Down to Earth with the Anglo-Saxons

  I didn't want to do a review of Beyond Earth until I had a good chunk of time invested in it, since it generally takes a while for the hype to wear off before you can do the review objectively.  Other reviewers have had similar utterances when it comes to games as sprawling and time consuming as the Civilization series.  I played the game for about two weeks solid, roaming through different Affinity paths and victory conditions, collecting achievements along the way, but recently I've been turning back to Civ5 and the extensive mods the game offers.

  My general advice to the perspective Beyond-Earth-buyer is if you haven't purchased BE yet, you're probably best waiting until it goes on sale.  It simply isn't worth the $50 unless you really enjoy strategy games, and even then you shouldn't expect it to be Civ6 or Alpha Centurai 2.  I'd probably go even as far to say it's worse than Brave New World in terms of satisfaction.  BNW seemed to bring so many good things to Civ5 that really made the game shine, where Beyond Earth seems like somewhat of a let down.

  For all the negativity that's been going around about it, Beyond Earth does do some things right.  I'm certainly not alone when I say that the Tech Web and Affinity Systems are excellent additions to the game, and alone make the game worth picking it up.  The ability to choose which path you want to stretch out towards on the Tech Web allows a great imbalance in power spikes.  You might be able to shoot straight for a unit or building you really want that is buried in a tech your opponents won't pick up until many turns later, if at all.  Since techs are how you will pick up most of your affinity points and unique late-game units, spikes in military power will come at different times for everyone.  The affinities change the way your units and cities look, determine what sort of resources you will be hunting, and each unlock a special victory condition tied to that affinity.  The affinities are one of the best executed features of the game.  The philosophies of each of them are very believable, and they emerge through the flavor text that is read when you level rises. They run the gamut from the Harmony players who believe humankind should adapt to this new land and view it as their real home, to the Supremacy players who do not want the existence of their race to be determined by the planet they live on, but rather through technological superiority.

  Aside from these high points, the overall experience seems very shallow.  The lack of polish and character poked sharply out from underneath BE during my sessions, from the leaders, many of whom are more unimaginative than their historical counterparts in a spacesuit, to the quest system, which is more of a glorified buff system for your buildings.  The Wonders are exemplary of this flavor drain.  They've been significantly watered down from its predecessor, both in power and execution.  In Civ5 I will nervously cross my fingers, hoping the AI doesn't beat me to a wonder so that I can hear that satisfactory, the breath of relief when I hear the chime and the beautiful illustration and accompanying flavor text.  In Beyond Earth I will resign myself to a wonder when I'm out of buildings, be unconcerned about finishing it before an AI, and when I do complete it be treated to a picture of an exoskeleton of whatever it was I built accompanied by just plain bizarre flavor text.

  Despite this, I think the changes made to the structure of BE through the tech web, affinities, and virtue system will allow for this to be an excellent multiplayer game once some patches roll in to fix the numerous bugs and address the balancing issues within the game.  Multiplayer is essentially broken for BE, and outside of achievement hunting (all of which are pretty generic), I'd rather play BNW, since it is a much more complete game.  I recently picked it up again using a handful of the hundreds of mods in the Steam Workshop.  Until now I've never really played with mods because I wanted to practice for multiplayer and preserve my ability to get achievements.  But looking through the Workshop for ways to make BE more palatable, I stumbled into the Civ5 mods, and fell in love all over again.

  The main mod I've been using is the More Luxuries Mod, which adds nine new luxuries to the game.  This allows you to expand a little more while keeping your happiness in the green, since you can usually get a couple cities with two new luxury resources in a few of your cities if you plant them well.  Expanding early is usually important for dealing with the forward settling AI, so I definitely appreciate the introduction of some extra early happiness.  Plus the visuals of the luxuries fit in very well, and with the addition of Cocoa and Bison from the recent patch, the map feels a fresh compared to a few months ago.

  I've also been using some of the Alternate Civilizations.  I played an Emperor game as the Safavids and out-space raced the Zulus this past weekend.  For this week I'm rolling another Emperor game with the Anglo-Saxons, who expedite their Golden Ages and get a Social Policy boost while they're in a golden age.  I'm knee deep in the Medieval Era and manged to found my second city on Lake Victoria.  I was even able to snag the Oracle and the Mosque of Djenne, and founded a religion.  Unfortunately my neighbors have strong religions of their own: Boudica & Theodora of the Celts & Byzantines respectively.  I predict some Missionary Wars as we venture into the Renaissance... or possibly the other kind of war.

  I'll probably check back in next week with a game overview.  I'll try to stream the game when I can too, and if you have any Mods you would suggest, share them in the comments.