My personal first impressions / review, cross-posted form Civfanatic's forums:
My review of BE:
Conclussion:
Beyond Earth? Move beyond focus test group game design, Firaxis. Please, I beg you
Cons:
Sorry, but I cannot feel any love for this game. Nor distate, too, so that's the bland middle point that they were aiming for, I guess. If that's the case, sorry, but THAT is no reciepe for greatness. That is a reciepe for blandness and mediocricy instead.
I have never met in my life a game that transpires genericness so much as this one, that makes it so clearly that it has been designed with a marketing focus group on the backs of developers all the time. For all the effort on studying European boardgames that Firaxis have put, they have seem to forget about one of the most vital characteristics of them all: "flavour".
Yes, a videogame is about making interestingt decisions. But if they are meaningless and one-sided, they are not decisions, they are mindless nuisances, like picking if I am going to drink my cup of morning coffee in a red or blue cup. Life's already filled with meaningless decisions like these, if I want to feel as if I am shaping the future of the human race on an alien planet instead, my decisions should carry, you know, weight. Quests, promotions, affinities, ship cargo... in the end they don't matter. At all. Hell, virtues are the only things remotely game-changing. This is not good sign for the game's replayability.
The factions, oh, the factions. The focus group is strong with these ones. So ok, you first make them vaguely related to Earth ethnic / political groups so they can be appealing to your customers... only to not being able to make them steer strongly towards one gameplay style or another in fear for disgusting said base of customers, and of course you don't dare to introduce penalties within them a la Alpha Centauri. Cowardly game design makes for a bland, flavourless game with forgettable factions / characters. Then gain: lack of flavour is the main issue of this game. A heavy focus on "asymetrical balance" gameplay a la Civ: Revolutions would have helped the game inmensely.
The happiness mechanic was a failure in Civ V, and is still a failure in BE. I know that it's hard to let it go off concepts that you loved at first, but seriously, do like Elsa and let it go already. We are suppoused to go beyond earth, yet you keep obsolete concepts like these going and going....
Horrible graphic optimization too. The game runs slow and clutttered on my PC whilst CivV: BNW runs smoothly and peachy on the same hardware
The game is unpolished, unfinished and unbalanced in a way that resembles the very worst things of Civilization's V release. Everything feels "halfway there". Yes, the game has potential to mend many of its more easier to repair flaws (wonders, military unit balance, etc) but then again, the lack of clear direction and focus shows its ugly head in the form of lack of design decisions that ens up translating into deep balance issues. I have payed 50 € to recieve a full game, not a beta testing ticket.
Pros:
Outstanding soundtrack, the graphics / ambience got nailed very well. It's a pity that for some reason wonder and victory movies are forbidden by the producers now, because they would have helped to increase the mood of the game tenfold and Firaxis have shown plenty of talent in these areas.
The planet has character indeed and the game mechanics regarding aliens helps it to become alive in a way that aestethics alone can't. I love how the planet itself limits your expansion actively and with "on board" elements (miasma, roarming alien lifeforms, etc) rather than any kind of arbitrary mechanic a la health.
Exploring the planet is a delicious activity. The reimagined Civ V's archeology system works like a a charm in this new scenario.
Tech web is a rather intriguing concept. It needs a couple of tweaks here and there, but the potential for long term strategies and tech slingshots is present and very real indeed. Mad props for whoever thought about it!
Its a head to head battle with me and Brasilia for global domination.
