Civilization: Beyond Earth

Description

Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth is a new science-fiction-themed entry into the award winning Civilization series. It’s set in a time when the Earth is no longer habitable and missions are sent off to find a potential new homeworlds for the human race. You’re in control of one of these missions.

For some reason all the missions land on the same planet and instead of working together you instead compete to become the most successful and best colony. Beyond Earth‘s gameplay is very similar to that of Civilization V except it substitutes the familiarity of empires and settings that are borne from our history for made up alien landscapes and monsters. In the eyes of many, this takes away from Civ V, and renders Beyond Earth a less satisfying clone, particularly when compared to more original games like the acclaimed Endless Legend.

There are some subtle improvements in Beyond Earth, however. The new technology tree design, in particular, is very innovative, provide a technology web, rather than the linear structure from Civilization V. This means it’s impossible to research all the technologies in one game, so you need to choose what path you want to follow. But these are only minor tweaks and, as a result, struggle to justify the cost of having to buy a brand new game.