Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™

I think the biggest problem that people had with this game is that they wanted this to be Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri 2, but it wasn't. It is at best a spiritual sequel to the classic that is SMAC, but by no means a bad game. Unit design is straight-forward and uncomplicated, tech web is great, the weird terrain and aliens are cool and fun to deal with, there's still tons of replayability here. If you're going to get this though, you'll need to get Rising Tide as it does fix a lot of the problems that the base game had.

First impression I thought it was cool. Then quickly got tired, especially of the aesthetic, but I must admit, I didn't know the mechanics. Got into it more cos it still felt like classic Civ.
Potato McWhiskey posted a video about BE recently and went over the basics with such enthusiasm that it made me revisit the game. With online guides taking me step by step, not only was my next playthrough much more efficient, it was certainly more enjoyable.
I see the extra fun behind it. Given the intro movie, I now see it as what happens after you claim a science victory in Civ 6: Gathering Storm's Apocalypse Mode lol.

Holy crap.
I played it for half an hour but that was enough.
This is not even close to civilization 5 or 6. This is garbage.

The UI is a degrade and looks really lazy done. A black box with silver border
and a small shitty text on it. The terrain textures are really low (and I have everything on max in the settings).

And by the way, I had to fix the game by uninstalling and deleting all the stuff manually and then
reinstall. Else you will stuck with access violation exception.

I had some doubts about that game but wow ... this is really not that good.
I remember civilization games to be way better. But maybe I just cannot connect
to the sci fi settings in here.

I will install civilization 6 again and play that instead.

An under rated entry in the Civilization series that unfortunately didn't get the support it needed from the developers. The idea of a desperate mission to another planet to colonize it and save the species is a hell of a starter. Choosing what to bring to ensure your success was something that needed to be expanded on but wasn't at launch. Another problem was too many people made parallels to Alpha Centauri thinking it was a reboot of sorts and the devs didn't do enough to dissuade people from that idea.

It hasn't aged well, but I still think it's in my top 10.

It's not a classic Civ game and the tech tree is a bit more confusing at first, but overall it's very much worth a play.

Had to disable Steam overlay to get it to launch, but once I did that, it's a fun take on the old Civ game model. New content, familiar gameplay.

Gets way too much undeserved hate. Its a great game where they tried out a lot of new mechanics. Not for everyone but I really like it

When this first came out, i struggled to enjoy it, a few years ago i tried again and felt the same, I have since bought the dcl and honestly i have been having a lot of fun with it, i would recommend revisiting for anyone who who tried it before without the dlc to try it with the dlc. :)

1. pretty much abandoned by player and modder community
2. harder AI doesn't mean it smarter, it just get loads of bonus and going to gang on you with no reason
3. every leader are ugly

The basic game itself isn't very good but add some mods that the fans made and it becomes pretty enjoyable. I'ts a shame everyone gave up on it so soon.

Waiting for Civilization VII. I am about Civ VI'd out. This is similar to other Civ products. Plays a little, ok, a lot slow. I am over a hundred hours in, having fun, but wondering who will win.
Solid bang for the buck.

This game is a scam now. I bought it a few days ago and it doesn't start at all. Since I have playtime from a free weekend several years ago, Steam won't approve a refund request. Absolute garbage that shouldn't be sold.

A lot of cool new ideas about the future of mankind. It's pretty cool what you can come up with.

Do not buy, it will just not open and say "Updating executable". The game maker will not fix, same for all Civ games, I will not be buying Civ 7 and recommend anyone reading not to do so either.

I have been a fan of this franchise since the start, I remember playing the very first title on a super old system that had Windows XP and I have grown to love the franchise especially the 5th & 6th instalment.

Beyond Earth is a whole different take on the franchise, imagine colonizing other random planets and having to deal with the concept of creating a civilized empire among alien life forms. It’s an interesting and refreshingly different take but my lord is it a hard game to master.

You don’t have famous historical names to reference, having to remember the names of different colonies and its leaders can be tough. Having to navigate the overall complex skill/science tree is hectic and trying to understand what new mechanical systems there are to create and produce can be a struggle to.

It all feels so, ALIEN, indeed. As for the technical issues, I did have some issue running my game but as of this review on this date my game runs perfectly fine on my up-to-date Windows 10 platform. Initially I found that launching was failing but once I verified the integrity of the game files through STEAM, it was found to have been missing 1 crucial file, not sure what it was, but STEAM automatically downloaded the file that was missing and I was able to run my game just fine.

Overall, I recommend this game as a very different change of pace but with that said, the previous title still remains my favourite in the franchise thus far.

