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Sometimes, you need to achieve a little distance in order to get a little perspective. Beyond Earth blasts the Civilization 5 template into space, but it's ultimately less of an offshoot to the main series and more of a measured response. It's a response to the fact that Civ 5, even at its cruellest, is still so often a game for leaders who like to lean back and ponder their actions with a certain kind of holiday cheeriness. It's a battle, but it's also a bubblebath. Annex Te-Moak? Burn Boston to the ground? Go nuclear on Pedro II? Why not, eh? Why not.By contrast, Beyond Earth has you hunched forward for every second, fighting for survival on the fidgety surface of a planet that has unambiguous feelings about all that vertical farming you're trying to do to it. Beyond Earth seeks to shake up the predictability of gentlemanly Civ opening gambits, with their familiar routines and breezy, acquisitive calm. Then, eight hours later, new victory conditions, introduced far earlier than before, are giving dynamism to the sometimes amorphous Civ end-game.
Does it work? Beyond Earth certainly offers fewer instances where you're clicking through decisions that don't feel like they matter. It offers more choices, but they paradoxically provide more focus. There are fewer lapses into last-minute domination victories, too - partly because they're just harder, but partly because the ennui that so often prompts you to kill everyone is slower to take hold. Civ's always gobbled your time, but Beyond Earth makes clearer demands on your attention. Sit up. Lean in.
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