Just…one…more…turn. This is the defining addiction that a game from Sid Meier’s acclaimed Civilization series can induce in its players. And this feeling is precisely what lies at the heart of the series’ success. After the brilliant Sid Meier’s Civilization V and its two expansions Firaxis finally decided to close that chapter and come out with a new game in the series. And so we have Sid Meier’s Civilization Beyond Earth.
Civilization Beyond Earth, as the title suggests, takes place in the future on other habitable planets that can be used to found colonies for the refugees of a ruined Earth. The sole cutscene that serves to introduce the game’s premise makes it known that Earth is a lost cause and humanity must look to the stars for its continued existence. And that is about all the story element that Civilization Beyond Earth has.
At first glance Civilization Beyond Earth looks a rather lot like an official mod of Civilization V. It retains the same core mechanics and hexagonal grid of its predecessor. The main currency of the game is now energy which pays for upkeep and can be used to buy units and buildings. Science and Culture are other currencies which grant technologies and virtues (perks) respectively. The Tech tree has been replaced by a tech web that has Branches and leaves for the main and secondary technologies respectively. This feels like a natural extension of the hex based map and gives you more freedom when choosing a technology to research. Compared to this the relatively linear Virtues tree feels rather restrictive though you can choose from among four types of perks in it.
Civilization Beyond Earth does bring some new things to the table. The most interesting one is Miasma which is an alien gas that will hinder you early game, though you can turn it to your advantage late game depending on your affinity. Affinity is another new aspect which determines which special units and unit upgrades you can get and the attitude of other factions towards you. Your affinity towards Purity, Supremacy or Harmony will be seen in the architectural appearance of your cities as well as the appearance of your military units. Tiles with Miasma will damage human units and heal alien units, though Harmony units can also be healed by it. The game adds a new orbital layer and lets you launch satellites with a fixed area of influence. This new element slots in quite smoothly with the existing gameplay mechanics and feels like a natural extension of the game.
Eight factions come with Civilization Beyond Earth based on existing space powers and continental representations. The only real difference between these factions is the faction bonuses that you get for each. Otherwise there is no real uniqueness to them or their personality. Faction leaders appear as mere characters overlaid on the game world and seem to react silently to any diplomatic action. And none of them will be a thorn in your side quite like Gandhi from earlier Civilization games. The lack of a background for the leaders seems rather cheap and their appearance changes to reflect their affinity aren’t much of a compensation. This is one of the major drawbacks of Civilization Beyond Earth that will annoy existing fans of the series.
A new planet comes with its native life which will be wary of the new ‘aliens’ that are invading their world. The native lifeforms, ironically termed Aliens by Civilization Beyond Earth, will generally leave your units alone. However if you attack them or approach their nests, there will be hostilities. The aliens pose a significant threat early game and can continue to be formidable if left unchecked. However your mid and late game units should easily overpower them. The aliens are probably the most exciting part of the game due to their relative unpredictability. Curiously, the alien land units under your control can’t embark onto ships and are restricted to the landmass they spawn on.
The game has 6 resources that you get from special tiles containing them. These resources are required for the production of certain units and buildings. The game restricts you from using the polka dotting strategy or indeed trying to capture other cities early game by use of a new parameter called Health which depends on the population of your cities among other factors. Some perks can make these strategies viable again however. Health is quite hard to gain in large quantities as it requires construction of certain buildings in each city. You get more of these buildings by researching new technologies.
The most fun you can have playing Civilization Beyond Earth is in the early game where you’re struggling to survive in a hostile new world, exploring around for anything that can help you. Mid and late game seem rather boring by comparison as you just wait through turns for things to get done so much so that you can easily resist that itch to play one more turn, which is a grave failing for a Civilization game. The AI factions are rather passive on all difficulties except hard and they tend to cheat to give you any semblance of a challenge. It is the native aliens that are much more dynamic as a threat.
A city in Civilization Beyond Earth starts off as a colonist founding an outpost that slowly grows to acquire tiles around it. This is when it’s most vulnerable and military presence is advised. One can also try capturing undefended enemy outposts for some quick growth and these will change their name to match your faction. Having a large number of cities will reduce the rate at which you get Science and Culture though there are Virtues that can offset this slightly. A new type of tile is the Canyon which presents an impassable obstacle to land based units but once your units are upgraded to be able to hover, they can pass over these and the sea tiles.
Civilization Beyond Earth has a covert operations component wherein you send spies to other factions’ cities to initially indulge in relatively harmless activities like stealing energy science and technologies. However if you manage to raise a city’s intrigue high enough you can cause active harm by recruiting defectors, bringing down satellites, capturing the city through a coup d’état, and so on. These are easy to achieve mid game but the other factions will wise up by late game and put counter operatives to make it that much harder. However you have no face to associate with your operatives which makes this interesting component rather dull.
The game features a quest system that gives you objectives to work towards, in order to keep gameplay interesting. Where Civilization Beyond Earth fails is in the repetition of the same quests in every single game. Every new building you build has its own quest that presents you with the choice of a perk. The problem with this is that there is only one realistically useful choice in most of these quests and this can quickly become an annoyance. Some quests aren’t quite clear sometimes as to what you need to do to complete their objectives, which is another failing.
Civilization Beyond Earth feels rather like a rushed and unfinished game. There is lack of coherence in the design of menus and game elements. The excellence in design of the tech web is lacking from the other menus of the game like the diplomacy screens, covert operations, trade screens and even the main menu, all of which look placeholder in comparison.
The background score in Civilization Beyond Earth is notable and suits the mood. Sound effects and animations are well done for units. However the rather mute response of the AI faction leaders seems to miss this treatment.
Since the game is Steamworks, it is easy to manage the mods for this game through Steam Workshop. Given how boring Civilization Beyond Earth can get, it is recommended to peruse through the mods to enhance your experience of the game. It’s a resource that just keeps on giving.
When it comes to multiplayer, Civilization Beyond Earth still carries some of the connectivity demons that plagued Civilization V. However, when you do get a game going, you will have a much more fun game than you would with just the AI. Multiplayer gives you the option of Hot Seat as well as Online modes wherein the former gets played on the same machine while the latter is played over the internet. Given the huge time commitment a game of Civilization can be, it’s a good idea to find willing friends to share your addiction for just one more turn than to rely on strangers across time zones.
In conclusion, Civilization Beyond Earth isn’t quite the huge leap it was marketed to be. It’s just wasted potential that feels quite incomplete. When you can break that addiction of playing just one more turn in a turn based strategy game, the alarm bells should be ringing that there is something fundamentally wrong with it. The only hope lies with Firaxis fixing some of the major flaws with patches and/or expansions in the coming future, to take the series truly Beyond Earth.
