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Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™
At the site's tracked low, ≈ $2.13 at 
Kinguin makes this a timely option for players drawn to a long-term space-colony strategy. Explore an alien world, establish cities and steer your civilization through research choices. The offer makes most sense when deliberate expansion and shaping a new society are the appeal, rather than simply collecting another strategy game. At $9.99 on Steam, Kinguin offers a way into a science-fiction strategy campaign built around exploration and founding a colony.
KinguinSid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth Steam CD Key
K4GSid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth Steam CD Key
GGselSid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth — Ключ Steam — EUROPE МоментальноCredit/Debit CardAll-time low ~ $4.00across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $1.872026-07Current Low Across Stores~ $8.59Kinguinvs. Historical Low+359%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™
Lead humanity into space after global upheaval and establish a civilization on an alien world. Explore dangerous terrain, secure resources, build cities and trade routes, and shape your colony through nonlinear research choices. Steam players rate the game 61% across 14,062 reviews. The Steam PC version supports Traditional Chinese, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Russian. Released October 23, 2014.
Credits
Developer
Firaxis Games · Aspyr (Mac) · Aspyr (Linux)
Publisher
2K · Aspyr (Mac) · Aspyr (Linux)
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$1.872026-07-30 · KinguinBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Show 7 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| German | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Korean | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-19
02Before you buy
Play modes
The Steam PC version supports single-player and multiplayer for up to eight players, as well as mods.
Language
English is listed with full audio and subtitles. German interface and subtitles are also supported.
03Frequently asked questions
What is the premise?
Lead an expedition beyond Earth, explore an alien planet and establish a new civilization there.
How does a campaign begin?
Choose from eight expedition sponsors, each with a leader and distinct gameplay benefits.
How does research work?
The nonlinear technology web has three broad themes, each with its own victory condition.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
No need to worry about Gandhi nuking you.Show moreShow less
9.2 hours at review3,271 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
A lot of reviews state that Beyond Earth is "unfinished", "unpolished", and similar words and phrases. And in many ways, they're correct. But there's a slightly more insidious truth to the statement as well. Start up Civ V with all of the DLC expansions and play through a game. It's well-balanced, deep, intricate, and takes a good amount of effort and understanding to make it work. Now start up Civ V WITHOUT any of the DLC expansions. Drastically different game, isn't it? Suddenly the balancing is gone, the depth has disappeared, even the use of culture points is different. You're playing something that seems... unfinished. Unpolished. Broken. It's not the full game yet. That is what I feel is happening with Beyond Earth. It's not just the standard glitches and problems that every launch title ends up having, it's that people are comparing it to Civ V with the DLC, and not Civ V as it was when it initially came out. And it's an unfair comparison. Beyond Earth is not a bad game when judged on its own merits. The graphics are clean, the tech tree is deep, the bugs (both literal and figurative) are not overwhelming. There are definitely aspects that need work; the interface is drastically in need of an overhaul, the civilopedia is missing critical information on some of the structures, some things are never explained at all, and there are graphical glitches here and there among the prettiness. But unfortunately it's never going to be judged on its own merits. It's going to be judged against Alpha Centauri (which, let's face it, people are viewing through rose-colored glasses) and against Civ V. Having said all of that, though... the fact that we're going to be forced to wait for DLC in order to have a great game instead of merely a finished one does not lend itself to much of a positive review. So even though I still feel that Beyond Earth is being unfairly maligned, I cannot in good faith recommend purchasing it in the form it is now. At least not at full price. Wait until the next sale, or even better wait until the first DLC and then get them both on sale.Show moreShow less
