You forgot to mention the artwork. Say what you will about graphics and color pallet, but the artwork used during loading screens (which I think is just concept art peices) and the official wallpaper artwork are gorgeous. Also, the intro-cinematics are stunning, as is to be expected from a Civ game.
I didn't forget about it, but it didn't make the final video cos it doesn't really have anything to do with the game. That being said, you're right, the stills and wallpapers for BE are awesome!
The game had potential, I wish there were more like this though and endless legend. Hopefully Paradox drops an answer to these two games with the customization of Stellaris and complexity of EUIV and Vicky
I really liked Beyond Earth when it came out, I still have a poster, keychain and mousepad that I got at PAX one year. I still play from time to time and the soundtrack is really good. At the time I was hoping Civilization would turn into a kind of Spore-like experience where you play a base game, then Beyond Earth then a third space game , however Starships was more disappointing than Beyond Earth.
I play Alpha Centauri since i was a kid, and I always return to it because it gives you something completely unique and that is Faction Leaders that are part of a narrative asociated with the future and survival of humanity. Because of that you play for something greater, and it makes you involved with the story, it makes you really try to win the race of survival against other factions in a hostile enviroment. Each dialogue and storyline is completley related to the characteristic of the faction leader, if you play as Chairman Yang then initially everyone treats you like the tiranic despot you really are, but if you become an ally of them, then they try to make both ideas to coexist, and the dialogues really transmits that (the quotes of the factions leaders are just incredibly good). In the case of Beyond Earth it's the other away around, the faction leaders are bland and uninspiring, like an average bureaucrat that belives in nothing, hence when you interact with other factions the stakes are too low or too meaningless. PD: sorry for the bad spanglish.
Beyond Earth just had huge shoes to fill and it couldn't fill them. Alpha Centauri was a masterpiece, and many of the things it got right were intangibles, engaging with player psychology and building a sense of immersion and investment. Ideologies were used expertly not just to distinguish the factions in terms of numerical bonuses and maluses, but to give players a sense of attachment to their faction. It wasn't just the AI that treated you based on your faction ideology, the players played along with this. With a democratic faction you would go after Yang. With a capitalistic faction you would go after the Gaians. And everybody hated Miriam Godwinson. xD The quotes were memorable and masterfully done. They hired a professional author to write them, and the cut-scenes that told the greater narrative of the game's lore, and it paid off big time. There were even short stories written and published just for the game's release. It also addressed a desire that players of Civilization had expressed since the original civ: the desire to mix and match government and civic types. To have a democratic planned economy, an anarcho-capitalist utopia, etc. Not to be shoehorned by history - to be able to create your own idea of a perfect society. Beyond Earth did none of that, and neither have any of the Civilization successors.
@@mikicerise6250 I agree with you, specially in the last part, the civics are amazing, even more considering the year of the game. The only logical limitations where the opossite civics of the spectrum of your faction, you can't be a Gaian who lust for free market, but you could be a Gaian who protects the enviornment trough a militaristic cybernetic KGB style, or trough a democratic system that looks for more knowledge and lives an eudamonic life in protected pholus gardens. And like you said, the possibilities to create your own system where fantastic, and no game (that i know) have expanded that idea within the logic of Alpha Centauri, nor Beyond Earth, nor Civ 6 or now Humankind. Ps: Even when we all hate Miriam jajaja, we should give that character one good point, she does make good philosophical questions about what makes us humans and what are the limits we should not attempt to trespass with artificial inteligence. After all at some point "we must dissent"
I like Civ:BE a lot. Have around 300 hours played, second only to Endless space 2. It is super underrated in my opinion. Rising Tide expansion is a bit of a mixed bag tho, on one side, it adds nice flexibility with the ocean stuff, but on the other, it makes the game extremely easy by spamming expeditions.
what would be amazing for a civ game would be one where there are no premade civs and leaders, but instead the players make their own ideoligies and strenghts.
i love this game so much, i know it has a lot of flaws but some of the mechanics were so interesting i ll keep playing it for years edit : I agree that the base game is kinda bland, the DLC is more than required to start having a decent amount of interesting features, its really sad that they didnt put all this in the base game it would have worked a lot more
I actually really enjoyed Beyond Earth. It does have all the flaws you describe, but it was different enough and did certain things well enough to hold my interest for a while, especially after its first expansion. I honestly wanted it to get another expansion, because that feels like the point where Civ games frequently really start to shine, but I think there was just way too little interest in the game to justify further development.
