Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth Review

Beyond Earth revives Meier's original space 4x game

Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth, the spiritual successor to the acclaimed Alpha Centauri, delivers an incredible experience that echoes back the themes of the original hit. In the newest installment of Civilization, Earth has been decimated by pollution, wars, and humanities accidents. They leave their home in hopes of finding a new life in the celestial bodies which dot our skies. The game picks up as major corporations have taken over the major regions of the Earth. They board the colonists onto the shuttles which will lead them to a new eden.

In my first game which took me about eighteen hours to complete, I chose the Brasilia Corporation. We landed on the new planet in hopes of starting a peaceful life with our new neighbors. This however did not come to pass as the world was hostile and quickly tried to ruin our dreams of peace. Within about 250 turns however I had followed the Harmony Affinity and combined human DNA and alien DNA to create the most radical "new life" the original colonists could have imagined. I went on to conquer the world with my new hybrid species, and my new culture dominated the other corporations in turn. 

What struck me about Beyond Earth in comparison to Civ 5 was the regression in choice. In Civ 5 the social policies were well fleshed out and offered alot of customization to each civ. In Beyond Earth the virtues pale in comparison to their predecessors. Another striking feature was the overly complex "tech web" which was about as clear and concise as Rocket Science for Dummies book. It took me about thirty minutes to decipher the various technology paths and relate them to previous installments. Luckily these cons are overshadowed by the many pros such as the affinity choices, quest system, and the improvements on diplomacy and warfare. 

4/5

Pros	Cons
+Increased Difficulty was Welcome	-Lack of Clarity in Tech Web
+Interesting Lore and Backstory	-Virtues Suck Compared to Social Policies
+Improved Diplomacy	-New UI not Streamlined Compared to Civ V