38.8 hours at review4,243 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Alright, here is the lowdown. I had been anticipating this game since it had been announced. I also had played a bit of alpha centauri, so I was interested to see where this game would go. The Good: - Some of the issues with 1UPT have been solved. I am still not a fan, but floating units helps you siege cities easier, which as somebody who has 500+ hours in civ (playing emperor/immortal) I appreciate this greatly. This effect comes in more late game. - Cities don't get built instantly, which is great. I think we can all agree that it is annoying when you are 1 tile away from a settler who makes a city right before you get to him, and now suddenly, you have to come back with an army. Instead, they have an outpost, which is far easier to assault. This prevents the computer and other players from making low-risk, high reward cities all the time. They have to actually consider where they are building this outpost and defending it. - The Tech web is very unique, and doesn't really force you into one direction. (although skipping out on spy tech at the beginning is truly shooting yourself in the foot) - This game has FAR MORE depth than civ V did at release, and still more depth than CiV V after Gods and kings. - Aliens are interesting in that they can be passive, or aggressive depending on how you deal with them. (This could use some more fine tuning. (Simply having Green, Light Green, Orange, and Red as aggression markers is not enough, give us more tiers, we need to be informed of exactly how much they feel aggressive to be able to act accordingly) -Tier bonuses within the Virtue tree allow you to go accross the tree as oppose to just choosing one, and being forced to stick with it. - The spy system is far more relevant than in Civ V, and cannot be ignored completely. This could be improved further though. (They could give you more choices of what to do) - The three different ideologies are awesome, they all go in their own path and have their own playstyle. Unfortunately, in Multiplayer I inherit the Ideologies of my allies, which makes no sense to me. I think there should be an option to turn this off at least. - Runs almost as well as Civ V. - The technology announcer is a woman, unfortunately this means Civ Guy's voice is gone. So you don't get to hear him tell you "You have discovered COMPASS" Kinda sad, hehe, but I love the woman's voice even better. The Bad -Totally uninspired maps. It seems like the concern here was that players wouldn't be able to understand that a land is fertile unless it is a green grass land. Come on Firaxis, I think we are smarter than that, or else I don't think Civ would appeal to us. - The landscape is completely like a re-colored Civ V, and is far too afraid to venture into sci-fi at all. It tries to hard to provide us with an easy way to understand the game from the first time we pick it up, and make us feel at home. Unfortunately this causes the land to look incredibly bland, and the color pallet is horrid, it is green, purple, and brown. - Both of these issues come from the conservative approach that they seem to have take for this game, Make it easy, simple to understand. They were afraid to take risks, FAR too afraid. Look at alpha centauri, they were bold when they made that game, that game had personality; which leads me to my next point. - I play this game, and I don't really see any type of personality to it. It is a blank slate, just a video game on a screen, no story, no basic theme. They tried to give you the idea that you lead your own future, but instead it just feels like they didn't give the game any spirit. (Maybe adding more themes for each ideology, and unique buildings would give you more of a feeling that your nation has become unique. ( A good example of this is Civ V, when you played civ you feel like nations strive for glory, and we look at the accomplishments of civilizations. In Civ BE it feels like you like land on a planet, and they tell you. OK, go tell your story. (that's it...) - Teching up in the beginning is VERY SLOW. It pick ups rather fast once you get to the mid late game. But at the beginning, MY GOD, it is slow. I usually play standard on CIV V, but this feels 3 to 4 times as slow when it comes to teching. Maybe the way the game was designed required this, I myself am not sure if I buy this. - The 1 UPT, although somewhat improved, is still an issue. This issue could be solved if they allowed siege units to fire above hills/forests. I guess they forget how to do that on the way over to Alpha Centauri... Seriously, I understand the distinction between Realism, and gameplay. But let my damn artillery fire 3 tiles away, even if it is for reduced damage. This will open up options for people, maybe let you have elongated sieges. Whether this is for gameplay purposes, or realism purposes, i don't get why artillery fire only 2 hexes away in the beginning. -Religion is gone. I for one understand why this isn't in the game YET. But it needs to make a re-appearance, this was an aspect of the game that gave Civ V depth. This may have been cut because of the 1/3 rule they have at firaxis. From game to game,they removed 1/3rd of the freatures, and replace 1/3rd. They are so afraid to overburden us with features, but guess what Firaxis? If you want us to stay fans of your game, you have to add a bit of depth(as our mastery increases), or else your fans get tired of your games. - The map packs aren't distinct, i can't really even remember which one looks like when looking at the map list. I know they have to consider balance when making maps, but these maps have very little to nothing unique about them. At least change up the color pallet, make us feel like we are on a different planet. I just feel like we are on a different version of the same planet every single time I play. - The wonders make no sense, and aren't even drawn out. It's like they expect you to fill in the colors with your mind. Just have one of your awesome artists draw up something futuristic and awesome. We don't need to fill in every single part of the game with our imagination, give us a base idea or image to work with. Not the quickly drawn up blueprint of a wonder that wasn't even explained properly. - There is very little Alien diversity. I think there are about 4 aliens, and they are the same 4 in every single map. (2 water aliens for a total of 6) Still, it isn't enough, they should