To be fair, a lot of people are comparing it against Civ 5 with all of its expansions which puts it at a disadvantage. Once BE gets some good DLC underneath its belt I'm sure that everyone will start liking it much more. That's what I remember happening with Civ 5 at least. Whether all of the extra content will make people like it more than AC I'm not sure yet. We'll just have to wait and see.
Trouble is, most of the unfavorable AC comparisons I've seen have been focused on flavor, not mechanics or content. Unless they release an Everything Has Different Voice Actors And Personality-Defining Quotes expansion/update, I don't think those are going to stop. And even if they did, I doubt they'd beat nostalgia
and original quality, so it's probably not terribly wise of them to try.
The last Civ games I played were Civ 2 (test of time?) and a lot of Alpha Centauri. Would Beyond Earth be a decent game to start back with?
Definitely not a
bad spot, but a bit wonky and bland at the moment (at least, compared to more recent games). You might try Civ5+expansions for a more immediately robust experience, if you don't want to wait around for BE to sort itself out.
That said, I'm not sure it's particularly unbalanced or bland compared to AC or Civ2, though it might be in different ways. I'll reiterate that it's not a bad spot to jump back in on, just a spot that's likely going to get better than it currently is.
So, of these newish strategy game releases, which has been the most enjoyable for you, and (ideally) how'd it hook you? 'Cause now I'm looking at
- Endless Legend
- Civ Beyond Earth
- Pandora First Contact
- Warlock II: The Exiled
- The Last Federation
- and yes, Total War Rome II
I would like to buy one of these during this sale, but which? Paralysis!
I'll have to go with Warlock II, as that's the only game I've actually played. It still beats out BE, which I've watched a fair amount of, and which seems, as I've said above, wonky and maybe a bit unfinished. For instance, trade routes give massive, massive income bonuses, so they're pretty much mandatory... but they have to be manually reassigned every few turns, which gets
tedious. I do fully intend to get it eventually, but not until it's on sale and/or has some more content out.
Warlock II, meanwhile, is an upgrade to Warlock. Much like Civ, they've finally mostly figured out how to prevent infinite city spam, which adds a new strategic layer in trying to get the most bonuses out of your limited number of optimal cities. Units can have various levelup buffs, equipment buffs, and enchantment buffs added on to make them massively more powerful than before, which allows you to cavort across the planes with them, getting attacked by bullshit spirit dragons, collecting loot, and exploring for new city sites. Crush your enemies or just kind of leave the poor mooks alone, research spells, the usual.
Speaking of which, damn them. Wrath of the Nagas, the newest expansion, is not on sale.