on I wanted to like Beyond Earth way more than I did

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I wanted to like Beyond Earth way more than I did published on

Honestly, if you’re thinking of picking up Beyond Earth right now, don’t. I’m not even sure the new expansion is going to do much to help the game. Most of what’s being added looks like it was lifted (at least in spirit) from the Steam Workshop. The advanced diplomacy they’re touting, I can get in Civ V via mods that well predate that expansion pack, and the whole “settle ocean cities” business was already modded in by people who wanted to buy a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri and who ended up with, well, some green gas on planet purple.

For a game that came well after the release of Civ V and two expansions, Beyond Earth is shockingly bare. No great people, no religion (or something to take the place of religion’s function in Civ V), and ideologies tethered to specific techs, so that despite an innovative and fun tech web, players who want to do Purity or Harmony are funneled into fairly narrow tech paths that just happen to look round.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, and everyone who has even a toe in the modding community knows this.

Dear Firaxis: if you’re reading this, I want to love Beyond Earth the way I love Civ V. I really do. You’re hurting my inner neckbeard with this game.

Here’s a simple plan for making Beyond Earth worth our money.

1) Make all the biome variants spawn on the same maps, so that we’re not playing on boring, mono-terrain Star Wars planets.

2) Hire Thalassicus and Gazebo to outline a design document for the game, and then code what they tell you to do.

For anyone else reading this, if you’re wanting something new to play, check out some of better Civ V overhaul mods. They shake up the game the way Beyond Earth should have, and the price is infinitely better.

Community Balance Patch – My favorite right now.

Machiavelli’s Civ V – Incredibly fun; easier to install than CBP.

Civ V: Call to Power – Not my cuppa, but it’s supported really well, and rethinks every aspect of the game.