vary, they should be part of the equation when you start the game. The suggestions - Give us an intro for each victory, that would be awesome, and help build the "story" that Firaxis wants to help build in our minds. -Give us more uniqueness for each Ideology. - Provide us with more ideologies in the long run. - Bring back religion, and add some depth to it if possible. (Find a way to make it work.) -Please...Please, please... re-work the maps, they look terribly boring, the color pallet is horrid, and they are the opposite of inspiring. -Bring some scifi into this, give us farmable deserts, habitable mountains, ocean cities, floating cities. Give us something original, ANYTHING. Make us dream of the future. I believe Firaxis can achieve this while keeping the game balanced. - Bring randomized aliens into the game. Have a type of alien species that spawn randomly at the beginning of the game. Depending on what it is, you can adjust your strategy. - Extend the benefits and possibilities that you have when you go beyond level 13 of an affinity. Let it change our civilization even more, and maybe give more benefits. All in all, the game is good, pretty good, but not great. It needs something more, and it needs to be daring. The hours speak for themselves : Civ V (500 hours) Civ BE 54 hours I recommend this game based on the fact that this game is good enough, and I believe firaxis can fix most of their faults. I doubt they will fix everything though, only time will tell.Show moreShow less
50.7 hours at review882 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Update: As of the first major patch, the game is certainly playable. I still wouldn't recommend it based on the poor creative direction. The game just needs a lot of extra seasoning. I can't lie, I've been playing it a lot lately, and it's just damned solid mechanically, and despite the similarities to Civ 5, it actually plays a lot differently on the meta strategy level. None of this couldn't be done by very creative modders, however, and the real meat of a AAA game is in the art budget, of which BE clearly had very little. I've been looking forward to this game for months. So this review hurts to write. As a HUGE fan of science-fiction, Civilization, and the Civ 5 engine, I feel obligated to write this review. It is very, very hard for me to not give this game a general recommendation. Let me preface it by saying it's not going to be bubbly fan-squealing, or one-dimensional vitriol. I have legitimate issues with Beyond Earth - serious ones! Does that mean I'm not playing it? No, it doesn't. I'm enough of a nerd to love the game despite its failings. Here's the rundown: The game takes to the Civ 5 engine like a duck to water. Yes, a lot of the various aspects of it are transparently reskinned (energy is gold, happiness is health, etc.) A lot of the mechanics, such as diplomacy and trade, are just flat out identical to how they are in Civ 5 and its various expansions. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so, because Civ 5 did a lot of things right. Let's just condense this. It's a great base game. It's a game that I can play and enjoy and then think "wow, I can't wait until this gets expansions and becomes truly amazing." In that sense, it reminds me of Civ 5 at release, way back when. I liked Civ 5 at release. But it didn't grip me. That all changed when Gods and Kings came out. The vast majority of my Civ 5 playtime is post G&K. I suspect it'll be the same for Beyond Earth. Unfortunately this is just how Firaxis seems to do things now. They release a really solid, if bare and vanilla, base game for the flat fee. Then they release thirty dollar expansions that are AMAZING additions. They wouldn't do it if it didn't work. Here are some things I just can't excuse, though, and I think really detract from the value of a full-price purchase: - Very little automation. I have no problem with micro-management. But when that micromanagement becomes clicking my poor old fingers into early arthritis just to refresh trade routes, I get irritated. It was annoying in BNW, it's annoying here. And where are city governors? This game should have improved upon Civ 5's shortcomings, not just reskinned the whole thing, annoyances and all. -Graphical glitches. Units getting stuck in the upgrade windows and plastering over each other. Visual artifacts. Etc. Will be ironed out. Not game-breaking in the least, just annoying. -Sound glitches. Sometimes when achieving a new affinity level, and a new technology, the quotes stutter or lay over each other, or jostle for priority. It's distracting and annoying. - Boring leaders. I like Kavitha a lot. But I play as her, so I don't get to see her much. I have to be subjected to all the boring, rigid, starched sads that run the other factions (except for the PAC leader, she really gets into it sometimes). Alpha Centauri had strong, charismatic, intriguing characters for the individual factions. The leaders in this game seem sedate compared to them, and especially compared to the colorful, bombastic characters littered through Civ 5. - Boring factions in general. Half the fun of Civ 5 was having your own special war and peace themes as a civ. Identifying with the strong personality and values of your chosen civ, etc. There is very little to attach to in Beyond Earth, because all of the leaders are relatively sedated and dull. They don't even get unique backgrounds or music. - Limited visual representation of technology progression. It's there, sure. Clothes on your fellow leaders change. You can see some cybernetics later. I haven't seen what they look like at the maximum affinity level (18), maybe it's extreme. It would be cool to be able to look at your own leader and see how they change visually as you progress, but you can't. - Boring-as-♥♥♥♥-wonders. Each wonder in Civ 5 had a dramatic quote, a beautiful piece of art, and its own brief symphonic score to herald its completion. In Beyond Earth we get some dull, lifeless blueprint picture, no real musical cue, and a simple quote. I also can't see them on the landscape like I could in Civ - no wait, I can see some of them. They're just hard to catch sometimes. All in all, the game just lacks polish and TLC. And that's what separates a AAA title for $50-60 from everything else. You expect a certain level of polish and refinement, and a lot of that comes from attention to detail in the art and writing departments. You progress through astounding leaps and bounds of technology, yet the sense of impact from those accomplishments is minimal thanks to the slashed art, music, and writing budgets. So, in terms of just artistic polish, the game is a huge disappointment compared to every other Civ title and Alpha Centauri. It lacks the personality and charm Firaxis usually brings to the table. What gives? I don't know. We can only really speculate. But it's sad, and ultimately, kind of kills the experience for me. I only recommend this game to hardcore Civ fans who just love a good strategy romp. It's still fun to play. It just isn't very satisfying in the end. To everyone else, I say just avoid it until the first expansion comes out and the price drops, unless you truly don't care about art, or character, or music, and only want the numbers and the game itself. Hopefully in the future we'll see more victory conditions, religion mechanics, psionics, another affinity, new factions, new leaders, better art, better music, better expensive non-gamey stuff that publishers hate to fund. Hopefully.Show moreShow less
118.7 hours at review1,872 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
After reading the latest reviews I finally understood that the reaction to this game probably depends on what you have been doing for the past 5-6 months. It’s very subjective. So, judging from my own experience: - If you are a 30+ yo Civ and SMAC fan, who only has enough time to play games on weekends and haven’t played a 4X game for a couple months – you’ll probably be ecstatic like me. - If you are a Civ fanatic, who has been playing Civ5 to death every day up until last Friday and was looking for a brand new 4X experience or a major breakthrough in gameplay – you’ll probably be disappointed. After playing CIV VI I still think that they could have kept it in the works for another year and give us a few more DLCs to this one instead.Show moreShow less
144.7 hours at review805 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
This bun left the oven far too early. Not worth $50 and if they charge $30 for the first "expansion", they'll have a very irritated customer (who will probably buy it anyway, argh). Good: - Feels like Civ5 (it is) - Tech Tree is less linear - Affinities are interesting and change gameplay styles (or fit your favorite style) - Lots of building options... (though this becomes a scrolling nightmare later in the game) - The Virtue "table" is interesting and helps you tailor your civ - Wonder are less epic, but more numerous - Much more difficult early in the game to capture capital cities (militarily you're quite weak early on) Bad: - Feels like a Civ5 mod (and not a super deep one either) - UI and gameplay mechanics have gone backwards badly (some simple things in Civ5 are missing here) - UI that is standard in many other 4x titles is not here (click on cities in a city list and going to the city, etc.) - Massive micromanagement issues (trade units regularly require mindless retasking just to do the same action) - Diplomacy is useless (they've had years to come up with a better system and it still stinks) - Aliens are an afterthought after a few levels in Affinity (as your units get tougher) - Factions are weak (essentially just a way to give different bonuses) with little personality - Terrain coloring/graphics leave many things an indistinguishable mash (is that basalt? a crashed satellite? titanium?) - Quests are easily achieved and after a few playthroughs are ignored (you'll likely complete them by accident) - Spying system is very one-dimensional, gets very repetitive/annoying after a while ("fine, siphon energy again. ugh.) - Endgame is an afterthought. "You win." No score, no ratings board, no comparisons, etc. If you're a Civ5 fan, wait until they have an expansion or two under their belt and this goes on sale. Right now you're buying a slap-dash game that misses most of the beauty and fun of Civ5 and doesn't add enough of the new...Show moreShow less
118.8 hours at review1,497 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
