STEAM CIVILIZATION BEYOND EARTH SERIES

If Civ's always had a certain balmy optimism due to its focus on progress, its certainty that it knows the beats and can recite the timeline, Beyond Earth explores what happens once progress has wrung you out: once it's landed you and a handful of uneasy competitors in the armpit of the universe, with one trembling city to your name and memories of the distant paradise that you accidentally turned into an ashtray. This is careworn science-fiction, as a fragmented and ideologically divided humanity scrambles away from a poisoned homeworld. And, like Alpha Centauri, the tone is anything but victorious. Like Alpha Centauri, Beyond Earth begins where so many games of Civ end, with the rocket that signals a science victory sending you heavenward to see how the stars feel about your gunship diplomacy and printing presses. In terms of spirit, however, the game is a mixture of influences. So many new resources to deal with - where to start? Stacking's still out, and cities retain ranged attacks, swift contrails neatly replacing the volley of arrows.

(This last one is a slightly awkward formulation that replaces unhappiness with negative health.) Units may have gained a toy-like tacility through the shift into the future - catapults are replaced by the likes of missile rovers, while settlers become waffle-iron colonist craft that open out to form outposts - but warfare and expansion work the same old way.

Elsewhere, gold becomes energy, denouncements become condemnations and happiness becomes health. The menus and interfaces that drive the turn-based clockwork of both games are practically identical, right down to intricacies like the city screen and espionage system. Lean in.Ĭoming from the main series, you'll recognise the basics. Civ's always gobbled your time, but Beyond Earth makes clearer demands on your attention. There are fewer lapses into last-minute domination victories, too - partly because they're just harder, but partly because the ennui that so often prompts you to kill everyone is slower to take hold. It offers more choices, but they paradoxically provide more focus. Then, eight hours later, new victory conditions, introduced far earlier than before, are giving dynamism to the sometimes amorphous Civ end-game.ĭoes it work? Beyond Earth certainly offers fewer instances where you're clicking through decisions that don't feel like they matter. Beyond Earth seeks to shake up the predictability of gentlemanly Civ opening gambits, with their familiar routines and breezy, acquisitive calm. Price and availabilityīy contrast, Beyond Earth has you hunched forward for every second, fighting for survival on the fidgety surface of a planet that has unambiguous feelings about all that vertical farming you're trying to do to it. Annex Te-Moak? Burn Boston to the ground? Go nuclear on Pedro II? Why not, eh? Why not. It's a battle, but it's also a bubblebath.

It's a response to the fact that Civ 5, even at its cruellest, is still so often a game for leaders who like to lean back and ponder their actions with a certain kind of holiday cheeriness.

STEAM CIVILIZATION BEYOND EARTH SERIES

Beyond Earth blasts the Civilization 5 template into space, but it's ultimately less of an offshoot to the main series and more of a measured response. Sometimes, you need to achieve a little distance in order to get a little perspective. Beyond Earth isn't a sequel to Alpha Centauri, and it isn't quite an expansion of Civ 5, either.

Steam civilization beyond earth