Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization Beyond Earth
Conquering a New World, One Hex at Time
There have been versions of Civilization since shortly after the advent of PC gaming. “Civ” became one of the iconic titles that built computer gaming (and gaming in general) into a mainstream escapist activity so encompassing that we now have games that cost half a billion dollars to make and that out-gross the best-selling movie.
The latest entry, Sid Meier’s Civilization Beyond Earth, has a lot to live up to. I’ve spent most of the past week diving in to find out if it lives up to it’s past.
Here’s the short version of what I found: Just as compelling as ever, you’ll be staying up too late and getting in trouble with your spouse, again, just like you always do with a good Civilization game.
Now for the longer version.
Beyond Earth is the latest release from Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games, and available on Steam. As far as I can tell, Steam is the only way you can currently buy the game. And I am certain that you must be connected to Steam in order to play.
Frankly, I find this very annoying and troubling. Why am I paying $50 for a game that has no physical component (it is available by download only) and could be made unplayable by the whims of capitalism (what if Steam goes away?) and corporate decision-making (like the time Amazon pulled 1984 off of people’s Kindles)? But then I actually log in. Steam notices immediately that I haven’t installed my previous Steam purchase (an older version of Civilization) on my new PC and offers to do so immediately. So there is that.
But I digress. You either love Steam or you hate it, but this isn’t about Steam. Make your peace with the digital devil howsoever you need, or don’t; no more griping from me.
Getting Started
The game opens with a cut scene that will turn out to have nothing to do with game play. Not that this is unusual. It is a nicely gripping scene. Entirely unnecessary, but still, nicely done.
Some clicking about in order to select the type of game you want to play (multi or single player), and a wide range of game specifics: world size, landmass form, number of players, terrain type, move speed, etc. Somewhere around 20–30 options in total. You’ll be able to play precisely the game that you wish.
Once the game is set, there are further choices in determining how you want to start. Do you want more control over your starting hex or a preview of the continental outlines in your world map? Would you like extra food in your first city or extra science? Would you like to start with a soldier or a worker or a free technology? I am collapsing the choices for brevity; the choices are very many, and very detailed. And all of this is just to determine how you want to start playing.
And this really encapsulates the game overall. So complicated. So many choices. So intertwined. There may be an optimum path through all of this but if so, you would need Deep Blue to find it.
Unlike most other Civ games, this one is sci-fi and set on an alien world. It is a sort of spiritual successor to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, right down to the fact that taming alien lifeforms is one of the possible ways to win. Very similar in tone and flavor. But not in game play; this has the Civilization V feel. Modern graphics, and a detailed, hands-on relationship with each of the game’s pieces.
Once you’ve selected a landing site (from limited choices that the game has pre-selected for you), you begin to issue orders. Your colony needs to be told what to build. Your scientists need to be told what to research. Your workers need to be told where to go and what to build. Your solders need to be told where to go and what to fight. Etc. Etc. Etc.
You can order each of your units to do everything. And for the most part, you’ll want to do so; some of the units can be set to “automatic”, but in general, you are smarter than the game’s AI.
You want your Marine to go somewhere? You have to give the order. You can do it the easy way and just tell the game where you want the Marine to end up; off it will go, merrily traipsing towards the designated destination. The Marine may take the safe path that you envision, or maybe it will dive off into the water and drive right by the Kraken you are trying to avoid. Want to be sure it will be safe? Move it yourself. One painful hex at a time. And with care; there is no undo.
Meanwhile, the rest of the game is still happening around you. Other players (or AI players) are landing too. And issuing their own orders. And building their own colonies, inevitably in that one exact place that you were planning to expand into.
And there are aliens. Lots of aliens. Crawling aliens, swimming aliens, flying aliens. Little ones that eat your units. Big ones that eat your entire colony.
Game Play
I am a plotter. A schemer. A strategist. I look around, and then I generate a Big Idea of what I want to do. And then I set about doing it. But the details of the game are so detailed! You have to accomplish so many different tiny things in order to get anywhere.
That is both the appeal of the game and its bane: the level of detailed planning that you simply have to do.
Each activity takes multiple turns to accomplish. Everything, the simplest unit construction, researching technologies, moving from place to place, everything and anything, they all take awhile.
But you are not only doing that one thing. You are doing many things, especially as the game progresses and your number of units and colonies increase. Many things, each one incredibly detailed, each one leading to something else you intend to do just as soon as you can.
