts lack imagination. 600 years into the future and I would expect few of the national/ethnic divisions on earth to resemble those of today. Also mankind has achieved interstellar travel yet can't engage in plantary terraforming, still uses bulldozers to clear trees and requires formative research in genetics, physics and engineering. Wouldn't this knowledge have been with the colonists on arrival?

    The worst thing for me though is that the game in general is lacking in soul, and feels empty and mechanical compared to it's predecessors. I will persist for a little while yet, but can't imagine it will even come close to the far superior Civ 5 BNW which is a well-rounded and engaging Civ experience.    … Expand
  94. War_Horse
    Oct 27, 2014
    3
    Probably one of the most underwhelming entries in a big name franchise since Dragon Age II, though not nearly as fun or interesting. Some say or think this is just Civ V in the future and on a different planet. No, not really. This is quite different than Civ V. It plays like a Civ game, but certainly doesn't FEEL like a Civ game. First off; you don't really pick a civ/figurehead/crest orProbably one of the most underwhelming entries in a big name franchise since Dragon Age II, though not nearly as fun or interesting. Some say or think this is just Civ V in the future and on a different planet. No, not really. This is quite different than Civ V. It plays like a Civ game, but certainly doesn't FEEL like a Civ game. First off; you don't really pick a civ/figurehead/crest or anything to sort of identify or rally behind. You pick like a general perk represnted by a little generic symbol and then you proceed to pick three more little perks. One effects like your focus on something, like culture, growth, etc. Another one is like an early game bonus, like reveal coastlines, or have a wider area to choose from when you drop your city, then you pretty much just get a second start up perk, like start with a tech or building.

    So it feels like they tried to add more customization, but none if it is that good or interesting and you lose a lot the style and personality or whatever. you feel more like some faceless organization trying to settle on a **** planet than a ruler trying to bring prominence to a civilization through domination, high culture, massive expansions or whatever you feel like. As a result a lot of us(me and about 7 other friends I played with) had no real goals or aspirations to do much of anything other than find some crashed satellites and **** None of us cared what we did or what happened

    "I'm losing, how am I losing?"
    "I'm winning, how am I winning?"
    "Do I care?"
    "No, but get the **** away from my resource pod."

    Oh yeah, there's quests now. Not like the city-state quests. But quests that get you little perks. Like, kinda cool concept, but no one gives a ****.

    Oh and let me tell you... about the super awesome planet EVERY match takes place on. Okay, there's a bunch of aliens that can kick your ass. You won't be able to scratch a siege worm until near mid or late game. On the plus side, they're not always hostile. Like I had a swarm of aliens outside my area who didn't give a **** about me. Thing is that some of them do care. But really the thing that really sucks is the ****ing miasma every-****ing-where. This **** damages any and all your units if you end a turn on a space with it... and this **** is ****ing everywhere. You can be blocked off by nothing but miasma and alien swarms, or in my case once, city-states settling too close to me. because now you approve who comes near you for different bonuses. kinda cool... except they can prevent you from expanding in areas. One time I couldn't go south at all and my north was aliens and my west was a huge canyon that I couldn't cross.

    Tech has a sort of cool new approach to it, but at the same time, is a lot more tedious to actually get what you want or need. Instead of a bracket, it's more like a web that branches out in several directions. Each direction has another several techs that each open up about two other sort of sub techs with more stuff. Honestly... it's just the tech bracket if someone shattered it on the ground and all the pieces were strewn about into little categories. The principle's the freaking same, as it should be, but why make it like this?

    Really, it doesn't feel like Civ at all and I actually wonder why they try to pass it as a Civ game other than to use brand recognition. You're not building a country/empire or anything. You're some faceless bland organization with no detailed history or national pride associated with it, try to start a colony on a new **** ass planet that wants nothing but for you to not progress anywhere or actually accomplish anything. Which is really kind of fine by you since there's no incentive to try and build up anything. There's no history to make, there's no territory really worth taking, the map doesn't even make making yourself a giant colored blob much of a thing. There's no real incentive other than to further progress some generic sci-fi tech for a weird generic symbol thing and a bland ass person(I guess, you hardly see them anyway) that represents you. Just nothing distinguishes you and there isn't much to do to change that and to shape a world with your ideologies and stuff.

    Overall, it introduces some 'interesting' spins on some systems as well as a few completely new ideas. But overall the entire package it's delivered in is bland and uninspiring. The biggest challenge of this game aside keeping your units alive in the toxic environment is mustering the initiative to want to even do anything to keep playing.    … Expand
  95. CalmDown
    Nov 8, 2014
    0
    what a disaster.. I normally don't make reviews and just created an account to write this one.. This game had so much potential to be good. First off we have NO fullscreen for 144hz monitors.. a good amount of gamers run 144hz monitors that's just madness. The game has no innovation, shows no shine, has nothing new but different atmosphere. The game overall is just a mess, and its a shamewhat a disaster.. I normally don't make reviews and just created an account to write this one.. This game had so much potential to be good. First off we have NO fullscreen for 144hz monitors.. a good amount of gamers run 144hz monitors that's just madness. The game has no innovation, shows no shine, has nothing new but different atmosphere. The game overall is just a mess, and its a shame because it could of been SO good. I guess money means more then releasing good content now adays..… Expand
  96. AddictivKaos
    Oct 27, 2014
    4
    Started playing it with music on and it was atmospheric and I had hope it would be a good game, but as the game went on I was playing without the music and the core game play is just stale and boring. I had hoped they'd improved Civ5 or at least made a different game, but it is just an overhyped and overpriced mod. Anyone paying full price (or the Australia tax) - get a refund!
  97. morswin
    Oct 25, 2014
    0
    First 30£ on steam it costs now is right now way too much for an EXPANSION or MOD to civ V.
    Second, there is inherently something broken about the one unit per hexagon grid approach. Sure it worked for strategy games such as Panzer General, but all the AI had to do there was to defend, and player would generally only one way attack across 100 hexes or wider maps, with units that could    First 30£ on steam it costs now is right now way too much for an EXPANSION or MOD to civ V.
    Second, there is inherently something broken about the one unit per hexagon grid approach. Sure it worked for strategy games such as Panzer General, but all the AI had to do there was to defend, and player would generally only one way attack across 100 hexes or wider maps, with units that could move 5+ hexes on average. In Civ V and unfortunately Beyond Earth, the combat, and even building improvements with workers, is squashed into small bits of land few hexes in size, with units that usually cant move more than one hex at a time. It is just a mess, difficult for the player to control, and AI is just unable to wage war efficiently.
    The developers should allow for unit stacking, just like civ 4 did, just make sure some negative buffs would apply, or collateral damage for attacks against stacked units.
    Thirdly, there are also over 10 buildings that do only +1-3 science,+1-3 health or +1-3 culture alone, and later in the game you can upgrade them with +1 science, health or culture. Add no city automation, and you end up building hundreds of these manually...
    But there are no buildings with large % bonuses, so each new construction is a little step forward, nothing comparable to civ 4 where obtaining factories could double your production in a few turns, or obtaining education, building universities and oxford could even triple science outcome if combined with a revolution.

