New games I wish were worth getting...

[Kevin]

Civilization: Beyond Earth.

I've been waiting for a sequel to Alpha Centauri for 15 years. Something that preserved everything I loved about the game - the rich, encylopaedic homage to classic science fiction, the bold history-of-the-future speculation, the brilliant creation of seven distinct and coherent ideologies and leaders, the mountains and mountains of flavour text - and taught the AI how to play the game, and maybe streamlined some of the clunkier interface issues.

Instead we apparently got Civ5 in space. Anyone want to recommend this? Because it looks bland as oatmeal.

-Jester

Thanks to a convoluted path that got me a free copy of XCOM: Enemy Unknown (great game) and a $5 copy of XCOM: Enemy Within (waiting to play it until I've finished a few runs on Enemy Unknown) I got a 50% deal on a pre-order of Beyond Earth. So I have played 2.5 games of BE now.

Sadly I didn't play much Alpha Centauri (SMAC). I came to the series late, starting with Civ III, so SMAC was already dated by the time I learned about it, which was after Civ IV was out. I own a copy but I just couldn't get past the interface and never really looked at mods to help. Interface and graphic limitations seem like an odd thing to keep me from playing it since I still play MoO II from time to time, but it is what it is.

I enjoy BE, but I also played, and still play, too much Civ V. I like the new concepts in BE but the game still runs on the Civ V engine, and it wasn't a heavily modified engine. If you didn't like Civ V you probably won't care much for BE. It's more than Civ V in space, but it's also got some limitations. It could be a typical Firaxis/2K release of a Civ game though. Civ V vanilla plays differently from Civ V Brave New World. But it still feels like Civ V. Civ IV vanilla plays differently than Civ IV: Beyond the Sword.

You won't find the really distinct personalities that everyone talked about from SMAC. The 8 factions do have distinction but since they moved to a tech web, which I think will prove to be a very good decision, the personalities tend to be more blank slates that develop as the game moves and don't tend to flavor the same way. So ARC might be alien hugging miasma loving space hippies one game, and the next they are militaristic cyborgs looking to liberate Earth from it's sad state, by force if necessary. Think playing Civ V but with the "randomize leaders" checkbox clicked every time. Of course maybe the flavor tendencies for the BE leaders are stronger than I think and it's just been the couple of games I've played being a way too small sample size.

Looking at game reports from others it seems things are just more variable and that it was done that way to make the AI more adaptive to situations. The leader bonuses and starting bonuses aren't strong enough to lead anyone down any particular path. I think it allows better use of the tech web.

Also I'm not positive if some of the complexity that the game has adds depth or just adds complexity. The potential for a truly excellent game is there, but it might take an expansion or two.

So I don't think it's a successor or even spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, but maybe a spiritual cousin might work. If you liked Civ V, you'll like BE. If you hated Civ V, you may still find BE OK since it does change core things enough. If you want SMAC in a modern format, I'm not sure that is what you are getting, because while it shares concepts, I don't think you get strength of flavor. Oh and you better like managing trade routes, or enjoy playing handicapped because trade routes are power in BE. If you have to be perfectly min/maxed then they will drive you nuts. If you are OK with being 80% optimal then you can mostly "fire and forget".

It does feel more like SMAC than Civiliztion IV: Colonization felt like the original Colonization to me. Yes I got to the series late, but I had played Colonization then it all dropped off my radar for like a decade.