#Civilization beyond earth background full#
And while natural wonders are conspicuously absent-robbing players of part of the draw of exploring a new planet-the varied terrain is full of curious features like resource pods, ruins and alien skeletons to seek out. A toxic miasma coats about a third of the surface of any map, damaging human units and healing aliens. Even Beyond Earth's loan translations of the previous entries' forests, mountains, and livestock feel suitably threatening here. Aliens play the role of the barbarian tribes from the last few Civilization games, as an entity that's not exactly "in it to win it." But they'll mess with your early game plans all the same, utilizing better cunning and more imposing units than their old club-wielding counterparts. Or maybe from the creature that's three-quarters mandible, just kind-of loitering ominously offshore.
Maybe those lessons will come from the sandworm churning up your freshly tilled farmland a few tiles from your capital and consuming any trade expedition you send in its general direction. So much for my incessant restarting, then-all things considered, Beyond Earth seems to output viable starting situations more reliably than its predecessors.īut viable doesn't necessarily mean welcoming-this is an alien planet, after all, and colonizing it is going to beget some unfortunate learning experiences on the behaviors of local wildlife as part of due course. There's more freedom afforded when picking out which parcel of land to found your first city on, and there's even a perk that reveals the outlines of the world's land masses. A first step can be taken towards generating energy, science, culture, et alia, and you can opt to begin the game with a military unit, or a clinic if you'd prefer.
#Civilization beyond earth background series#
There are a few welcome touch-ups to smooth over Civilization's old edges, and they first appear in pregame as a series of decisions to make prior to starting your bid for global domination. Now Playing: Civilization Beyond Earth Video Review The alien terrain shows off smooth transitions between tiles. Create, explore, and expand-or, if you're like me, create, explore, quit, and create again.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's So despite the new trappings, it's simple enough to slide back into routine. There are the familiar icons for production, food, and culture to illustrate the quantified output of your cities, and a new one, energy, is a reasonable enough stand-in for currency-its icon even looks a bit like a golden coin to ease you into the transition. You still unlock new technologies and cultural policies that ensure a steady drip of upgrades and benefits.
You still situate your capital city, and click it to designate the production of military units or workers that can spruce up your immediate surroundings. But Beyond Earth also calcifies much of Civilization V's vocabulary and play arc. Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth shifts the series' brand of turn-based discovery and conquest off-planet, and the sci-fi setting puts a slick, chrome sheen on my old neurosis. It's wonderful, soul-sucking entertainment. Then, in a sudden fit of self-loathing, I'll wipe the board clean. Eventually I'll nestle a few defensible cities into the mountainside, churn through tech advancements until I can fuss over cute little janissaries or hussar units like they're collectible figurines. I get into these obsessive restarting loops, curious just to see what new permutation the game's map-making algorithms spit out. I'm an absentee world leader: present for my peoples' first fumbling steps towards agriculture, gone again somewhere between the invention of the compass and the internal combustion engine. But I can tell you that for all those hours, I've only actually seen a single session with the history-based strategy game through to completion. It's below the "hours played" tab for my copy of Civilization V and I.well, I'm not sure I want to dwell on that figure.
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