Recent reviews by Domush

Took a bit to get back into the habit of reading dialog, but once I made that adjustment this game is top notch! Enjoyed it a lot.

Pros:
-- Ship building is very fun and hugely customizable.

-- I'm 48 and not really into gaming anymore, but this game had me staying up until 3am for the first time in years. Only wish the story was longer, because I'm not ready to stop playing it.

-- Absolutely stellar update of the 90's star trading/combat games.

-- Graphics are solid, and stellar systems are downright beautiful, especially planets with rings

Cons:
-- Mission tracking is a pain, and confusing. You should be able to select a mission and it'll tell you what to do next on the main view.. you can't, and it doesn't.

-- Ends abruptly. I expected to see many more quests in the new star system, but it just ended after one dialog.

-- No mod support (would greatly extend the logevity of the game if we could add more quests)

-- Static game (stars never change, quests never change. If you played it once, you're done with the game)

-- A little pricey for what you get. Should be $15 max considering it has no replay value, being a static game with zero procedurally generated quests/maps.

THIS GAME IS CLEARLY EARLY ACCESS DISHONESTLY MARKED AS FINISHED!!

That said..

Super fun game with a lot of stuff to customize and play around with. Clearly low budget and unfinished (english is terrible, and voiceover is pretty bad, too).

I've put more hours into this game in 2 weeks than I have all other games over the past 4 months. It's great.

There is a LOT of content in this game, and it's much more difficult than the typical "build a crazy base and watch the fireworks" base builder. The enemy AI isn't great, but they are different enough that a one-size-fits-all strategy will get you killed.

I'm 30 hours in and haven't even gained access to 1/2 of the content, and the half I do have access to so far is very thought out and fun to play. Games with this much content are usually bad at everything, but the devs managed to put all of these game types together into a damn good game.

The limited edition is just cosmetic stuff, so don't bother.

I hope they fix the terrible english and voiceovers, but otherwise I'm very much enjoying it

As for learning how to play.. watch some youtube videos, because there is a LOT to this game, and the tutorials either don't exist or are TERRIBLE. Honestly, any minimum wage English speaker could have done 10000% better. The tutorials and descriptions of things are just awful, but luckily once you figure things out it doesn't matter.

I haven't read any reviews, so this may be an unpopular opinion, but this game is awful. The interface is confusing, the concept is boring and overdone cliche, and it's just not fun like the other X-COM games are. The plot feels like an Archer episode, just not funny or worth watching.

Get X-COM 2 and X-COM: Enemy Within if you want a fun X-COM experience. If this game was a free mod I still wouldn't play it. If it wasn't part of a bundle I would have returned it.

Well thought out XCOM game with added options to remove what some people (me) hate about XCOM games.. the constant countdown time limitations on various aspects of the game, making it more about tactics and team-building than fire-fighting.

Also runs on older hardware just fine, which is nice if you can't find a new video card in stock ;)

Easily one of the best games I've ever played, and I've been playing them since text-based Zork.

I must find this soundtack! I've spent large amounts of time in the menu, simply to be able to experience the absolutely wonderful soundtrack.

This is a perfect game in every way. I'm honored to be able to play it, and I'm only at Episode 2.

Honestly, anyone who passes on this game is missing out on a true pleasure of life. This is why I ever started gaming.

Easily one of the best RPG's I've ever played, and it's still in Alpha. Superb!

My only gripe (and it's a HUGE gripe!) is the uber-confusing dialog.

It's all written in the third person, so you can't tell if the dialog means 'you' (as in your character who is speaking/acting/thinking) or 'you' (as in the character they are speaking to).

WTF? It's ROLE PLAYING! Make the dialog 1st person!

Example dialog:
(and yes, every selection is enclosed in asterisks for no reason.. no dialog quotes anywhere in the game)

1: *you ask what do you have to do*
- Am I asking what I have to do? What the other person has to do?

2: *you demand to let your sword go*
- Let my sword go? Let your sword go?

3: *you look puzzled*
- Am I looking puzzled as an action? I am saying they look puzzled?

4: *you wonder why the dialog is all in 3rd person, since you can barely tell what's a thought or action or what's actually said out loud (and to whom)*

5: *you facepalm at the ridiculousness of it all; you don't know who 'you' is referring to*

Other than that, it's a wonderful game. Of course, the dialog is 1/3 of the entire game, so that's a MAJOR issue.

Also, the dialog was written by a non-native english speaker. It's obvious, and slightly irritating since, beyond the above issue, there are some dialog options which make no sense whatsoever, yet can mean the difference between your character living and dying in the game.

Example:
NARRATOR: *you see a runed vase with an inscription warning you to not pull the lever unless you have fund scrolls to tell*
(and yes, all descriptions come in the form of dialog with a pretend person named "NARRATOR", instead of just describing the scene in a normal way. Very hokey, and a constant immersion killer.)

1: *you pull the lever, confident you are ready*
2: *you break the vase*
3: *you open the vase and absorb the entity inside*

Wait.. What?! WTF does "have fund scrolls to tell" mean? Which optin shold I be choosing? How do I back out? PS: You can't back out of dialog, so you MUST make a choice. Your guess is as good as mine what the non-english part is supposed to mean, but the rest of the game is decided in that moment and there are no take-backs.

So, yeah, awesome, awesome game, with the most ridiculous dialog/narration I've ever seen.

First, I've bought and played EVERY Civ game. As an idea I love it. That said..

HI-RES GAMERS READ THIS!! -- If you have a 1440p or 4k monitor, don't bother, because the UI doesn't scale AT ALL, ever. The text and entire interface WILL (not might, WILL) be too small to read. It's completely unplayable on the desktop I'm writing this on, and the monitor is a 55" bohemeth. So, no, your luck will not be better. This is an unforgivable oversight.

On to the review:

The base Beyond Earth game is seriously lacking in content, with a bland and nearly pointless diplomacy engine (it pains me to even call it an engine, as it seems to only have two variables) which almost never accepts fair trades and still, after 5 other Civs, seems schizophrenic and makes you walk on eggshells lest you piss it off by existing.

BE is basically Civ 5 with a skin overhaul. The leaders have new bodies and new names, but are otherwise identical. The units are just reskinned Civ V units with futuristic names. Workers are workers, traders do trade routes, etc. The one thing truly different? The skill tree is far LESS usable and easy to understand. Want to focus on military units? Good luck finding them. Want to focus on trade? There is a filter.. that kind of helps. Basically, every skill tree item is seemingly placed in random order in 360 degree pattern.

The good news? Yes, there is some. The mods fix a good majority of the game-breaking bugs the developers just left in there. Roughly the same mods you can find for Civ V you can find here, minus the really cool overhaul mods Civ V had. They may come eventually, but given the lackluster effort put into what is essentially a reskin mod of Civ V, I don't expect modders to get too excited about this iteration.

So, what now? Expansion patch.. err, pack to the rescue..

The 'Rising Tide' DLC ($30) adds basic patch content which should have been free and adds oceanic bases which should have been in the initial release. It also supposedly fixes the diplomancy, but seeing as they haven't fixed it in 6 Civs, somehow I doubt it's any better.

I fear this will be the last time I ever pay full price for a Civ game. I'll wait for HumbleBundles or similar from now on. I've been disappointed for the last time. ..$30 patch to fix bugs and add basic content. Suck an egg, Sid Meier.

Not recommended for anything over $15, and the patch.. I mean 'DLC' should have been free and included an apology letter.