    Nice graphics, and tech tree, but that is not enough.    … Expand
  98. Sazrak
    Oct 26, 2014
    0
    Just terrible, the game is nearly unplayable in a literal sense. Any online play takes several tries to get off the ground because the game crashes constantly in multiplayer, although it is admittedly better in LAN play than over the internet. It tends to be a toss-up whether or not the racial faction bonuses will work at any given time. The mechanics are unimaginative, with a completelyJust terrible, the game is nearly unplayable in a literal sense. Any online play takes several tries to get off the ground because the game crashes constantly in multiplayer, although it is admittedly better in LAN play than over the internet. It tends to be a toss-up whether or not the racial faction bonuses will work at any given time. The mechanics are unimaginative, with a completely uninspired tech-tree that lets you decide exactly the way you wish your civilization to be the same as everyone else's because the techs are scattered all over the place and full of requirements from other techs placed far away on the tree. In effect, it's pretty much the exact same deal as with civilization 5's normal tree, except less intuitive so it takes a while to get a grasp on how to structure a basic build.

    Barbarians, one of the most annoying and random features of civilization 5, has been given a steroid treatment so that the game can rocket into the dull trope of all alien worlds somehow inexplicably playing host to naturally bullet-resistant life-forms. Rather than being an interesting event and object of interaction with the world, the aliens pour out of nests, meaning that depending on your location they will either be an insignificant nuisance that you don't really need to take a stance on or absolutely obliterate any chance of staying competitive with anyone who was placed elsewhere on the map. Their aggression is mostly tied into the nests - if you are surrounded by them then too bad, if not then you might not even need to escort your workers and colonists to new locations. This is unmitigated by the techs for dealing with them, due to their being placed on high tiers and randomly around the tech bubble.

    You're not alone in dealing with the alien threat, however. Every now and then an unafiliated outpost will land somewhere in your expansion circle, forcing you to go to war with them or 35 turns before they go away. Sometimes two outposts disagree about which one of them is going to ruin your day, and make you decide - never give you the option to tell them both to screw off. This happens at random times throughout the game, and you have no control over it. These are the exact two random events that will happen - outposts taking your spot, and aliens taking your spot.

    This game is lazy at best, more of a late beta than a full release. If you preordered, but are intending to play with friends who did not, you can't use the bonus map types - which is pretty stupid, but the blow is softened by the fact that the new map types are basically small variations on the old ones. In their botched attempt to basically recreate Alpha Centauri, Firaxis has managed to leave out most of the interesting parts of this predecessor - the tech tree is bad, there is no lore to speak of, even the quotes are terrible - and mashed it with the worst parts of Civilization 5's engine. Just awful.    … Expand
  99. KSL
    Oct 25, 2014
    1
    Unbelievably disappointed because I loved CIV V and all the previous ones before it so had high expectation for beyond earth, I have to say this is most boring, poorly developed CIV ever played! Really tried hard to get into it (over 16 hours) and it was no fun at all! Dull and unimaginative graphics, units and aliens. The game concept is good and should deserve a whole new systemUnbelievably disappointed because I loved CIV V and all the previous ones before it so had high expectation for beyond earth, I have to say this is most boring, poorly developed CIV ever played! Really tried hard to get into it (over 16 hours) and it was no fun at all! Dull and unimaginative graphics, units and aliens. The game concept is good and should deserve a whole new system developed from ground up and not taking bits and pieces from CIV V and forcefully binding new elements together as it feels like a rip-off version of civ v but space themed which made it lack its own character and soul.… Expand
  100. owen445x
    Apr 6, 2015
    3
    Regret buying this.

    Everyone hates you if you shoot an alien.. literally hate you.. so why play 2 of the factions that dont mind killing them.

    Researching is boring as sh*t, literally just research points that have the color faction you want to become.

    I played a few games and literally have no desire to continue what so ever.
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

59
#59 Best PC Game of 2014
21
#21 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
4
#4 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 78 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 78
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 78
  3. Negative: 1 out of 78
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 9, 2015
    90
    Cancel 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]
  2. Worth Playing
    Dec 23, 2014
    85
    Passive 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.
    Read full review
  3. Games Master UK
    Dec 21, 2014
    80
    Prepare for tech tree troubles, but the amount to discover and overall quality wins out. [Christmas 2014, p.64]
See all critic reviews »