Beyond Earth is a very weak entry, just above Civ III in my opinion. Whether it’s worth it depends on your perspective on such things. If you insist on comparing it to other games in the series, no. If you’re willing to take its own terms, warts and all, “yes,” since I got 200-ish hours out of it before I shelved it. Hard to argue that $35 for 200 hours wasn’t worth it.
Some things to keep in mind:
Play on the harder difficulty levels. By default it starts at “Mercury,” which is waaay too easy for any veteran Civ player. The hardest difficulty (Apollo) is roughly like a mid-level (King) difficulty for earlier games.
It plays better if you ignore Health in the early to mid-game. It’s nearly impossible expand and stay positive in Health until you get some serious health bonuses from Virtues. If you try and stay positive, the game feels like a straightjacket. Fortunately, the penalties for negative health are actually minor.
Almost all of the Wonders, and all of the late-game buildings, are not worth constructing. The benefits are tiny compared to the cost.
The main reason to play it is that it brings a fair number of interesting, new ideas to the series. Unfortunately, it’s something of “one step forward, two steps back,” since it also screws up a good number of the old systems. I don’t regret buying it, but it does have a lot of flaws.
As part of the 24 hour deal for Age of Mythology: Extended Edition, you can also choose the Microsoft RTS Collection which is 75% off at $24.99. The $24.99 gets you the following:
Age of Empires II HD with The Forgotten HD
Age of Empires III Complete
Age of Mythology: Extended Edition
Rise of Nations: Extended Edition
Not a bad package if you have been holding out for a good deal on the new HD/extended versions of these.
This is only the Thanksgiving weekend sale, or “Fall Sale” for our friends outside the US. The Winter Sale will be in late December and will feature all the Flash Deals and crazy snow globe or whatever gimmicks we all know and “love”. Basically this sale is just a teaser for the bigger one coming in a few weeks.
That said, the rule for this sale should be that if you see something that is 66% or 75% off (usually the steepest discounts on most stuff depending on the starting price), and you really want it and will play it before January, then go ahead and buy it. Something that is 66% or 75% off in this sale will likely not go any lower in the Winter Sale to come. Any other discount, and there’s a chance it could go lower during a Daily Deal in this sale or a Daily or Flash deal in the Winter Sale.
Much of my wishlist is 25% - 50% off right now in this sale, which means no dice for me considering my enormous backlog and current Fallout 3 GOTY playthrough means I will not be playing anything new before the Winter Sale. If something does drop to 75%, and is unlikely to show up in a bundle anytime soon (sometimes I add interesting cheap games to my wishlist just to remind myself to look for them in bundles elsewhere), then I will bite.
Company of Heroes 2 tempts me greatly with it’s $10 price point, but I can wait for the Winter Sale.
The Flashpoint Campaigns 80% off blowout sale got reverted, so I wouldn’t count on any big Matrix discounts in this sale (other than anything unintentional or a possible modest daily deal cut).
Its Matrix so never expect anything off. Except their new policy of discounting new releases to encourage initial uptake.
I’ll pony up for it sometime, but not now. I’m having a space 4x nostalgia time so playing GalCiv2, Sword of the Stars and even thinking of reinstalling Space Empires 4/5 again. There is simply not enough time to play everything as much as desired :)
Hooray! A Steam sale I can ignore. Excuse me while I go back to playing insane amounts of Marvel Heroes during their X-Giving event. One time and/or money sink at a time…
I’ve been enjoying it. It’s more or less old-school XCom with a humane UI. $16.24 seems like a decent price. I kickstartered it for $20 and was pleased with the result, though I haven’t had time to get much further than the midgame since then.
