Civ ... in ... SPACE!

[Evas]

Even if things are a little uneven now, I think the game will certainly get polished out and upgraded eventually.

The expansions to Civ 5 completely changed the nature of the game for the better, IMO.

I have a lot of faith in Sid Meier and crew. For me it's not a matter of if I'll get in, it's when.

[Mike Dunn]

On a gaming forum I frequent I found these initial impressions:

My first hour was a really magical experience, very damned fun ...

That was really fun, I agree.

I'm loving this so far. I've only played for a couple hours, but I can't wait to resume and see what happens next. MAJOR "one more turn" vibe from this one.

And I was so proud of myself for holding off....

I did tie for first place in my fantasy baseball league, earning $200, so I guess I can treat myself.

[Apollos]

I don't think comparing the game to Civ 5 is an entirely bad thing, certainly. There are a lot worse critiques I can think of. Once I manage to free up a little more time, I plan to dive into Alpha Centauri's spiritual successor.

[Alleghenies]

I don't think comparing the game to Civ 5 is an entirely bad thing, certainly. There are a lot worse critiques I can think of. Once I manage to free up a little more time, I plan to dive into Alpha Centauri's spiritual successor.

Yeah, I think the biggest point that I gathered from the article is that it is different. Don't think that it will play like Alpha Centauri and don't think it will use the same strategy as Civ 5 because it won't work because it is indeed a very different game. The PC gamer author almost seemed bored at first because of the Civ 5 similarities(while good, it can still get old), but because there were so many things alike, it was hard to notice the plethora of differences. I haven't bought it yet either, I'm still busy painting and moving into to my house, but as soon as I have free time(or switch back to the night shift), I'm buying it.

[Mike Dunn]

... as soon as I have free time(or switch back to the night shift), I'm buying it.

Fwiw, you should try the free demo first before plunking down $50 or whatever they're charging. I frequent two gaming forums frequented by folks who love the Civ series and while a few like this, the overwhelming reaction is disappointment and dislike. YMMV.

[Bill]

... as soon as I have free time(or switch back to the night shift), I'm buying it.

Fwiw, you should try the free demo first before plunking down $50 or whatever they're charging. I frequent two gaming forums frequented by folks who love the Civ series and while a few like this, the overwhelming reaction is disappointment and dislike. YMMV.

Yeah, Civ 5 was a bit like that too...by the time they added a couple DLCs it was better. I wish they would just release it that way in the first place, but who am I to tell a company how to run their business.

[Alleghenies]

Yeah, I guess the demo would be the safest thing to do. Maybe I should focus first on xenonauts. It is cheaper and besides, I need to focus on my offseason before I do anything else.

[Alleghenies]

I was browsing for a new video card and noticed that with this one you get a fee copy of Civ Beyond Earth.

Just in case someone reading this forum was in the market to heavily upgrade their graphics card for a game that you don't need a card this good for, however slim that chance may be.

[John]

I'm actually not that far away from a new system build, but I still probably have a few months left before it's time. Too bad: that would have been a sweet deal. Thanks for pointing it out, Daniel.

[Simon]

I 'knew' after watching pre-release videos and one interview with developers (they tryed really hard to convince Angry Joe and all of us this game will be awesome, but it felt something was wrong), that civ will be dissapointment.

Never ever get on a hype train too soon and pre-order games. Total War Rome 2 teached me this lesson. Companies these days often give us unfinished products and they are even getting money for it before release date. I always try demo first, watch 'lets play' videos on YT or even download game on torrents (look dad, a thief!) if they didnt release demo and then I buy it. Or dont if I dont like it.

If you like games like civ, I recommend you trying out Endless Legend. Really innovative, 8(?) factions and every one of them is different (one of them is actually invented by one of the players and implemented into game), tactical fights, pretty hand-drawn graphics, with elements of rpg (you have units and heroes with different skills and gear, check pscreen 9/9) etc etc. And there is an actual STORY behind all of this, every faction has its own main quest storyline with goals to achieve and introducing you to lore. And most of all its made by indie company that cares about their customers, they even read forums and reply to posts (!). Yeah I know, I couldnt believe it myself until I saw it

Im not really into 4x games, but this one had something in it I loved and you guys should try it :)

[Alleghenies]

Added to my steam wishlist. I have way too many games there.

I'm not familiar with 4X games, what does that mean exactly?

*EDIT: I just googled it. That's kind of funny, I've been playing the civ series since number 2 and I've never heard of that term. I guess maybe because I've never gone looking for any others. I didn't even know there were any others like the civ series.

