Recent reviews by Waterbizkit

What to say about this game? Well, start with the easy stuff: I like it and recommend it to people who enjoy large-engagement style FPS games. It strikes a nice balance between "realism" and "gamey" mechanics. Time-to-kill, for example, is extremely low, as in one bullet can potentially kill you low, but you can also set it up so you can see friendly unit tags from 500m out, so there's a give and take.

The visuals are nice and the sound is amazing. The gunfire, the artillery shells whistling overhead, the tank engines... it's all very immersive. The gun play is alright, not the best, but it's functional and I don't feel like it's holding me back at all. The different roles are all unique and fun in their own way. I wish I knew why there's six slots for armor squads when the maps I've played so far only seem to allot three tanks, but maybe that's something I'll figure out in time.

Now the most contentious part of the game for me:

The biggest takeaway after about nine hours of play is that teamwork is definitely key. The command structure is an integral part of the game, which can be a good and a bad thing. When it works well it's something pretty cool to be a part of. Commanders issue orders, squad leaders filter those orders down to their squads and as play progresses the squads bounce information back up the chain so that command can make better informed decisions...

The problem of course is that this is an online game, which means the people you play with run the gamut from try-hards that act like their actually in the military to the people who don't give a fig what they're being asked to do and think this is like any other shooter where your k/d is all that matters. Most seem to strike a balance, which is nice, but that's not always the case.

Sorry Commander Candice and Squad Leader Sally, this isn't the actual army. Ask me to do something like a normal person and I'll try my best. Start acting like you actually control my actions or give me crap when I don't perfectly carry out what you're asking me to do and you can go screw. Likewise Rifleman Lone Wolf, if someone asks you to push a point or fallback or help out with something, don't just wander off, because you won't accomplish anything useful on your own and your k/d isn't on display for everyone to gawk at.

I play with friends, roughly four of us all told with one or two others that might pick up the game as well. This makes it easy for us be part of the team while having a lot of independence in how we operate as a squad. Not everyone will have that luxury though. So if there's one thing that I feel people need to consider most when thinking about picking this game up, it's this portion of it. Dealing with randos online is not optional in this game, so if that's a deal breaker move on. If you don't mind that kind of forced social interaction, then you should like the game.

TLDR: Good, game that plays well and both looks & sounds nice. Grab it if you're comfortable with communicating with randos online, if you aren't I would move on.

This game is genuinely fun, as long as you're willing to put in the time.

My friends and I started out like most inexperienced players might: getting to grips with the basics of operating the U-boat, taking a single hydrophone reading, and then tearing off in that direction full-speed ahead. Sometimes we'd find the convoy right away, sometimes it took forever. We were running blind.

After getting within sight of the convoys we would submerge, try taking half-assed readings and then just fling torpedoes at the convoy. We'd get some hits, mostly out of blind luck, and frequently had accuracy ratings of well under 30%. I feel like most of our success came from going up against convoys so large it was almost impossible to miss every ship.

Then we started putting more time & effort into it. Taking multiple readings on the hydro at multiple positions at specific intervals so that we could work out the convoys approximate heading, speed and location. Instead of going in and dropping torpedoes in the water immediately, we started shadowing the convoys. We would make sure to identify the ships, take multiple speed readings, refine their heading, and move parallel with them out of sight until we could overtake them entirely and sit in-wait much closer to their path. Shooting torpedoes from closer ranges with significantly more solid data for the TDC made a world of difference. Our success rate shot up dramatically, as did the sense of accomplishment.

So if you're looking for a game where you go in, guns & torpedo tubes blazing... this may not be the game for you. But if you're willing to put some time (and I mean hours) & effort into it, the results can be satisfying.

Quickly, from a technical perspective, there's some oddities here & there, but it's in early access, so those can be forgiven for the moment. The game is stable and looks good, and right now that's all I can ask.

Stability is awful. Devs are more interested in adding more stuff they can nickel & dime you for than fixing bugs. They need to stop trying to be Fortnite and concentrate on fixing the game.

I don't review many games because it's not really something I take the time to do, but I almost felt like I had to with this one. I'll keep it short & sweet.

A lot of people as of late have been giving this great game a thumbs down because of how the devs have decided to fundamentally change how FTL works. I get it, kinda. It's a major change, no doubt. That said, I'm sorry, but if how your ships get from point A to point B is the the deal breaker for you I just can’t completely empathize. There’s so much to love about this game that how things move around the map simply isn’t something I can get hung up on. The backlash over something so minor, to me, has been surprising, but I guess everyone picks a hill they want to die on. FTL ain’t my hill.