Recommended 7/10

Can't tell ya what the "Mixed" review status is all about other than the fact that 2K launcher removal borked launch of the game for a few days. That was no issue for me, and now I'm playing what might be the best entry in the Civ series.

Cartoonish caricatures of worn-out historical figures? Nope. We got all new characters, realistically modeled. Doesn't matter that they don't have VAs. In fact, I think I like a silent world leader. Too many of them like to hear themselves talk, y'know? Anyway.

That, and the dynamic quests, make for your own storyline. Sucks that there's no custom leader creator, but at least I'm not playing as the same tired characters. It doesn't matter if Elizabeth I, Victoria and Eleanor were all different figures with wildly different personalities if there's no depth to the storytelling. That depth is here. I care about my colonists finding these weird aliens. I get to choose what path my civ takes, and that choice matters. Do I bait the little bastards to study them? Do I repel them with a sonic fence? What's gonna happen in either case? IDK yet! And I love it! :D

I normally recommend Civ's 2K-published offerings at 90% off only, because the pricing scheme for Civ VI sucks every kind of ball imaginable, but this? Get it at half off or better. It's that good. (Rising Tide is a must-have with this, so only consider getting BE if you can bundle it.)

Desperately needs a remaster., no longer runs on modern Windows

Game no longer launches after a recent update. Again. If I could ask for a refund, I would, because this is just silly.

I enjoyed the game very much, though I recently noticed that the game won't boot.

After some tinkering, I've found a reliable solution:

1. Install the game.
2. Right click on the game in the Steam Library and select Manage -> Browse Local Files.
3. Once the File Explorer opens, go one step up, so you can see the main game folder. Should be in "***\Steam\steamapps\common\".
4. Right click the "Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth" folder and select Properties.
5. Untick Read-Only (apply it to subfolders and subfiles as well).
6. Once done - boot the game.

It is possible the game STILL won't run, but that's okay because:

7. Repeat step 4-6. In the install folder, right under the CivilizationBE_DX11.exe file, Steam may create a file with a weird name (civilizationbe_dx11.exe.4328.STEAMSTART). Delete that file and boot the game again. This time, Steam should properly be able to update the game files and the game should boot normally.

Once it boots up once, these steps should no longer be necessary.

This solution worked on a couple of different machines/setups so far, so I'm positive it should work for you as well!

Time to go Beyond Earth!

Dont buy this game since it doesnt work. Nothing you do will get it to work either forget about it.

I had some fun with this game and would have recommended it if bought on sale, but now I'd highly recommend everyone stay away from it and 2K games in general. 2K pushed an update a bit ago (as of 12/28/24) that broke a lot of old games when they removed the launcher. Some people haven't had issues, but a bunch of my older games, including this one, now fail to launch without extensive troubleshooting. This publisher is trash and you should 100% be wary of buying anything from them in the future.

Great Game, If you love Civ but need a break pick this up as another option. Could have used another DLC.

A good game, I tried the Windows version on Proton but it failed to run (just like some people reported running the Windows version on Windows). But the Linux version ran just fine.

Good game!

The game play is "clunky " (for lack of a better term). 4/10 would recommend. After removing the 2K launch in late November, it is now unplayable even though I paid for the game. The "helps" are of absolutely zero use. Even after closely following the instructions, uninstalling and reinstalling the game, it is unplayable. Good luck in trying to get technical support. "May the odds forever be in your favor."

I came to this game while it was on sale after seeing some youtube stuff, and it was a little confusing at first, but I nevertheless got into it fairly quickly, It doesn't play like other civ games and the atmosphere is quite different from other 4x games. The graphics are good enough that it doesn't feel 10 years old. So I would say give it a try. For my part it continues to improve as I learn more about it, so it's well worth the sale price.

A trash game. This is not supported anymore. The most annoying bug is no sound effect when you start the next game such as restart or start a new game. You will not find any useful solutions in community also. Using file integrity check tells two files were missing and reacquired, but don't trust. After or while they reacquire it, the game never starts and you will need to reinstall it.

A total trash just trashed in the huge dumping area by its maker...

Game is now broken and won't launch. Buying does not equal owning.

Same as Civ 5, after an update on 12/20 the game no longer runs. I click play and it fails to load.

Returned to this in 2024 after watching Quill18's 2024 lets play. Requires Rising Tide DLC to be viable but otherwise is a good experience for anyone who is still pining after Alpha Centauri.

Game seems to work fine on Windows 11 despite some of the comments, but it obviously wont take 2 hours to determine this so go ahead and refund if so.