Time passes quickly. You are always almost done with something.
I find it hard to remember to stop. I have multiple threads going, all the time, multiple plans all progressing at once, each one needing my attention, and most importantly, my memory. I have to remember to build this one thing once I am done building that other thing. And I have to remember why I am moving my worker from point A to point B, even though it won’t get there for five turns. And I want to build a colony in a specific hex before someone else does, and I have to do about a dozen things to make that happen. And I can’t forget about the Alien Siege Worm!
All these things, all at once, all the time. This is why it is suddenly 8PM and I realize I haven’t moved since noon.
Progression and Victory
As you complete research projects you unlock new options. In some cases, you unlock entire new play avenues; for instance, when you research Computers you learn how to build a Spy Headquarters. Once you’ve built an HQ you attract spies and can dispatch them to enemy cities to steal information, technologies, or even more valuable resources.
Click here for full image
You will also be unlocking new buildings and especially, great Wonders, which are like super-buildings that generally provide super-benefits. There are exceptions, but generally Wonders are unique, available only to whomever builds them first.
Your choices will cause you to accumulate favor with three factions, called “Affinities”: the Supremacists want to build humans into cyber-superbeings and return to Earth as conquerors. The Purists think humanity is just fine the way it is and want to bring the remaining Earth-dwellers over to the new world. The Harmonists want to merge with the native life and build something all new.
Advancing in a an affinity unlocks military unit upgrades, special buildings, and certain Wonders. Affinities are not exclusive; you can gain levels in all of them, although it can be more efficient to specialize.
There are five ways to win, and three of them require one affinity to be quite advanced:
- Gain enough Purity affinity to build a special Wonder and use it to settle 20 Earth homesteaders on the new planet
- Gain enough Supremacy affinity to build a special Wonder and use it to ship 1000 military strength points back to Earth
- Gain enough Harmony affinity to build a special Wonder and wait 29 turns. No shipping or homesteading, just wait
- Military domination: destroy everyone else
- Contact: you have to get lucky on this one and find two specific artifacts. Then build a special Wonder. Then … I dunno, I’ve never found the artifacts
New feature is Newly Annoying
Trade Routes are all-new to this version of Civilization. At least I don’t recall them in CIV V although there has been a lot of CIV V DLC and maybe I missed it. But in any case.
Once you’ve build a Trade Depot, you can build Trade Vessels or Trade Convoys and use them to establish Trade Routes with other cities. Not just your own cities, but any that are in range. I am not certain how range is calculated, it may be as simple as any that you can see and where there is a clear – if convoluted – path involved.
Trade Routes can be awesome. You can establish a new colony somewhere where it won’t have enough food or production to be viable but keep it running with Trade Routes until it can grow its own capabilities.
But mainly, Trade Routes can be annoying. A Trade Route only lasts a set amount of time and then has to be re-ordered. When re-ordering, the game shows you the list of possible destinations and the resources that trading will yield.
One has to keep the Alien Sea Dragons from overwhelming one’s seaborn Trade Routes
That sounds all good, and when you only have a handful of colonies, it is. The constant re-ordering lets you re-prioritize on the fly, always getting the best deal available or making sure newer colonies are properly supplied.
And then you find yourself with a dozen colonies, each of which supports 2–5 Trade Routes, and suddenly the re-ordering becomes a constant, clicky mess. Ick. There will be turns – many, many turns – where the only action you take is re-ordering half a dozen of your Trade Routes.
Not pleasant. It should be possible to just set a Trade Route and have it apply for the rest of the game. Maybe it is possible, and I just haven’t found it yet. But in the absence of permanence, Trade Routes become more of a detriment than an advantage rather quickly.
Overall
The first time I played this game, my Gamer Girl and I started in the morning, setting up a head-to-head sandbox with just the two of us playing over our local network. Suddenly it was 3:00AM. As in, three hours after midnight. As in, way the hell past our usual bedtime. And there we were, playing, still.
Not even tired. Too busy planning and waiting to plan some more. Too many things that had been almost done to notice the time passing. Did we eat lunch? I think so. Dinner too, I imagine. All I know for certain is that it was three O’clock in the morning. Two grown adults so engrossed in a game that we spent almost two of our normal days playing it, in one gigantic session.
I don’t know what else needs to be said. Normal games don’t do that to us. This one did, and that is why I love this game.
It is also why I love my Gamer Girl, but then, you knew that already.
