Is this game worth a second attempt?
Is this game worth a second attempt?
It's a good deal if you can snag it cheap, especially when paired with DLC. It feels like a Civ V experience but powered by the most extreme AI yet—though some late-game characters are surprisingly impressive, like massive space lasers, giant robot walkers, flying battleships, and huge genetically modified aliens.
Civilization Beyond Earth didn't meet expectations. It removed the historical elements that are essential to the series' strength.
They were experimenting with something new. I really appreciate how the game’s features mirror the advanced tech path I’ve always dreamed of in Civ, even though I haven’t had the chance to reach it. It’s disappointing that so many aspects of the game fall short of their potential.
It's accurate, and BE might face similar challenges even more intensely. I promise sometimes it seems like if you set up a new city on the same continent as another faction, they'll reject you, leaving you with no choice but to react. A major drawback of BE is that each faction has two different favorability scales for every group, offering two distinct responses—respect or fear. While this concept works in theory, it often falls short in practice because respect points are meaningless; a faction might treat you as weak and offer maximum respect, yet still go to war. Having fear at its peak means no one will threaten you, but it disrupts the game by pushing players toward military strategies. On the positive side, they've made peace negotiations much better. Throughout conflicts, each side earns points, and at the end, whoever leads in points decides which cities to claim, technologies to adopt, etc.
You only have the original version. It seems the Utopia DLC makes it significantly better, though I haven’t played long enough to spot any AI tricks or mistakes yet.