Like Health and Energy, Culture is a resource players must manage but it doesn’t seem to play a significant role other than to expand a colony’s borders and gain Virtue bonuses. Diplomacy feels like an afterthought, and Stations are less dynamic versions of “Civilization’s” City-States. Like Health and Energy, Culture is a resource players must manage, but it doesn’t seem to play a significant role other than to expand a colony’s borders. The gameplay succeeds when Firaxis comes up with original systems, such as quests, but it feels incomplete when the developers shoehorn old elements such as Culture and Stations into the campaign’s flow. It’s a solid “Civilization” effort, but “Beyond Earth” needs to move away from its predecessor and establish its own identity. The campaign doesn’t intensify until the end, when players near their goal and conflicts emerge among the group.
After explorers check out ruins and resource pods and players establish their territory, the game lags as players figure out which victory condition they want to pursue and put out minor fires caused by aliens and rival colonies. “Beyond Earth” stumbles in the middle of the campaign. It reinforces the idea that the alien world is inhospitable, especially in the early going. An explorer can be crossing the sea when a Sea Dragon attacks and sends him to the bottom of an ocean. Players can build an outpost that eventually will turn into a city, but a siege worm attack can ruin that plan. The insectoid species on the new world creates a hostile and unpredictable environment. The affinity choice affects the type of things players can build on their new world, making each play-through unique.Īnother aspect that sets “Beyond Earth” apart is that besides human rivals, players also must deal with aliens. The choices of that scientific progress influence each colony and push it toward an “affinity,” a vision of humanity’s future that can take one of three directions: one in which man and machine meld (Supremacy), one in which man and alien converge (Harmony) and one in which man molds the planet into a new Earth (Purity). With this game set in the future, Firaxis avoids predicting how various technologies will evolve and instead lets players - by selecting from the several “tech web” offerings - choose the direction of their new world’s advancement. As Earth falls, the players will have to depart and colonize an alien world that’s both strange and dangerous.Īlthough it looks like previous iterations, players shouldn’t approach “Beyond Earth” in the same way.
But it always left me wondering: What happens next? Do humans survive outside the solar system?įiraxis Games has answered that question with “Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth.” It picks up where “Civilization V” leaves off, with players taking control of one of eight factions, such as the American Reclamation Corporation or the Kavithan Protectorate, that will lead expeditions to a new world. It’s a hopeful finale, one where humanity flees the turmoil on Earth and sets off to seek its destiny in the stars. In the “Civilization” games, the most intriguing victory scenario is the one where players build a spaceship and launch it toward Alpha Centauri.