First of all I must acknowledge that I might be a bit biased in favor of “Beyond Earth”. I love science-fiction and all things robots, genetic manipulation and space. I'm a true disciple of strategy games and especially of the turn-based variety and quite the veteran of many, many rounds of “Alpha Centauri”. I've been very hyped This said as introduction I'd first like to say that I like the design of Civilization 5, although I consider it a seriously dumbed down game, up to the point of it being the mentally handicapped little brother of its predecessors. But is it fair to use such harsh words? Maybe I should come to peace with the fact that Civilization 5 just isn't the same as the other games and in certain ways it did improve. Despite being dumbed down it isn't an easy game to master when you face human players that operate with the same meta as you. So it didn't get boring too quickly. “Beyond Earth” kept the best of Civilization 5 (nonstackable units are debatable) and added a whole bucket of goodness to create a truly amazing game with an atmosphere that puts your mind at peace, while focused on the task that lies before you: survive on an alien world. I love the addition of the affinity system which visually expresses the philosophy you embrace, which means you either play as Col. Quaritch, Robocop or Ray Kurzweil. Additionally you can select virtues divided into might, prosperity, knowledge and industry (basically a different sort of social policy system, but improved as it rewards both beelining as well as grabbing many boni from one section, or combining sections as well as tiers... and so on). I'd wish for “hybrid” affinities that let you embrace 2 main affinities for special units, but I don't see the developers doing that anytime soon. One can still embrace 2 affinities, in rare cases it even pays off (for example the Prime version of the Aegis mech of the purity affinity [Humanity ♥♥♥♥ YEAH!] needs 10 purity affinity and 3 supremacy affinity [resistance is futile, puny meatbags!]. I found out that for units it pays to have up to 5 affinity levels of a secondary affinity, however affinity influences much more than just units, so I'll have to experiment around a bit. I for one enjoyed going Purity as my primary affinity and Supremacy as my secondary affinity in my first game. Beyond Earth added quests, better neutral city state mechanics (called stations now), better barbarian mechanics (b-but aliens aren't barbarians! They are different! Yes they are. This makes it better, dear reader. That's what I talk about!), better victory conditions and it feels much better writing possible future history, instead of reenacting history in the most ludicrous ways (nuking ancient Egyptians as Gandhi!). AND SPACE COLONIZATION! Is that nothing? Last but not least you select your colonists' loadout: that is sponsor, equipment and type of colonists. This is a very great addition as it lets you customize your starting conditions in a more unique way than in Civ 5, adds the feeling that you have more control and ownership over your colonists and allows different strategies instead. We'll see more than a couple of viable strategies that will be quite different to each others. A bit irritating is the fact that the sponsors do not include a Northern European race. Sure, Russians are Caucasoid, but so are some North Africans strictly speaking. I'll play the French for now. What I am missing is a member of one of the Nordic, Anglo Saxon and Germanic race. It is quite likely they'll send people to space, although the developer might have wanted to show us a grimdark future where mass immigration replaced the European people almost completely with the grand daughter of Marine Le Pen leading the last Front National enclave of the French into space. Who knows. Apart from this the personalities and background of the sponsors don't appeal to me. They are quite bland persons. That said it allows the player to use his imagination more. Still given how fleshed out the characters are, one could imagine them to be at least a bit interesting. Yet they are not. The most important issue however is balance. So far I believe all sponsors have their viable ways of working well, so as of now I think Firaxis did that one well. I could drone on a bit more but this is lost time that I could have used playing this game! Do I recommend it? Yes, I do. The atmosphere is just great. The scifi turn-based strategy genre is quite sparsely populated so even a game with some imperfections would get a rather positive review from me. I think Beyond Earth actually earns the good vote. It's not actually a breathtaking game, but while it looks like a small step for the turn-based strategy genre, it is a great step from Civ 5. 7.5/10 – It's okay.Show moreShow less
16.7 hours at review673 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
If you haven't played Civilization 5, I recommend you doing so first, since it's a much more complete game with its DLC and the price tag is way below this one. The past Civilization games are pretty much just upgrades of each other, but with Civilization: Beyond Earth, the developers have thought different. This time the "story" takes place after you launch the rocket in Civilization 5 to search for a new place for humanity to continue it's living. The game includes new creatures and a new life beyond earth. I really like the new thinking and the idea of this game, it's a step in the right direction. However, this game could have been alot better, it's not on the same level as the rest of the Civilization franchise, yet. I don't feel like paying another $40, 3 times, for DLC, I want the game to be good on release due to the price tag of $60. To be honest, I do not recommend this game to anyone, atleast not in the current state and it's price tag, but some free DLC makes no harm huh? I still belive in this game, and I'm looking forward to play this game when it's in a more finished state. Overall this game is just overhyped due to the fact that Civilization 5 was such a great game.Show moreShow less