An honest review, that I totally relate to. That said, let me proffer an opinion. Certainly not a popular opinion, either. Civilization Beyond Earth, to my mind, is the best Civilization game. For one reason, and one reason only. It took the winning exploration and nation-building formula, and instead of offering us an alternate past on an alternate earth, it offered us a future, with possibilities. Instead of asking "What can I do differently through history?" it asks "What can my nation become in the future?" Instead of cookie-cutter "ideology" with its built-in biases and politics, it offers fresh material for philosophical discourse vis a vis our interaction with an alien planet with life, as well as man's relationship to technology, and each other. Rising Tide really made Affinity shine, being able to blend them together effectively instead of committing to a single path. I will say, diplomacy in vanilla sucked (FAVORS ffs), and sucks harder in Rising Tide. No actual negotiations AT ALL was not a fix. Is it the GREATEST civ game? No, Civ 5 is. But it is the best, because it offers something other civ games can't. A future with choice.
I think this video sums up my feelings for Civ BE perfectly. I thought the game mechanics were really interesting and, in theory, gave the game a lot of replayability. But somehow there was this disconnect between gameplay and narrative that I couldn't quite put my finger on, and after a few campaigns, everything started feeling kind of same-y.
Have you ever played Alpha Centauri? The game that Beyond Earth was suppose to be the spiritual successor? If not play the game. The intro said it all of the game. Where instead of nations or civs the faction are biased on Ideology. The game creators did a smart thing. They made each faction a character. The planet itself is a character. And through the tech tree. You get to understand what each one is all about. Like a book you get invested in all its characters. It's however an old game. But if you can get past that, (The graphics, UI interface, etc.) you will see where Beyond Earth Failed. Also the game has a hard learning curve. The best example I can give is that the game is like Dungeon & Dragons 3.5 It gives you so many options that because of trees you can no longer see the forest. (With that I mean how you can build and mod your units.)
This game was so boring. Alpha Centauri was good because it wasn’t vague, lifeless supranational unions, it was competing egos and ethical systems. The factions were so well developed you wanted to roleplay.
This game has had so much potential. As with almost any civ game comes after the second expansion. Which this game never had. And I in my opinion this game has the best sound track.
I love this game. Harmony is the best as you get to the point where you don't just ignore the miasma but Heal every turn you're in it. I didn't care that the leaders were unknowns, cuz that's never been important to me anyway, if anything I liked there new unique personalities and styles. But definitely agree to finding the AI lacking in the end game portion.
Some of the civ 6 DLC like secret societies and zombies, make me dream of a true expansion-sized game mode that could bring stuff like tech webs, affinities, cool sci fi or fantasy units to civ games while keeping the historical leaders. I mean there's no way people wouldn't be all over the idea of invading stalins russia with dragons and ogres as napoleon.
So I actually liked the ARC more than how america is portrayed in the other civ games. The idea of a corporation becoming more powerful than the state during a dark age and becoming a major power on the new world was incredible, and Suzanne really added personification to her corporation, the only one that inspired me to read her codex entry. So it's not that you can't write a faction as cool as history, it's just that it's hard to
Despite some interesting aspects, this is not worth more than quarter of the Steam price, especially if you have to buy all the DLC to make it playable. Wait, are we talking about Civ 6 or Beyond Earth? Eh, same answer.
I've found that playing as harmony doesn't really seem to effect your relations with the alien life forms. You can play nice with them as purity or aggressive to them as harmony either way. Harmony gives you the ability to leash them, sure, but leashing works whether they're green or red. What really determines your relations with them is simply whether you attack them or not. And you gain positive relation points for having a nest within your cultural borders for an extended amount of time while leaving it alone. This not only makes all the alien units allied to you, but also grants you the resources under the alien nest, and any other alien nest in your borders. Again though, this is totally separate from whether you're pursuing a purity or harmony affinity.
