Recent reviews by LutenantDan

Biggest innovation to turned based combat I can remember, so much fun. Unfortunately world traversal ends up feeling like a bit of an afterthought. Great game.

Very fun; definitely familiar if you played Outer Worlds, but longer and better imo

They fixed the bad thing. Thank you for listening Sony.

Great Early Access game, worth every penny at full price.

Excellent for casual quick fun. Just a little more in depth than regular lux/risk.
If you like Risk you will almost definitely enjoy Alliance.
As you can see by my hours played, definitely worth the money.

Great Game, brings back memories. Impressive it runs on Windows 10 without issue.

I feel like my "hrs on record" speaks for itself. The game is amazing, but very much about learning physics through trial and error. For the people (including me) who space travel is an obsession, this is the best game made yet. Its lacking things like story and structure, but gives you 1000x more satisfaction at completing a goal than the next closest game. No other game/simulation allows you to play with (practically) accurate spaceflight like Kerbal does. If you are just interested, not obsessed with space travel, there is still a lot to enjoy here.

People are upset because developement for this game has essentially stopped, but the only reason that is jarring for these people is because for most of the life of the game it has been in beta, and people essentially got used to regular, free DLC. Would I like more? Sure. But there is more to do in this game than I will ever have the time for, and there is absolutely no reason why Squad can't call this game complete.

If the premise of Kerbal looks remotely interesting to you, buy it. Its often on sale but I wouldnt say thats even worth waiting for because as soon as you start experimenting in Kerbal, you'll realize that it is simply worth the price they put on it.

I recommend this game. Here is why:

Pros-

-Affinities. This is a really cool way to choose the path your civ takes, each affinity has its owns units, building style, victory conditions, even the Leaders look more like their affinity as the game progresses.

-Tech Web. This one takes a lil while to get used to, but addsa neat element to the game. It allows for civs, who have the same amount of techs researched, to have very different technologies, which I think adds an interesting element to the game.

-Unit Upgrades. This one might be personal preference, but this once again adds to diversity of civs. As each civ gravitates towards a certain affinity, its units are upgraded all together, making all soldier-class units look alike (also they all have the same perks, which are player customizable, somthing new aside from traditional veterancy perks) within an empire, while being different from other empires.

-All Around Aesthetic Update. Though obviously, lemme say this again, OBVIOUSLY, this game runs on the Civ V game engine, and will "feel" like Civ V if you play the game trying too find similarities, everything is updated to look and feel sci-fi, and I personally really like it. Just watch the demo videos, if you dont like the way they look, then you can bet your bottom dollar (or in some of these reviewers cases, your bottom $50 evidently) that you will also dislike the way the game looks when you are playing it.

Cons-

-Diplomacy. This was one of my biggest issues with Civ V when it came out, and sadly it got worse in Beyond Earth instead of better. I find myself relatively unattached to other civs, with nothing much to say to them, and they dont have much to say to me. It also seems like they could care less if I win, they trudge along with their long-term attempts at victory even though I am closing in on constructing a warp-gate or settling earthlings (Supremacy and Purity victories).

-Nations. Yes there are only 8, and that kinda sucks, and whether more are or are not coming is pretty much a non-issue because you shouldnt buy it now on that promise, in my opinion. My issue with the nations is that theres no real difference between them, except their colors, leaders and piddly bonuses. They need more personatily, like how Attila loves him some invasions, or how Montezuma will never give you his world map, even if his life depended on it. Just little personalities to make me say "Oh, you" like I have with every other civ game would be nice. Also I found that the lack of real nations makes me care about them a little less. Oh, and Haha, we get it, America is one big Corporation, thats clever. Never been done before.*


Have Been/Could Have Done Better-
-Quests. Neat idea, cool idea, quests are used to add a bit of dialogue to the game, a bit of story that you lost by not caring about the other civs quite as much. The problem is that they were so timid with the implementation of quests that I pretty much didnt know that I was working on a quest until a prompt popped up to ask me how I wanted to reap the rewards of completing a quest. Since I did not know I was working on a quest, I certainly did not know WHY I was working on a quest, and that is certainly important if the reason quests are there is to add a story.

-Trade Routes. A fantastic addition to Civ V, added a whole new economic power element to the game. Trouble is that they took it to far in Beyond Earth and made trade routes absolutely mandatory, not just helpful, but I mean you need the max number of caravans and trade ships coming in and out of your cities at all times in order to win. Still a fun game mechanic, and definately preferable to none at all, i just preferred in Civ V were you were rewarded for taking the time to build trade routes rather than crippled by neglecting them.

Just an FYI, the Have Been/Could Have Done Better section was NOT an extension of cons, but rather positive elements of the game that I'd say could use some tweaks or refinement, and probably will with updates.

So thats my recommendation of Civilization: Beyond Earth, as a standalone game I would give it a 8/10. In my opinion whether or not it could have been an (albeit extensive) Mod or DLC for Civ V is irrelevent, because there is certainly $50 worth of additions and adjustments here, and it is a standalone game. But for some people those additions were negative additions, and those adjustments just didnt create an experience different enough from a game they already had with a similar name. So dont buy if you dont want another game on the Civ V engine or dislike the way the game looks in demos. Do buy if you are a fan of good 4X strategy, sci-fi, Civilization, and of course excited by the demos.


*It has been done before.