Civilization: Beyond Earth, aka Civilization IN THE FUTURE, is now out. It's definitely a Civilization Game, in that it's a good game which is probably going to become amazing after a few expansions.
I played a game at the default settings as SPACE ASIA, and my comments are a fewfold:
1. The Affinity upgrade system means it's actually really difficult to meaningfully fall behind on the military tech curve. Similarly, the tech web means that you're probably not going to manage Civ IV/V "I HAVE ALL THE WONDERS FEAR ME"
2. Fuck aliens. Seriously, the aliens are absolutely goddamn vicious in the early game, although because they don't upgrade they start becoming increasingly less relevant. A CNDR with the Purity 3 perk (+20% attack/defense against aliens) and the Military perk for +25% attack/defense against aliens can murder a siege worm, and they come fairly early in the midgame. I'm sure similar unique units are equivalent.
3. Tall v. Wide is balanced better than in Civ V. I had a dozen cities, and although it was really touch and go for a while (it was mostly someone declaring war on me, me conquering things, suddenly having way too much unhealth) it was quite possible for me to unlock enough health boosts to end up at Utopian health at the late game. Similarly, the Knowledge affinity gives you a pair of Tier 2 boosts which cut down the effect of extra cities on increasing tech/culture costs by a massive 40%, which means quite a lot. Even at the highest level of unhealth, the max losses are apparently just -10% to all yields, -50% to all growth, and Spy Vulnerability, which a wide empire can compensate for. Dipping into negative health is not actually a death sentence.
4. AIs denounce you a lot less now. Thank you. I didn't feel like I needed to declare war on everyone just to make them shut up because I was a WARMONGER. Warmongering seems to be significantly less important as well-the only people who ended up Guarded/Hostile were the people who I declared war on and conquered cities from, while even the ones super-worried about my Warmongering were only Neutral, and that was mostly because I was a different Affinity.
5. Wonders feel a bit weak, especially since you're going to get fewer of them. They seem a bit... underwhelming overall.
6. Units are pretty cool, although there are fewer options to breach cities outside of 'giant army hordes.' That may be intentional, although it was nice being able to meaningfully outtech someone and run a small, elite military. The upgrade system is basically Alpha Centauri now, where you merely get +10% strength per veterancy level unless you want instant healing. No more choosing range/etc upgrades. The only upgrade 'choices' are the ones that occur due to Affinity upgrades.
7. Still annoyed that there's no "repeat last trade route" button for trade units-especially now that you can get +10 food/production from internal trade routes, running a massive internal trade web is super-important and each city can have like, 5 trade routes. You should make trade managing easier!
8. You can, in fact, research most if not all of the techs in a single game, but it probably requires you to go Wide and Tall to get the sheer science output to do it. It's also pretty inefficient.
9. Vaguely annoyed that you don't get any additional Affinity perks past 13 when you max out at 18. You get unit upgrades, though, and the late-game Affinity buildings give you massive yields boosts based on what your Affinity rating is, so it's not useless, just moderately annoying.
10. It's kind of cool that the vast majority of your faction's customization is going to be done in the game, rather than by choosing what you're doing at the start.
Overall I think it's a good game and worth your money, it's just that if it gets an expansion or three it'll be a great game.
I played a game at the default settings as SPACE ASIA, and my comments are a fewfold:
1. The Affinity upgrade system means it's actually really difficult to meaningfully fall behind on the military tech curve. Similarly, the tech web means that you're probably not going to manage Civ IV/V "I HAVE ALL THE WONDERS FEAR ME"
2. Fuck aliens. Seriously, the aliens are absolutely goddamn vicious in the early game, although because they don't upgrade they start becoming increasingly less relevant. A CNDR with the Purity 3 perk (+20% attack/defense against aliens) and the Military perk for +25% attack/defense against aliens can murder a siege worm, and they come fairly early in the midgame. I'm sure similar unique units are equivalent.
3. Tall v. Wide is balanced better than in Civ V. I had a dozen cities, and although it was really touch and go for a while (it was mostly someone declaring war on me, me conquering things, suddenly having way too much unhealth) it was quite possible for me to unlock enough health boosts to end up at Utopian health at the late game. Similarly, the Knowledge affinity gives you a pair of Tier 2 boosts which cut down the effect of extra cities on increasing tech/culture costs by a massive 40%, which means quite a lot. Even at the highest level of unhealth, the max losses are apparently just -10% to all yields, -50% to all growth, and Spy Vulnerability, which a wide empire can compensate for. Dipping into negative health is not actually a death sentence.
4. AIs denounce you a lot less now. Thank you. I didn't feel like I needed to declare war on everyone just to make them shut up because I was a WARMONGER. Warmongering seems to be significantly less important as well-the only people who ended up Guarded/Hostile were the people who I declared war on and conquered cities from, while even the ones super-worried about my Warmongering were only Neutral, and that was mostly because I was a different Affinity.
5. Wonders feel a bit weak, especially since you're going to get fewer of them. They seem a bit... underwhelming overall.
6. Units are pretty cool, although there are fewer options to breach cities outside of 'giant army hordes.' That may be intentional, although it was nice being able to meaningfully outtech someone and run a small, elite military. The upgrade system is basically Alpha Centauri now, where you merely get +10% strength per veterancy level unless you want instant healing. No more choosing range/etc upgrades. The only upgrade 'choices' are the ones that occur due to Affinity upgrades.
7. Still annoyed that there's no "repeat last trade route" button for trade units-especially now that you can get +10 food/production from internal trade routes, running a massive internal trade web is super-important and each city can have like, 5 trade routes. You should make trade managing easier!
8. You can, in fact, research most if not all of the techs in a single game, but it probably requires you to go Wide and Tall to get the sheer science output to do it. It's also pretty inefficient.
9. Vaguely annoyed that you don't get any additional Affinity perks past 13 when you max out at 18. You get unit upgrades, though, and the late-game Affinity buildings give you massive yields boosts based on what your Affinity rating is, so it's not useless, just moderately annoying.
10. It's kind of cool that the vast majority of your faction's customization is going to be done in the game, rather than by choosing what you're doing at the start.
Overall I think it's a good game and worth your money, it's just that if it gets an expansion or three it'll be a great game.