The devs have been working away at this game since it came out and while it’s not without its flaws the dedication is to be admired in my opinion. At the end of the day I haven’t had this much fun with this sort of game since Master of Orion II. Now, I’m not trying to draw any direct comparisons by bringing up that classic game, I’m just saying that nothing in this genre of game has grabbed my attention since MoO II like Stellaris has.

It’s fun, it’s immersive, and it’s constantly being tweaked and worked on to improve it. People may not agree with all of those tweaks of course, but so far I’ve enjoyed it all. To each their own, but this is the best game I’ve spent money on in donkey’s years. I wholeheartedly recommend this game.

AT the time of this review I haven't actually played too much, but what I have is excellent enough to already recommend the game. It's a difficult game, make no bones about it. My first game I dove right in thinking "How hard can it really be?"

...

I then lost my colony on day 4. Day ****ing 4.

But, even that little taste was enough to help me learn from my mistakes and try again. That got me to day 60-something. So far into my third game I've made it to day 80ish. The wheel of progress turns, greased with the guts of the dead.

Seriously though, this is a fun game as long as you like the challenge. The audio is nice, it looks good and it plays well. There's a few quircks I hope they get around to ironing out, like unit pathing and the fact that you don't get unit outlines on anything obscured by buildings, trees, etc. But for the money I spent on the game I'm already happy with the purchase.

I'll keep this short, Beyond Earth is a good game that while lacking in many aspects still provides a solid base to build upon and down the road will probably be another great addition to the Civilization franchise.

Doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, right? Well notice how most of the reviews panning this game suggest that the reader go and buy Civ V for a better experience. Civ V was dumped on when it first hit the market. The vanilla game was called a bland and unfinished product and everyone said "go play Civ IV for a better experience". See the pattern? Civ V was released in 2010 and has two excellent expansions behind it that turned a solid, if bland, foundation into the game that everyone now praises.

Beyond Earth, like Civ V, needs time to be excellent. The vanilla game is a sound product for the developers to build on and turn a good product into a great one. If you don't want to suffer through the games growing pains, then don't buy it. That's cool. But if you did it with Civ V like I did, you may not mind doing it again with Beyond Earth. So if you're like me and want tomplay through the game as it evolves then grab it now. If on the other hand you want to wait for the game to see more additions and polish, I certainly won't begrudge you.

Just remember that the vaunted Civ V wasn't always the great game that God & Kings and Brave New World turned it into, so give Beyond Earth the same chance to grow.

First off let's be clear, I haven't spent a great deal of time with the game yet, so my opinion is certainly subject to change. First impressions however are good. The game evokes the feel of it's predecessors right out of the gate. There are certainly differences though and I suspect purists are going to take issue with several of them. I myself have been playing Master of Orion and Master of Orion II off & on since they were released. Master of Orion II has been installed and played on every computer I've owned over the last two decades! So while I may not consider myself a "purist" in the manner I'm using it, I'm certainly a fan. And as a fan I can say that I like this game.

The "feel" of the game is just about right. The visuals, audio and the like are all well done and I find that barring a few missing options that the UI is well put together. The races are well done, though the racial traits have certainly been toned down from the previous titles. In some way I'm glad to see this, as traits like "creative" provided too great an advantage, but the flip side is that the races seem a bit less unique. One or two more traits per race would be nice to see.

Much ado has been made over features such as star lanes v free travel and real-time combat v turn-based tactical combat. In the case of the former I've found no real issues, star lanes simply don't change the gameplay in any negative way I've seen so far. The tactical combat is a bit of a let down as it stands right now though. Shield facings, careful use of weapons and specials are all more or less gone now. Even turning off the auto-AI and pausing combat to issue orders doesn't stack up to the older combat. Luckily for me I never played Master of Orion for the tactical combat. Some do though and it's a point to consider.

Overall, as a sort of tldr, I find the gameplay engaging, fun and it reminds me of playing the games of my youth. So it's a win in my book so far.

Anyway, as you can tell I'm not going to make pro-con list or anything of the sort, but I am going to recommend the game to those interested. Keep in mind though the game is still in development and a lot is subject to change I'm sure, so if your wary of the title because you don't think it can match up to the games of old or because you dislike WG (something I've run into as a reason to avoid the title) then keep your money for now and see how the game develops. No reason to part with your hard-earned cash if you're unsure. For me though? This was worth it.