Preview - Civilization: Beyond Earth
There’s only been five Civ games really, but for over two decades the game mechanic has been tweaked ever so slightly. Despite this, however, the game has changed and morphed unrecognisably, yet has still managed to somehow stay the same.
Civilization: Beyond Earth (BE) is the new chapter in the Civilization franchise and it stays true to its core values. The only problem is that the game has not taken the risk to branch out from the previous Civilization offering. It still feels like it’s Civilization 5, but with the added extras of some new features and some mods that could have been added in the marketplace. It also allowed me to play in the same style as I had done in previous games, I found myself doing the same things I would do in Civilization 5, fighting the rebranded “aliens” and then focusing on other civilizations later on in the game.
This is a good and bad thing. As a Civ player I know how to manipulate the game and work it to my advantage. Because I’m very au fait with it and have been playing for as long as I can remember, this affords me some advantages other, new gamers to the franchise will not understand. It’s the back end of the game, the bits you don’t see, that drive your progression, and knowing how to get the best out of my terrain, population and cities with a clear direction of advancement will always stand you in good stead in a Civ game. But this is supposed to be a new game and a new world with new challenges and new enemies. It’s supposed to make me play differently and think differently on how to best keep my civilisation alive in a hostile and unknown environment. Unfortunately it doesn’t, and it all feels as though it’s Brave New World skinned in space. And it’s a shame because there are points where BE could really forge a new kind of gameplay, or a new mechanic.
For example, when starting a game the player no longer chooses a historical leader with a certain trait but instead chooses a company that sponsors the expedition to the new planets. They get to pick which features they want their civilisation to have. This adds a new depth of customisation that players never had before. But again, this is really all more cosmetic than anything else and although BE has allowed some customisation, it’s not enough.
Having said that Beyond Earth has opened up some customization options to players that does enhance progression and better reflects progression through tech in space than from the ancient era on Earth where we had no knowledge at all. No longer is technological advancement linear, but instead it’s a “web” where you can choose how and where to progress with a lot more ease than before. Despite its more open form, however, the tech web is limited because once you choose one branch of the tech tree you’re stuck with that branch. And you can’t choose to “tech swap”, as it’s no longer a feature in the game either.
Other ways in which BE has expanded customisation is the new affinities system. It is similar to the ideology system in Civilization 5: A Brave New World, but with the affinities system points gained through researching technologies that are associated with a certain affinity. Adding points to a certain affinity opens up new technologies for the player to research. Your affinity is intrinsically linked to your technological advancement and the choices you make in the tech web, as it was with Brave New World. This time the three affinities are Purity focusing on humanity and humanities history and achievements, Supremecey; which focuses primarily on futuristic advances, and Harmony; which allows you to interact peacefully with your host planet and others around you. Of course, depending on what factions choose what affinity, there could be some disagreements between civs within the game.
But for me diplomacy in Civ has been really bad for quite some time now, and diplomacy was also the most disappointing feature here. There has been almost no change in the way you interact with other civilisations other than the new feature of “favors” [which we’ll spell ‘favours’ from now on…]. Favours allow you to take advantage of all the good deeds you may have done for other leaders. It’s a good idea, but it feels a little forced. In the last two Civ games, diplomacy has been hit and miss. You could have an alliance with a certain civ, or be friends and help them throughout history, but when you call in for some help, it’s usually ignored. This means a lot of the times you have to be more hostile with them, in turn potentially affecting your standing with them. The last thing you want to do is ask another leader for help, but when that leader has taken gold and resources from you for centuries and you request one luxury resource and they refuse, it becomes rather tedious. So much so that you’d rather take on the whole map yourself with no allies. In addition this is a problem if you’re trading too. If there is a specific resource you needed it was nigh on impossible to get that resource, but the favours system promised to change all of this and it was an exciting concept. It does create a little more balance, but it still feels forced and does not fix the diplomacy at all. Especially, as I said, if you have had a good relationship with a civ for some time.
One area of the game that has been improved is city states, or now stations. Stations are small mini civilisations that don’t show up right at the beginning of a game like city states. Stations appear later on with civilians of your civilisation or when other civilisations decide to branch off to build a station that could provide your civilisation something that it lacks, like a resource or soldiers.
Stations can also be built outside of your territory with citizens, but those are fair play for other civs to attack and destroy. This can be annoying at times but it is also a good way to annoy other civilisations that have been bothering you all game long.
The core gameplay in Beyond Earth is almost completely unchanged. It still utilises the turn by turn hexagon layout that Civilization 5 used. This is a good thing and a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with the old system and it was very successful, but at times it felt as if I was still playing Civilization 5 when it should be something completely new.
The new space setting allows the worlds to be much more colourful and vibrant. The units and the cities all have a futuristic look to them and are very detailed, they make it obvious that you’re not playing on Earth anymore. And Barbarians in the game have been removed and replaced with aliens, which is much appreciated and needed improvement. Aliens are a much more complex race than barbarians in BE. You have two different paths of dealing with aliens now, either by attacking them or ignoring them. Attacking them can have huge benefits to you in the game but aliens and even civilisations become very hostile towards you and aliens only become more and more powerful.
The more passive route is to live in peace with them and not to attack them or get near their nests (Harmony ideology perfect here). This new peaceful route is a very welcome change to the previous out of control barbarians that would terrorise you at the beginning of every Civilization 5 game and sometimes crippling you immediately.
Luxury resources have been removed and replaced with normal resources and bonus resources, resources now do not provide happiness for a civilisation. That means no more having to make sure your city that you want to build has enough luxury resources. That is also because happiness altogether has been removed from the game and now there is planetary health you have to worry about.
Civilization Beyond Earth is a bold new setting for a series that has always been grounded in terms of its location. The game has a lot of new features that help make it feel like its a brand new game, but the core gameplay has stayed true to the Civilization tradition. The new customisation options add depth and longevity while playing alone or online with friends. Although, while this game feels all too similar to Civilization 5 at times, the new features are a breath of fresh air and hardcore fans shouldn't take too long to get used to it. In fact, not different enough in some cases, but it’s still true to one thing. It’s certainly still a Civ game, even though I feel they could’ve pushed it a little more out of it’s comfort zone. I mean, we’re in space after all, right?
