Civilization: Beyond Earth (for PC)

Explored TerritoryIf you've been a follower of Civilization for a long time, chances are the premise of Beyond Earth sounds a little familiar. An almost identical concept formed the basis for one of the series' most acclaimed installments, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which was released in 1999. That game spun off on the already-classic win condition of departing Earth for our second-closest star, and imagined what happened when humanity arrived there.

Yes, it looked a whole lot like the world they left: political factions, scarce resources, enemies to fight, technologies to discover, improvements to build, and so on. But it had a handful of startling tweaks, creative touches, and astonishing new graphics that set it apart from its close and distant gaming relatives alike. Except for the genesis of its story—here, you've had to abandon the homeworld your people have ravaged—Beyond Earth follows this formula almost exactly, but with far fewer distinguishing departures.

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As such, if you've played the most recent title game in the series, Civilization V (preferably with at least the Gods and Kings expansion pack), you'll find that very little has changed. Beyond Earth is based tightly on that game's engine, hexagon-shaped tiles, enemy bombardment by cities, policies (here renamed Virtues), city-states (Stations), and all. So, frankly, there's little point rehashing most of that here.

Civilization V, with some key expansion-pack enhancements, isn't basically what you're in for—it's exactly what you're in for. If that's good enough for you, Beyond Earth will be as well. Otherwise, most of this game probably isn't different enough to bother with. As such, we'll spend most of our time here focus on what has changed.
World-Wide WebThe most obvious and important revamp in Beyond Earth is to the technology tree that's been integral to all Civilization games since the dawn of the franchise. Though some games have played up relationships between this advancement and that one, technology has usually been depicted as a linear progression, from ultra-basic inventions (The Wheel) to discoveries so unthinkable to us we can't even name them beyond Future Tech. And though that is, to some degree how progress in the "real world" has worked, it hasn't always made riveting or unpredictable gameplay with it possible.

Beyond Earth instead depicts technology as a web, with the center point being the foundational technologies with which you made planetfall (here referred to as Habitation). Your research choices spiral out from that point and affect each other in more profound ways, and the connections and requirements needed to achieve each new discovery are more varied and complex. It's not uncommon, especially in your earliest runs, to proceed "far" and learn the hard way you don't have a certain advancement, building, or unit you need to move on—and then you'll find yourself backtracking. You need to think a fair amount about what each choice means and what you might be giving up if you choose it.

Another rethink: Now discoveries are split between branches, which are broader sciences and disciplines (Ecology, Genetics, Computing), and leaves, which are more specific adaptations of branch concepts (Biochemistry is a leaf on the Chemistry branch, for example). And because leaf technologies cost considerably more than those you get from branches, knocking them all out one-by-one like a row of dominos isn't really practical. You may be better off exploring more general routes by embracing a lot of cheap, general technologies, or conclude that specializing and expanding more slowly is the superior way to go.

This decision can obviously have an enormous impact on the game; on my first playthrough, I was stomped over science-wise because I wasted countless turns unlocking leaf tech I didn't need and couldn't yet fully use. Learning to evaluate where you and your opponents are is crucial, and balance is highly recommended. Though this whole approach to research makes good sense for Beyond Earth and its celebration of making the most with limited resources, this is the one change-up I most expect to see land in the next full Civilization game—and it deserves to.
QuestsWith but a few notable exceptions (would it be better to mine or farm this tile?), not many decisions in previous Civilizations had a powerful impact on gameplay. Quests change that in Beyond Earth. After researching certain technologies or building particular buildings, you'll be asked to choose between two possible outcomes for your efforts. Build your first water treatment plant, for example, and you'll have to decide between having free maintenance on all those buildings anywhere in your civilization, or instead getting free food from them. Or whether acquiring extra energy (the game's de facto currency) on another build is more important to you than the additional production points you'll lose. And so on. An added wrinkle: Whatever you go with is permanent, so you have to think carefully and plan ahead.

Though it's a strong idea, I found Quests sort of a mixed bag; the game tends to run itself through some impressive contortions to ensure that you only ever have two choices, even if only one seems appropriate or an absent third seems the most eye-rollingly obvious. Better applications, I thought, were the story quests that relate more directly to your interactions with the hostile world: If an Earth plant accidentally starts growing on the alien soil, should it be destroyed to preserve the ecosystem or should it be cultivated? If you encounter a ship of refugees whose social and political ideas are the polar opposite of yours, do you take them in or give them land so they can fend for themselves? These sorts of genuine moral quandaries make Beyond Earth more pointedly real and personal.