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Thoughts on Civilization: Beyond Earth?
It's on sale on Steam for a couple days, $15 for the complete bundle. I like Civ III, IV, and V, and really like SMAC. Haven't played VI.
It's on sale on Steam for a couple days, $15 for the complete bundle. I like Civ III, IV, and V, and really like SMAC. Haven't played VI.
Eh, it's complicated. Beyond Earth is one of the more controversial Civ titles, and in truth, it's not much of a radical departure from Civ V. It does introduce a few significant changes to gameplay, but it's about as large as a quality mod on top of the prexisting Civ V engine. Were it DLC or a mod, I think it would've been quite popular, but as a $60 game, it wasn't worth it unless you were a huge Civ buff (or needed it for benchmarking).
At $15 though? Imo, if you've enjoyed the other Civ titles, I think it's worth picking up. I really loved the SciFi atmosphere, and have gotten quite a blast playing it over the years. You might wanna see if you can find some gameplay footage and just watch for a bit to see if it appeals to you, since Steam's 15 minute refund period, ah, doesn't work too well for Civ games. :)
I passed on Beyond Earth when it came out too because of how mediocre the reviews seemed at launch and how pricey it was when it first came out, especially since one of the major complaints was how lacking in content it was... so I am definitely curious about this, too.
As for Civ VI, it's a gorgeous looking game but I honestly wouldn't recommend it simply because it unfortunately continued the trend of Civ games getting shallower with even less content available at launch than all the previous games (and the DLC is super expensive for what you get). The technology pacing is super weird and way too fast without modding it too IMO. The combat system is way better but the units are severely imbalanced so overall combat is pretty "meh".
The iPad version of Civ VI is pretty damn great though and is my go to mobile game... but the fact it can be played so easily on a mobile platform and works so well there speaks to the truth of my previous criticisms of it. :(
I've barely played Beyond Earth (because I absolutely hated Civ5 at launch and wanted nothing to do with the franchise for years), but from what I've heard the expansion pack improves the game significantly.
That's one of the most common complaints I hear about the franchise, but the only game I felt it was true for was Civ5, which indeed felt very barren of features at launch. Civ6 includes most of the features from Civ5 (although some of them tweaked almost beyond recognition), plus a whole bunch of new features.
What features in particular from Civ5 do you feel it's missing?
This is true. Definitely don't pay full price for the DLC. It's frequently on sale.
I think at least Civ5 would be as easily playable on a touch interface. The older ones might be a bit of a pain simply because of unit stacks.
I really liked BE a lot at release. It was a good bit different than Civ and did a few neat things. The research tree being a circle was a real fun idea - but it turned out to be insanely complicated. I liked the idea of progressing either harmony, synthetic, or purist. Ultimately though, the game just never held my attention. It's been a couple years since I played but I remember hitting a point thinking that i'd just rather play Civ5. BE probably just needed more time to be completely fleshed out.