[Lions]

Added to my steam wishlist. I have way too many games there.

I'm not familiar with 4X games, what does that mean exactly?

*EDIT: I just googled it. That's kind of funny, I've been playing the civ series since number 2 and I've never heard of that term. I guess maybe because I've never gone looking for any others. I didn't even know there were any others like the civ series.

Heh... I've been playing Civ since the original and hadn't heard of the term till recently myself!

[Alleghenies]

Heh... I've been playing Civ since the original and hadn't heard of the term till recently myself!

Thanks for making me feel better about myself.

If you like games like civ, I recommend you trying out Endless Legend. Really innovative, 8(?) factions and every one of them is different (one of them is actually invented by one of the players and implemented into game), tactical fights, pretty hand-drawn graphics, with elements of rpg (you have units and heroes with different skills and gear, check pscreen 9/9) etc etc. And there is an actual STORY behind all of this, every faction has its own main quest storyline with goals to achieve and introducing you to lore. And most of all its made by indie company that cares about their customers, they even read forums and reply to posts (!). Yeah I know, I couldnt believe it myself until I saw it

Im not really into 4x games, but this one had something in it I loved and you guys should try it :)

While you did convince me into adding it to my wishlist, after reading the PC Gamer article, I am now contemplating putting a brief delay on my video card purchase so I can buy this game now.

They mention several times how vastly different each race performs, and it sounds like it is a whole lot different than just in Civ, where they essentially put on a different skin and have a few pros/cons.

On a side note, the article mentioned the genre 4X game in it. I really should re-subscribe to PC gamer so I can keep up with all this slang.

[Simon]

4X means: eXpore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate :)
I never considered civ to be 4X genre though, only games like Master of Orion (or Endless Space from same developer as Endless Legend), which happen to take place in the far away future and you are founding new planets, not new cities. But it makes sense to call Civ 4X too i guess.

Anyway about differences between races in Endless Legends. Every race you play completely different. And i mean it. Let me give you 2 examples.

1) Broken Lords. Im playing these guys atm and they became my favourite faction. I wont be spoiling their history etc, but for whatever resaon they cannot regen HP over time, instead you can heal them instantly by using Dust (gold). Additionally they cannot harvest or even see food on hexes. You are populating your cities by "buying" new ppl for Dust too. As you can see, their main focus is on getting as much Dust as possible, since its the resource they are using for almost everything. And it changes a lot your way of playing the game, you look at the map differently and you play your troops differently (you can heal after battles without having to wait for health regen). And unit design complement this all perfectly (for example main units drain health after killing enemy unit).

2) Ok, but its not nearly innovative as this faction: Ocultists. They were invented by one of the players and won some kind of contest to make it into the actual game.
(again no spoilers, but its really tempting here lol)

First of all, they can build only one city. Wait, its 4X game and you cant expand? Looks like 3X to me ;p
Secondly: they cannot capture another player's cities, they raze them to the ground automatically.

What they can do is to convert pacified villages to your faith. And here it starts to be exciting. Every other faction can pacify villages (they are inhabited by several different secondary factions giving you different bonuses if you assimilate them), but only Ocultist can convert it. And converted village gives you resources from its hexes, like normal city does (you cant build any buildings in the villages obviously though). And it doesnt matter if the village happens to be in the another player's territory, it still gives you the same bonuses (and stops giving them to enemy). Think about how annoying these guys can be because of that.

Also converted villages produce free unit every 15 turns. What unit you get depends on the faction in the village. After several turns and couple of villages you are not fighting wars with your own units anymore, but with converted fanatics. How cool is that! :)

Another aspect of this is long distances and no infrastructure at the far borders (you cant build roads if you dont have city in the region). The longer you play and exterminate neighbors, the longer your supply lines become and suddenly you realize your Holy City is in the middle of nowhere :)

If this faction isnt innovative, i dont know what is.

EDIT:
I didnt play much other factions, but here are the few more interesting features:
- Vaulters can teleport between cities
- Roving Clans build their cities on top of giant scarabs (?!), so they can move those cities around (!)
- Drakkens see starting positions of every player and since they are diplomatic faction, they can force truce, peace or alliance on targeted faction
- Arcane Mages - they have spells and pillars, no idea how they work though ;p
- Wild Walkers detect enemy's armies in adjacent regions

[Alleghenies]

Yeah the different races sound pretty awesomely different.