Civilization: Beyond Earth Review

Earth is reaching the end of days and the planet’s greatest nations are launching the few chosen bastions of hope into space, so they will one day discover a new place to call home and continue the human race. It’s a storyline any Hollywood studio would be proud to showcase in their latest Sci-Fi thriller, but unfortunately we hear nothing of it after the game’s opening cutscene.

Civilization: Beyond Earth is something Civilization fans are hoping will change everything. Tossing away the historical aspects of building the human race, Beyond Earth instead chooses to blast everything into the space age, swapping out barbaric forces for aliens and famous historical faces for a generic cast of multicultural representatives. It’s somehow less charming to have war waged upon your meagre settlement by the CEO of a large corporation rather than Ghandi or George Washington.

The gameplay and general aesthetics are all very much reminiscent of its predecessor. In fact, I should make this clear instantly; this game does not feel like a sequel. It doesn’t feel like any leap or evolution in the franchise, instead it feels like an alien reskin of Civilization V with some somewhat minor changes. Honestly, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing: Civilization V is a hugely addictive and fantastic experience, and Civilization: Beyond Earth still retains the perfect formula for addiction, but it’s just less endearing.

So you touch down on an alien planet, and straight away get to work cultivating land and gathering resources. It’s all pretty standard Civilization fare, with explorers revealing hidden portions of the map and workers busily creating generators and farms for energy and food. It won’t be long until some neighbours touch down too; the stern CEO, the friendly African delegate, the suave Polynesian charmer… The gang’s all here. Just a shame they’re not likeable. Whereas in Civilization V and past games famous faces have provided both a pseudo-historic lesson and some fantastic laughs (anyone who has gone to war with Ghandi will attest to this).

 

Things progress at the usual Civilization rate, but you’re likely to be under near-constant siege by local aliens until you’ve wiped out their nests, keeping in mind that destroying the local fauna will likely rile some of your new neighbours, causing them to lose trust in you or even publicly condemn you.

Virtues are a new addition, forcing you down one of four paths towards an affinity. Affinities are gained depending on what you research and how you play, with a peaceful play style leading towards Harmony, and a more militaristic viewpoint leading down the path of Supremacy. Anything is a viable choice, but aiming for Supremacy is more likely to bring the fists of your fellow humans upon you.

Units haven’t changed much, aside from the new skin. Each of them can be upgraded after earning enough experience, letting you either select an instant HP bonus or a permanent buff to attack power, allowing your older, weaker units keep up with your high-tech machines.

One of the most interesting new additions to Civilization: Beyond Earth is the Orbital Layer. This is basically a new playing field where satellites can hover. Only certain long-range units will be able to attack satellites in the Orbital Layer, and a space laser can most certainly lay waste to many enemies. Other than offensive weapons, you can also place satellites that have the sole purpose of slowly earning more energy or other resources.

At least there are a few alien strategies to get used to - some of the world is covered in Miasma, a fog which units will lose health standing in, making it impossible to turn Miasma covered land into useful tiles. Of course you can eventually learn to clear and destroy Miasma, but even more useful is learning to place it. Placing Miasma at the edges of your world on areas where enemies may approach can provide a great tactical advantage, weakening any foes that may try to march on your cities before they even meet any of your units. Aliens, however, are unaffected by Miasma; it is their planet, after all.

I would put some time into talking about graphics, but again, it’s not very different from Civilization V. I could argue that it looks a bit nicer in places with some textures offering slightly more detail, but again, these are such minor changes they’re barely worth mentioning. From a purely personal standpoint, Civilization: Beyond Earth’s darker colour scheme isn’t that appealing in comparison to the brighter world we saw in Civilization V. Everything feels a bit more dreary and depressing; sure, humanity was on the brink of extinction, but now that we’re on a new world building a new future you would think that the environment could look a little more cheerful.

Luckily, if you want something to cheer and excite you that little bit more there is the audio - just like in past games when you’ve made grand developments a song will play that really epitomises the feeling or expanding your dominion over a brand new inspiring world. It feels honestly fantastic, and that audio cue is one of the high points in the Beyond Earth experience. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does it makes you feel genuinely good about your progress.