For me personally BE just never did enough to differentiate itself from Civ V. At the end of the day, given how similiar the two of them wind up playing, I just always gravitate towards Civ V - especially given how little... charisma? the game has in its presentation.
ive had this game ever since it came out, I've beaten it a few times even, but I always go back to it, to beat it again, but its either learned my play style, or I've become dummer because I've played it for so long that it can now anticipate my moves, I would love to see more gamers playing this game and starting a chat site around it in order to create a community for it, its a great game, and I love most of the sid meier's games that he puts out...................
If you keep an alien nest into your borders, without destroying it, the alien icon will end up becoming cyan colored. You made them understand you mean no harm to them, and befriended them. A wonder (the Xenodrome, I seem to recall) would hasten this process.
I thought this was a fun game, too. I think my biggest thing was that it was being talked about as the Alpha Centauri spiritual successor and when you do things like that....well....that would have been a hard standard to meet. Especially with nostalgia being a huge hurdle to deal with. In regards to the forgettable factions, I really don't think this has so much to do with the faction leaders being unrecognizable to actual history counterparts, but moreso that the game doesn't do much to try and distinguish them and really use their backstories for meaningful interaction. I mean, I thought the factions in Alpha Centauri were plenty memorable but they weren't historical figures. But that game did so much to really define those personas. I think Beyond Earth relied on their window-dressing backstory and the affinities to try and make each faction seem unique. All in all though, it was a good game, but it didn't get me that invested in it either. Even after I finally bought the DLC, I think I grabbed that too close to around Civ VI that by that time, I hadn't spent that much time with the game. Watching this review though made me want to go back to it. So, thank you for that haha.
i think the best thing about this branch of civ is also a weak point in it self. because people like what they like..... civ beyond earth give you a freedom of choice maybe too much. the only thing that matter is which type of civ you want to build purity supream or hybrid but even if you focus on that specific type you can also research tech from another type too. also i think it's lack identity of each nation. yes it have bonus but that's it no special unit that make you stand out.
That was by far my favorite game between its launch and the launch of Stellaris, and it could continue to be if Firaxis didn't abandon it. Shame that not a lot of people like it, as I constantly saw in the forums while I hype it and defended it. There were a lot of good ideas in there, such as an incredible back lore, the landing options, affinities, hybrid affinities, civics system, tech web, orbital layer, and its victory conditions. They were mixed with general problems of 4x games such as the obligatory bad AI and a stale late game, with late units and techs barely seeing any action and real utility; but also with some problems of its own, like the infinity of living space introduced with ocean cities and the cultural and geographical ambiguity of some of the Sponsors (the devs refused to give details such as the exact borders for them on Earth even though the community constantly asked for more story) and the blandness of some leaders. The overall tone of the game also differed a lot from Alpha Centaury, being much less dangerous and dystopian and more colorful and optimistic about humanity regardless of the path chosen. But I still love it and hope the general idea gets revisited soon.
I wish they went more of a Stellaris route where our opponents are other Aliens. Yeah maybe we can only play Humans, but we can decide the path Humanity takes as we leave Earth. Our opponents would be other Alien Species fighting for dominance over the alien planet, and each of those Aliens has vastly different technology and ethics. Then again, I suppose that would require a lot more development work for a spin-off title.
my only real gripe was the lack of change to buildings and all other units in response to hybrid affinities... you got some extra new looking stuff but that was it.
I dont care what anyone says, civ:be is the best civ out of all civs. If the AI wasnt so lacking(and which civ/4x games isnt) it would be the best game of all time for me.