Its SM 2 repeated with very good music. So its a masterpiece in itself. They are focusing on 2007 era. That was the transferrance to THIS 2025 generation. This WAS a masterpiece all those years ago.

Its a shame it never got a 2nd expansion. Its a solid sci-fi 4x game but with some more love it could have been something really special. Anyways nice game - wait for a sale and get it together with the rising tide expansion.

Very creative love the art work. Fairly underrated. Wish they could have flushed out the world more.

This feels like a missed opportunity. Like all the pieces are there...and there's too many pieces. Way too many. Then, they tried to put them together and nothing fits properly. it's just a big mess of Civilization and future Sci-Fi.

I did play a hell of a lot of hours of this, so there's some redeeming qualities - the soundtrack is good, and it's still a Civilization game.

A civ variant that albeit unpolished-covers an interesting context of development, away from our planet.

Unfortunately this game is unplayable in 2024 on Windows 11 with a modern graphics card. Would not recommend anyone buy this game unless they'll play it on ten-year-old hardware/software.

I can't really recommend it in good conscience to most players. It's buggy, it's not polished, it's got terrible AI, it hard crashes. Just go play better games like Civ V or Civ VI. If you really want sci-fi, Endless Space 2, Master of Orion 2, and the GalCivs all exist.

With that said, I purchased this because I have played all of those and wanted a change of pace. For $10 on sale, I do think I got my money's worth. But I do strongly think you should look at all those other games first.

Game no longer works on modern platforms.

A great game. My single biggest complaint is that the devs listened to the haters and gave up on supporting the game. I get that this wasn't what many wanted from a civ game apparently, but many of us did want this and enjoyed it. A shame really.

I recommend picking it up if you are looking for a more sci fi take on the civ series, especially if it is on sale. It is a fresh take on the civ series in many ways (think civ 5/surviving mars/starship troopers) and it introduces a ton of gameplay depth into the environment and how you choose to deal with it. It is a lot of fun poking around for a few runs of single player or with friends, but without expansions adding diversity to continued play throughs (thanks haters), it does eventually get stale like any civ game would.

Long overdue review: no. Bad game. Only buy if you also buy Rising Tide. Which costs way too much.

It can't really hold a candle to Civ games, but why bash it? It is over-roasted. However, because its issues have to be tolerated, not truly recommending it to anyone... (only to myself, lol)

IT'S A TRAP!

As usual, the first 50 turns or so are astonishingly interesting and captivating, and let you believe the game is a gem. Then you fall into a pit of spikes, where for instance you find out the diplomacy system (although full of new nice concepts) is actually threadbare and shallow.
I lost it when one of my allies was attacked by a faction I did not know about yet. 4X games, even the oldest ones, let you know who the attacker is, regardless. Not this game, no: I was plunged into a war with an unknown enemy, and didn't even know where to attack or from where to defend, as my ally wouldn't bother telling where their enemy was!
And the best: the game doesn't tell you "Your ally [ALLY_NAME] was attacked"... no, it just tells you "Your ally was attacked". Which ally?! Attacked by who?

A big pity, as the initial promises were very nice, especially the narrative ones.

It is just awesome.

No longer working for me. Tried it out after hearing from a few of my friends who have the game saying it no longer worked. I tried mine and found the same issue of it forever loading after setting up a game. Guess i won't be buying their upcoming CIVILIZATION game or any other of their games til this issue is fixed. I have most of their CIVILIZATION games and DLC so i have a bunch of money i put into the series to enjoy it so last thing i need is for all their games to become suddenly unplayable. STARSHIPS still works for those who own that one.

Ok after checking out the main website for BEYOND EARTH i reinstalled the game after reading that the 2K launcher was removed so i figured maybe it was just a case of reinstalling the game. After doing this BEYOND EARTH is once more working at full game playing strength! So all is well and a reinstall was the only thing needed on my side.

Can't run the game anymore.

Many new things to explore and ready for new mindsets. While the normal Civilization series on earth has little new content to offer in each new version, there are many new game concepts here. The overall setup is very similar to Civilization, so easy to get into it. Fewer war components would have made more sense, but war is probably what most players like most. So far, I was able to avoid war quite well.

Was cool, but doesn't launch easily anymore. I was last able to play it in normally in 2020. Wanted to replay it but it no longer works without a lot of manual file wizardry. Only recommend at this time if you are a wizard. Otherwise try civ 6 or 7

Wish I could have the option to take away alien life like you can with barbarians but I guess that would defeat the purpose of the game. good none the least

A good chill civ.

Hope they make a sequel in the future

This is Civilization, but on a different planet than Earth. It's excellent.