Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

[Grallon]

Hey Syt,


Endless Legends looks interesting - how does it compare to Age of Wonders 3 and Elemental War of Magic?  The interface looks really good but you seem to have played it so your insight is valuable.



G.

[Syt]

I've only scratched the surface. I like that they go for originality (kinda like the Endless Space races, and it's set in the same universe), and I like the province mechanic (only one city per province) and how minor factions work. The art style on the map might not be for everyone, I find it rather neat.

The Steam forums vibe seems to be that it's a very decent game, not awesome, and opinion of the AI is mixed, though the devs promise to work on it.

Check out a few Let's Plays on YouTube; I know that quill18 and Arumba have done some.

[The Brain]

Only started a test game of EL, but I really like the look and the effort gone into the races (instead of just orcs, elves etc).

[Ancient Demon]

They put a demo on Steam today. I'm downloading it now.

[garbon]

Hey Syt,


Endless Legends looks interesting - how does it compare to Age of Wonders 3 and Elemental War of Magic?  The interface looks really good but you seem to have played it so your insight is valuable.



G.

Speaking of AoW3, I was reading the DD's about the new Necromancer faction. Looks pretty neat / too bad that wasn't in the original release.

[Razgovory]

Here is an example of the People's African Union's leader having gone full Supremacy:

You'd think if was going to cover his head in metal, he'd at least get cover the bald top of his head.

[Grey Fox]

Was playing the demo last night, games seems fun. Sadly, I kept getting black screen that nothing would fix. My video card is really in need of a replacement.

[crazy canuck]

Interrupting the EL discussion  I had a lot of fun with BE last night.  I like all the decision points.  I developed a part borg part planet lover with the extra trade slots faction.  It was a hoot.  I think I am going to try to see what the purity line is like next. 

[Syt]

TotalBiscuit has posted his first impressions.

In short:
- it's a very good game
- it's better than vanilla CivV
- it's not as good as CivV-BNW
- it doesn't have the personality of Alpha Centauri

Whether or not you think full asking price is worth it will depend on how much you want sci-fi based evolution of the CivV formula.

[garbon]

TotalBiscuit has posted his first impressions.

In short:
- it's a very good game
- it's better than vanilla CivV
- it's not as good as CivV-BNW
- it doesn't have the personality of Alpha Centauri

Whether or not you think full asking price is worth it will depend on how much you want sci-fi based evolution of the CivV formula.

From just playing the demo, I can dig this. I think I'm going to wait for now as I'm not sure I'm onboard with its full price.

[DGuller]

I watched the let's play from someone who sounds like Borat.  I liked what I saw.

[DGuller]

The one thing I dislike from the videos is how drab-looking the UI is.  Way too many two-tone things to strain yourself looking at.

[Syt]

I don't mind the UI so much.

I wish Virtues had more flavor. Yes, they're a sci-fi-ish civics system, but most of the time I just look at the perks, not the description or even names of the items.

Similarly with tech - you can see a lot of work has gone into the research web, but for the most part I find I only look at, "what does this unlock?" Obviously that's a downside of playing a sci-fi game with mostly made up techs, as opposed to classical Civ where each tech is something you've heard of before.

The tech quotes when you research something help a bit, but they're a far cry from the classic Alpha Centauri quotes. Though to be fair, IIRC, AC started with near future tech and involved for the most part less abstract descriptions.

They've done a better job with the units; the unlocks you get when you reach new affinity levels are noticeably different, and come with one of two different perks that you pick on upgrade. Unfortunately, it seems when units level up you can only pick between healing them and making them stronger (the CivV upgrade perks are part of the customization process).

I like that you can mix ad match affinities as you like, so the other two branches don't lock off if you want to focus on one; and in fact it seems possible to unlock perks and buildings/special units from more than one branch.

Whereas Alpha Centauri's factions were much more scripted and thus well defined, so that you immediately knew what the Spartans or the University's focus would be, BE is much more free form where the factions' affinities and customizations will emerge during gameplay. Interesting design choice.

[Martinus]

I think the game is a great framework/template but they just didn't have enough "author" resources to develop the narrative side of the game, so it feels a bit like a mod than a full fledged game. I guess it is a bit of a dilemma - on one hand, they are right that spending too much resources on stuff like wonder movies feels like a waste as people just watch them once or twice during game, and then just skip them - on the other hand, the SMAC wonder movies were so great people watch and cheer on them to this day. I suppose I understand their design decision, although I wish there was more backstory (there is a lot of sci-fi "bones" - stuff like subtle winks, hints and nods to sci-fi fans in things like names of stations etc. that let you think up the backstory etc. - but not that much meat on those bones).

Btw, the TotalBiscuit's review Syt posted/summarised is spot on - I agree 100%.

One thing I like a lot is the quest system - for example, as Purity I was tasked with declaring war on a station I traded with after I got a plea from escaped prisoners from that station, who were experimented upon with some genetic engineering.

[Josquius]

First impressions: It seems alright....but a bit too much of a simple reskin of civ 5; renaming city states into station, barbarians into aliens, etc...