Excellent review mate!! I payed this when it came out, but didn't get through much of it and went right back to Civ5, pouring dozen more hours into that instead. Though I do appreciate their effort and having a go, but it fell short in my opinion
I hope there would be a Total War version of this game but with some changes: 1. The world map designs from Civilisation Beyond Earth Rising Tide 2. Affinity concept from Civilisation Beyond Earth Rising Tide 3. Unit design elements from Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn 4. Good old Rome 2 Total War style Turn based Strategy mechanics 5. Wargame: Red Dragon style Real time Tactical battles 6. Wargame: Red Dragon style visual styles 7. Unique faction designs from Rome 2 and Attila. For example Russia is diesel punk, US is Cyberpunk yet with a bit of neo brutalist, while China is between Japanese cyberpunk and minimalist) 8. Alien life forms design from Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun 9. Terraforming mechanics from Surviving Mars 10. Terrain and weather altering mechanics from Alpha Centauri 11. Get Jeff Van Dyke or James Hannigan as the main composer This kind of genre has a lot of potential
Hear me out; I just came up with this idea... Mass Effect 4X grand strategy offshoot. No idea what it would look like because I've only been thinking about it for about 45 seconds now. However, I think the RPG elements of ME3 uniting species and such with factions and whatnot. Just a thought.
Harmony arguably has just as little reason to play nice with the aliens. Some free 8 strength allied AI units in the late game hardly measure up against no alien artifacts, no alien science, colossals pillaging your tiles and constant ZOC slowdown. Harmony’ s thang has always been miasma. And they mostly ruined that in RT.
Civ BE only became good with the Rising Tides expansion. The biggest problem with the game is that it has huge problems to run under Win 10 and newer hardware, as the support for the game seems to have stopped.
@@nostrum6410 Tried to play it just yesterday - after an hour of unsuccessful attempts to even get it running (access violation and a black screen, didn't even get to the logos) and reading through all the steam and other forums, I gave up. EDIT: Civ 6 runs smooth as a butter to me.
@@JumboPixel launcher seems fine to me, not sure why we need a launcher to launch a launcher but that's another issue. my crashing is likely from using mods to allow bigger maps, but it seems every civ gets smaller and smaller
@@JumboPixel Vice versa for me, but I got BE to run finally. Thank you JumboPixel for inspiring me to play the game again. If I can hazard a guess, the problem comes from running the game on a second monitor or a TV. Running it on my laptop without any external display device made it start without a problem, but plugging in the TV or the monitor immediately resulted in an access violation. Very interesting. Time to conquer the seas again!
I really love it but the thing I hate was that when playing it I get to a point when it just stop and didn't let me play more turns, I think there's a time limit in the game but I want to play it with limitless turns and as long as I want to without a time limit, does anyone now how to change that?
I actually was a big fan of the game but it needed more work. Rising tides is really unbalanced and you can stomp the AI on any difficulty with ocean cities. They generate so much food and trade routes need a change as well. Unlike civ 5 you get more every time you found a new city.
OH WTF you Again. I only type in youtube Beyond Earth because on Reddit people are recommending it to me, This is crazy. You must be a popular 4X gamer and your from Aotearoa like me. WOW ! And I see you play AGE OF WONDERS 4. You must be a genius!
I think the lack of varied 'Civs' really hurt Beyond earth. As soon as you met one of the other few players, you knew exactly what to expect from them. There were 8 factions, IIRC... 8. That's it. How many choices in Civ 6 are there now? How many did we have in 5? And it really becomes 3 factions in the end with the Purity, Supremacy, and Harmony system. If you weren't the same faction, you were hated. Period. No amount of diplomacy could keep people happy with you if you didn't share the end game ideology they had. It got very boring very fast. I put over 800 hours into Civ 5, and just under 300 into Beyond Earth... Civ 6 I think has been slowly climbing up, too, but compared to when BE and Civ 5 came out, I don't have as much time in my life to spend on it. Alpha Centauri gave the leaders much better personalities. The accompanying voice overs for projects brought the characters to life in a way that BE failed miserably at.
This game is the last game ive ever preordered a game. It was interesting but after 100 turns it becomes dull. Like the rest of Civ games, the AI is really bad without dlcs. Ive started playing the game again to get 99% of achievements, just before i will buy civ6 xd
"Pan-Asian" is just a China-centric, Chinese dominated faction because China said if they want to sell the game in China they have to make it appear as if China dominated a "Pan-Asian" coalition. Fucking cringe.
