Finished one playthrough and I loved it pretty much like I've loved every Civ game. Like with V they've stripped out the needlessly clunky and boring stuff to make way for more enjoyable gameplay. You'll always have the cranky people who'd rather get a reskin of SMAC than Civ5, but this one ticked all my spots as a more casual Civ player. IN SPACE.
Well, I'm not cranky firstly.
Secondly, what you consider clunky and boring, I consider deep and meaningful. But that's probably because i'm a big fan of Grand Strategy like Europa Universalis, etc. I expect to see in my 4X a certain level of depth and realistic stuff, and not skill trees with things to unlock to replace configurable and customizable things like interior policies, budgets, etc. I'm the first one to scream when those are needlessly complicated, as many things actually lose their fun essence when convolution starts to replace elegant simplicity, but here it's more about a casual thing vs old school thing I suppose.
I'm not using the casual words as derogatory. It's just a question of audience and to whom you cater your game. I just stated my personal taste on the matter, that's all.
Quest system made things interesting, giving both a bit of story flavor while also delivering a surprising amount of customizing of your buildings/economy.
The introduction of quests, which is taken directly from SMAC but actually made more pervasive and complex here, is a great addition. They also did that at the same time in Endless Legend, and if it's similar to the latter in Beyond Earth, then jackpot. It's a really good way to add storytelling elements and immersion to every game, and if done right, can bring very different flavour to each one. The rest is up to the player to make up his imaginary own fluff around it in his head, as usual.
The tech tree was initially a bit overwhelming but a few techs in it became quite comfortable and I frankly love that this time around it's not "Yeah, you can just research EVERYTHING. Doesn't really matter." but instead you can choose between affinities, or even go wide-spread and go for a Domination victory instead.
As I said above I understand the idea behind, I just don't like it. As a tech player I usually like to research all the things, and being barred from doing so (unless spreading all around for a domination victory as you say), is constraining in itself and bars me from one of the fundamentals of my playstyle.
More generally, I understand that the game forces you make choice, which is good in itself, but here it is at the expense of enjoying all the content. I like to enjoy all the technological content in my 4X games.
I can understand some like it better like that, but I don't. It's like telling a military player that the only way for him to win is to rush through a SINGLE enemy capital and that's it. Here it's kind of similar to my eyes : if I want a scientific victory, I have to rush through a narrow tech path and voila.
The Virtues system is really nifty as it rewards both going deep or wide with different bonuses to the specific subjects or synergy bonuses if you spread them around.
I have less gripes with the virtues in themselves. As much as I have seen how they work and what they bring (not much different from the doctrines from civ 5, just less linear), how many of them can you unlock in one playthrough ? A quarter ? Half ? 90%? All of them ?
Not saying that all of them should be unlockable in one go, just curious about it.
I would also recommend actually playing it before naysaying on the "tiny bonuses" of the factions, because they really do have an impact. It's quite significant to have for instance a much higher work speed for workers, or better spy system etc etc.
When you have played SMAC, GalCiv or Amplitude games, I can assure you that those bonuses are ridiculously insignificant...
Love the art myself. It's pretty much exactly how Civ in Space would look. Harmony tech looks like biotech, etc. The augmentation guys go nicely "cyborgy" etc.
Harmony tech to me looks like Chtulhuh in space honestly, and Purity looks like mechwarrior, but to each his tastes I guess. I just find their Art Direction completely grotesque. You even have a master chief skin for your marines at some point.
As for the terrain in itself, as a levelbuilder myself, I find it ugly, especially the colours that are disharmonious and displeasing to the eye. Maybe that's what they wanted after all, but there is a huge difference between something unaesthetical/alien IRL and the way to picture it. vOv
Civ5 also has the benefit of two expansions and fuck knows how many minor DLCs. If gameplay videos and the theme doesn't suck you in as it did me, I'd probably recommend just sticking with Civ5 for now, until Beyond Earth gets an expansion or two. Me? I'll be playing the singleplayer at least twice more which should lead to 20-30 hours, before I take another Civ break, which is about my usual Civ cycle.
Expansions in the latter civ titles are actually something that piss me off to no bound. That's just content for which they make you pay the price of a full game everytime.
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Topic: Civilization: Beyond Earth (Read 5643 times)