9.5 hours at review1,357 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Beyond Earth is not a huge departure from its predecessor, Civilization V. Now that we've got that out of the way, I think your impression of this game might depend largely on your expectations. If you're expecting something revolutionary and different then you might want to wait for this one to go on sale so it's comparably priced to a DLC or an expansion and continue to patiently wait for Civilization VI, which Beyond Earth is not. If you want a solid 4x game with great graphics, a gorgeous color palette, beautiful map terrain and cool resources, immersive music, an interesting premise, and chock full of sci-fi references, then you'll probably enjoy this. I can't stop playing it, I just want to test out all the new victory types and see what all the units look like after upgrades attached to each of game's the three affinities. Even though much of the game -- from the UI to the AI -- feels familiar, there's enough that's fresh that you have to pay attention to the details. And I keep finding myself pleasantly surprised by the new stuff I discover. And sometimes I find myself familiarly irritated by some of the things that have plagued most incarnations of Civilization games, like repetitive AI that offers insanely lopsided trade "deals" and then launches an attack a turn after telling you how awesome you are. I really like the addition of quests to the game, even though sometimes it's difficult or even impossible to complete some of the tasks (also wow fragile explorers). Once you accept that though, the tasks you can do become a nice little addition to the game and a way to earn extra bonuses while you're playing. On the down side, the end-game tends to drag a bit, and some of the victory conditions have "false summits" in which you think you are almost there but then find out that you have to have to jump through hoops for another 50 turns in order to actually win. I wish there were some more statistical and information options for those of us who like to really delve deeply in our strategy games and think things through completely before committing to a path. I also wish there were more incentives to cooperate with the other colonies, like science and economic boosts for signing cooperation agreements. I'd have liked more emphasis on science, perhaps via the ability to enter into research agreements through diplomacy or the ability to trade techs like in earlier Civ games. Overall, I'd say that the fact that I played the game for over 40 hours in less than a week speaks to its value, at least in my eyes. It's not perfect, but it's a lot of fun and it definitely has that "one more turn" factor that makes it a solid addition to the Civ family.Show moreShow less
40.2 hours at review336 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I'm so sad to write this review. I'm a hard-core Civilization fan. I've played Civ since the franchise was first launched. I've literally logged hundreds of hours playing Civ 5 and all its DLC in Steam. I also feel as though Alpha Centauri is still one of the best computer games ever made. I've been looking forward to Civilization Beyond Earth for months. This game is such a terrible disappointment. And I'm going to be as constructive as I can be in my criticsm. I hardly know where to begin. First of all, Wonders of the World are completely nerfed and uninspiring. There are no video sequences upon completing one. There's no sense that youv'e actually accomplished something by building a Wonder. Even more galling, from what I've seen (and I've already played the game over 12 hours just this weekend), Wonders don't even matter much. Most Wonders seem to give palty bonuses that are on par with a single city building. Literally. I mean, c'mon! If building the sci fi equivalent of the Pyramids is no different than building the sci fi equivalent of a Granary, what's the point? The Civolpedia is awful. The help screens are appallingly unhelpful. They don't link to one another. It's not easy to understand what's going on in this game, and the "help system" makes it worse. The prose of the "backstory" is dense and confusing, without any dramatic hooks to tie in a narrative, and make it interesting. Even as a veteran Civ player, I was floundering trying to figure this game out, and the help system was about as useful as calling Comcast on a Saturday afternoon. After about half an hour *just trying to figure out the Civolepedia* I started to drink. The Affinity system makes no sense. Why "force" me to adopt certain affinities just because I research technology in a certain order? Why not give me the choice to engineer my society through meaningful decisions, in terms of Affinities? Even more perplexing, how can I be a "humans first" "Gaia loving" "I am the Borg" society, ALL AT ONCE? Affinities should be mutually exclusive. This game is boring. I played for over 200 turns and no one attacked me, other than some random aliens. No one offered me any interesting challenges. I'll admit, I tend to be a peaceful builder type, but to play in a world where no one goes to war, and where I don't feel the need to attack other factions or pump up my military to prevent being conquered... what's the point of that? The health system (a.k.a. "happniess") is broken. Until you unlock certain late game techs, or build many, many special terrain upgrades, it's basically impossible to have more than 3 or 4 cities. Yes, you read that right. Forget infinite city sprawl, this game punishes you for trying to found or conquer more than about 3 cities for the first 150+ turns. Absoultely abominable. Dumb. Firaxis, I'm one of your biggest fans, but I feel like I should get my money back on this one. If a developer were willing to e-mail me, I could offer about 20 helpful suggestions on how to fix this game, but until then, no one else should bother buying it.Show moreShow less
14 hours at review1,319 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.