Alpha Civilization: Beyond Sequels

[Hotfoot]

Okay, so Beyond Earth is out now in North America (because digital distribution and reasons?), and there are already people still just one more turn into their initial playing of the game. I'm not one of them, but I did taunt Chris Kluwe on his stream last night (I missed Angry Joe's), and I've been watching this one pretty closely.

Now, having not yet played it, but rather having watched it been played, I can say a few things.

1. I've never played Alpha Centauri so comparisons to that game are right out.
2. I have played Civ 5, and so comparisons to that game are in.

That said, this game looks like a Civ 5 mod. That's not a bad thing, per se, Civ 5 is a great game, so that's good. The tech tree looks far more branching than the usual linearity of Civilization, which is good, because we want something a bit more broad in a sci-fi game, where research could lead anywhere, but I think it may suffer from some linearity issues (for good or ill) based on the different paths within the game.

But make no mistake, this is at it's core Civ 5. Hexes are back (thank goodness), no stacking of units (also good), barbarians are replaced by aliens, and all the resources have funky new names like "Miasma". It's a top-quality mod, but until I see evidence otherwise, I'm going to be going under the assumption that the base code in the game was achievable through Civ 5's options, and the real work went into the art assets. Maybe it's unfair of me to say that, and it comes off as overly dismissive, I know, and I guess it kind of is. After Civ 5, I was really hoping for a Space 4X worth a damn, but so far I have been failed across the board. This is...close, but not quite what I was hoping for. GalCiv 3 might deliver at least part of what I want, but I'm not exactly holding out hope for that right now.

Time will tell if the game is a smash hit or just more of the same, but either way I suspect it will do well and end up in people's libraries, because bluntly if the worst criticism you can level at a game is that it's Civ 5 with a sci-fi reskin, that's still a pretty damn good game.

[Lys]

You really should play Alpha Centauri, i'm fairly certain they have it at Good ol' Games and it's an excellent 4x game. To this day some of its feature, terraforming primarily, have remained unique to it. There's nothing quite like lowering the land to drown on of your enemy's cities. On the note of this game, it's been pretty obvious for quite a while that it was just Civ5 with a sci-fi skin on it. Kind of disappointing, honestly, as i don't like most of the things i've heard about Civ5. Hexes are good, and i definitely think there should be a limit on the number of units per tile, but something on the order of 3-6 would have been better. The AI doesn't seem to handle 1PT very well, and it can get tedious for the player to have to move so many units individually.

[B4UTRUST]

Played about 150 turns thus far and so far it's pretty good. Not normally a huge civ fan, but the sci-fi aspect of it is at least keeping me interested enough for a few playthroughs. We'll see how it goes long term though. Waiting on roommates to install so we can try multiplayer.

[Hotfoot]

Oh hell, the bastards are giving us a demo.

Brace for impact!

[Josh]

You really should play Alpha Centauri, i'm fairly certain they have it at Good ol' Games and it's an excellent 4x game. To this day some of its feature, terraforming primarily, have remained unique to it. There's nothing quite like lowering the land to drown on of your enemy's cities.

The other funny thing is when you ignored an enemy because hey, there's water between us and I've smashed their navy to shreds.

Then all of the sudden there's a land bridge between us and oh shit the Hive is pouring onto my continent with a million fucking disposable units and oh shit oh shit.

[Lys]

Yeah, the ability to alter the terrain like that is something I've missed in 4x games ever since.

[Hotfoot]

That reminds me of the wormhole hijinks I used to get up to in Space Empires 4.

Oh how I miss good space 4X games.

[Hotfoot]

The game is currently 40% off on Steam right now, in case anyone was tempted to get it before.

[LadyTevar]

Martin was looking forward to this game too :( He was a Civ-freak, loved every single one of them. He replayed AlphaCent every few months, just because it was such a great game. He had the knack for 4x games.

[Hotfoot]

Sid Meier's Starships Launches March 12th for $15

I'm putting it here because apparently it will have some interaction with Beyond Earth, so it's sort of related. It's a $15 game, it might as well be an expansion pack.