Maybe I was expecting too much out of this game, a kind of siritual sucessor to Alpha Centaury.
Maybe Firaxis should have launched a polished game instead of teasing us with this unfinished, DLC craving game.
Maybe...

Beeing a huge Civilization fan since Civ 2, it pains me deeply puting the "tumbs down" on Beyond Earth like this, but recommending this game at its current state wouldn´t be fair, it would be complacent with the gaming industry and developers of today that think its fair to release one third of a AAA title on full price and continuously baiting us for DLC´s and expansions until finaly we get a fairly decent game worthy of that name.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is not a bad game, it´s a decent game that you can enjoy a couple of playtroughs. But that is not what we expect from a Firaxis title, and specialy from the sequel of the best turn based game of all time. It´s just...bland. One of the most common things most players have to say about this game is that it feels like a reskined version of Civ V, and to be honest, it could´t be more accurate.

BE does a good job in keeping most of the fun aspects of it´s predecessor but it feels too much like a dumbed down version of it. It lacks charisma, depth and artistic value. The new leaders are all basicaly the same, they don´t have personality or the different bonus and limitations that the SMAC or Civ V leaders used to have that made interesting piking a specific leader for your kind of playstyle. Basically you can adapt them to your own liking, making every playtrough feel the same. All the units and cities look exactly the same, only changing when you start to choose your Affinity path.

The new Affinity System brings a fresh way to play Civ and is the only interesting one to be fair. You can choose from Supremacy, Harmony and Purity and each one of them will shape your faction both visually and strategically, depending on your views on the future of Mankind and its role on this new planet. The new satelite layer brings an interesting new strategic option, Stations are not a worty substitute of the City States, they lack diplomatic options and they bring no new adition to your strategy, you can only trade with them in return of a few sum of energy. Virtues are the equivalent of Social Policies of Civ V and affect your faction in the same maner. Happiness is now Health and Gold is now energy. Starting to see a patern here?

So many interesting aspect were left behind that I can only suspect that hopefully they will be implemented in the near future (at a price of a small expantion pack of course).
Right now, at it´s current state, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth does not deserve a worthy recommendation and a thumbs up, but then again, when Civilization V was released it was in a much worse state than this and it managed to grow into a full awesome experience when it got it´s GOTY edition. If you´re not a HUGE fan of Civilization, stay away from it like it was miasma.

Oh I forgot about miasma...Remember that fungus from SMAC? Damn it, there´s that pattern again!