Sid Meyer's Beyond Earth...is no-one playing?

[FlickJax]

I have this and Football Manager 2015 both unlocking tomorrow...oh no what do I play

[JudgeDredd]

Here we go.....

I could watch videos by that guy all day

[JudgeDredd]

That's one of the things that always got me about the Civ games - the number of turns to gain tech. Bearing in mind quite a lot of the time there was nothing really to do (especially early game) except click the next turn button.

There's a tech on that video that takes 1072 turns!  :o

[Gusington]

What tech takes 1072 turns?

[Barthheart]

That's one of the things that always got me about the Civ games - the number of turns to gain tech. Bearing in mind quite a lot of the time there was nothing really to do (especially early game) except click the next turn button.

There's a tech on that video that takes 1072 turns!  :o

It will take shorter and shorter amounts of time as you build more research type buildings (whatever they are in this game).

[JudgeDredd]

What tech takes 1072 turns?

Seismic Induction - 3rd level of Planetary Engineering which itself takes 827 turns.

Of course that is further down the "web" of the tech web and so won't be that long when you get to it (I don't think)...but still.

Civ V was similar - though I don't recall tech taking anything like that long. I was fedup when a tech took 80 turns!

[Gusington]

Well like everyone says above a big part of ths series is waiting for cool stuff. It all hinges on how cool the end tech is.

[JudgeDredd]

Well Epic was EPIC enough in Civ V - this is taking it to a new level!  ;D

[Gusington]

UberEpic?

[JudgeDredd]

Seemingly

[Jarhead0331]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/23/civilization-beyond-earth-review

7.9 overall, but review seems kind of "meh" to me.

[JudgeDredd]

Agreed.

On the face of it, and given that 5 minute video I still stand behind the "Civ V" reskin. There are changes - but it just looks and seems to play like Civ V in space to me.

Though I should add it's kind of difficult to make a Civ game look like anything other than, well...a Civ game!

[mikeck]

Well I didn't much care for Pandora so if I feel like playing "Civ 5 in space" I guess this is the only game in town

[Bletchley_Geek]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/23/civilization-beyond-earth-review

7.9 overall, but review seems kind of "meh" to me.

I read that review and I found a bit shallow - it actually says very little about the game systems and the game play. I found the Eurogamer review

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-23-sid-meiers-civilization-beyond-earth-review

with a similar score, being far more interesting to read. This bit in particular

These guys, along with scatterings of poisonous miasma, initially forced an immediate rethink of my entirely lazy Civ fallback strategy. No more setting expensive units to explore, as they merely autopilot their way into the mouth of something nasty. No more mindless city-spamming as a hedge against attack. Beyond Earth can be downright oppressive for your first few games, and that's to its credit. I found myself playing in a way I'd never played before, because the game was forcing me to be less stupid. Suddenly, I was staying small, building up defences, and seeing each new colony, each unmolested trade convoy, as a significant victory. I suspect that even if you're actually good at Civ you'll have to question your approach somewhat. Sit up. Lean in.

Retrain, in other words. Once you do, Beyond Earth makes more sense. You don't actually have to ceaselessly battle the environment, for starters. You can fall into step with it, investing in things that allow you to protect units from attack, remove miasma from tiles or use it to regain health.

kind of points out where the IGN reviewer "misses the point". The IGN review read as if the authors was expecting to find some blue-skin lookalikes of the Na'vi you can try to "civilize", while the design seems to be more that of pitting the player again the forces of nature in an alien setting. The Eurogamer review also makes the following remark

Web and affinities drive the game's new victory conditions. Previous Civ science and culture victories have long been meatier than their names suggested, but Beyond Earth really reinforces a shift away from bland concepts towards immediately tangible goals: contacting alien intelligence, re-establishing a link with earth, or nurturing the lifeforce of the planet itself. Alongside domination and the timed victory, there are four of these end-games to aim for, generally requiring an interdisciplinary blend of culture and science, a cherry-picking of tech and specific wonders and a gimmick of some sort, like a planetary wonder that you have to protect. They add a lot in terms of drama and basic story structure.

which also seems to be at odds with the dismissive way the IGN reviewer wrote about victory conditions.

It also looks like that Firaxis this time gave altogether on trying to deliver yet another diplomatic AI and conserved what they had achieved by the last expansion of Civ V. That might be a bit of a game breaker for some, not so much for me, as I have always considered diplomatic AI in Civilization to be quite "mad".

I must say I am quite intrigued.

[jomni]

Just downloaded it.  Let you guys know.