Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)?

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Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 9/5/2014 4:46:14 AM

aaatoysandmore

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Who can comment on these? All I can say is I played about 2 turns of this and turned it off. After playing Alpha Centauri this one left a lot to be desired. It felt like a skeleton of Alpha Centauri. But, one does get used to a certain way of playing. It's like Panzer Command Osfront vs Combat Mission. I can hardly play combat mission games anymore because I like the way Panzer Command Osfront plays and the AI in it.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 9/6/2014 3:10:20 PM

ASHBERY76

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To judge a 4x game in 2 turns is absurd.The game is a competent AC clone but without the high production values and great lore that AC had.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 9/28/2014 2:18:15 PM

Ranger33

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I don't see how you can say it's a "skeleton" after two turns. I mean, that's enough time to build your first city and explore a couple tiles...

I just gave the game a spin for the first time and was very pleasantly surprised by how good it is! I've been disappointed by some other recent 4X games, but this one seems great so far. I like how there are tons of interesting terrain features, the alien life forms, the unit workshop that's functional and easy to use, and the fact that the game hums right along both in action and performance. The combat is a nice mix of Civ V and Civ IV, you can stack units, but it's not always the best strategy. I also really like the random tech tree.

I managed to lose my first game spectacularly, but had fun doing it!

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/9/2014 4:14:37 AM

Gizuria

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I don't have this game myself. I was only drawn to this post because of the title. But it seems absurd to me too that you can make any meaningful assessment of a 4x game after playing only 2 turns. For any judgement to be meaningful, I'd say you'd need at least one full playthrough on normal difficulty.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/9/2014 9:01:05 PM

Hertston

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It's also rather difficult to comment on a game that hasn't been released yet! Maybe Beyond Earth will live up to Alpha Centauri, or maybe it won't. And in the first case, how much of the dreaded DLC will be needed to get there?

I'd point out in passing, though, that a heck of a lot more happens in the first few turns of Pandora than it does in Civ 5!

< Message edited by Hertston -- 10/9/2014 10:03:30 PM >

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/24/2014 2:51:07 AM

Gilmer

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I don't have the games but I am watching a Let's Play of Beyond Earth and I watched a Let's Play of Pandora, and Beyond Earth looks like a ripoff of Pandora. I dunno.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/24/2014 1:18:45 PM

aaatoysandmore

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Ok Beyond Earth is out now....what's the verdict.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/24/2014 10:45:34 PM

Wolfe1759

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Played a few turns of the BE demo.

The UI presentation and graphics are (black backgrounds etc.) are very like Pandora, and the tech tree seems to have stolen its aesthetics from Endless Space.

Again I've only played a few turns but I'm rather surprised to say that Pandora in comparison feels a lot more polished and finished as a game as things stand at present.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/25/2014 9:50:32 AM

robske

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I've played Civ BE. It felt for me like civ 5 rehashed into a scifi theme. Lacks any of the personality that SMAC had. It even has LESS personality than Pandora. And I thought Pandora was pretty bad in that respect.

For me, being a seasoned SMAC and civ player (spent ****loads of hours in SMAC, civ2 and civ4 and i despised civ5), I find civ BE not challenging enough in survival on the planet amongst other things. In SMAC, trying to survive amidst plagues of mindworms was harsh (if played on appropriate difficulty levels). On Pandora, you got of course the Messari who can be a real pain in the butt. In Civ BE, you just throw down a certain defense building and right from that point on native life can't touch your cities and a 3 tile radius around them. That just doesn't make sense at all imo from a gameplay perspective unless you want to make it suitable for newbies.

Civ BE is solid in its mechanics though, and seems to have taken over many of the bugfixes and performance optimizations which civ5 has gotten. But besides the lack of character and the game feeling too easy to play, I got another major complaint of civ BE when comparing it to Pandora. Civ BE does a far worse job at providing a clean UI and proper feedback on why things happen and how to fix them. Not to mention that right now civ BE has /less/ content than Pandora and costs quite some more money, I find it hard to recommend civ BE unless you're someone who has never played a civ-like game before.

In my steam review of civ BE i only recommended it because its a mostly bugfree release. I clearly told people that if they want a really awesome story and can stand old graphics, they should go play SMAC. If they're a seasoned civ player, go for Pandora. I may be going to change my review into not recommending the game the more I think of what civ BE has to offer compared to other games out there...

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/26/2014 12:12:17 AM

Wolfe1759

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I caved in with the GMG discount taking the price down to �22

Now I'm regretting it - horribly buggy game, haven't even been able to progress past the first turn

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 10/31/2014 3:32:48 AM

aaatoysandmore

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Wolfe

I caved in with the GMG discount taking the price down to �22

Now I'm regretting it - horribly buggy game, haven't even been able to progress past the first turn

Oh you have to play more than 1 or 2 turns or the WolVES here will turn on you. 1 or 2 turns isn't enough play to determine if a game is any good or bad no matter if it works or not. lol So says the jury and lynch mob above.

(in reply to Wolfe1759)

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 11/1/2014 6:44:07 AM

Gizuria

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Well, to be fair, you didn't state that the game was buggy in your original post. ;) You said you played about 2 turns and then turned it off.

The Wolfe man here can't play the game at all and that is an entirely different matter altogether. So therefore, I doubt anyone will jump on him

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 11/8/2014 4:59:36 PM

Wolfe1759

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Got BE working, I needed to lower my graphics settings.

In the last week or so I've now played about as much BE as Pandora which I have had for months.

BE builds nicely on CIV (maybe too much so judging by its detractors) which makes it easy to get into.

To get into a bit more depth and start thinking more about alternate strategys BE also has this amazing bit of kit that comes free with the game on release, I think they call it a manual.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 1/3/2015 1:06:41 PM

Sawelios

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Hi to all!
So what will be the final verdict? Is Pandora now, with its expansion, a good SMAC-like game, does it cost its price? I'm not interested in CivBE and anything else after Civ3... So I look for the game in similar setting from different developers with fresh eyes and brains.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 1/4/2015 4:11:32 AM

Gizuria

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I've never played SMAC but from what I've gleaned from reading some posts about Civ:BE from SMAC fans, Pandora is the real heir to SMAC. It seems to be much, much closer to SMAC than any other game. Besides, it's worth playing anyway because it's a good game by itself and worth a place in any sci-fi 4x gamers hard drive. (The absolute #1 in this category IMO is Distant Worlds though ;) )

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 1/4/2015 6:19:44 AM

Sawelios

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quote:

I've never played SMAC but from what I've gleaned from reading some posts about Civ:BE from SMAC fans, Pandora is the real heir to SMAC. It seems to be much, much closer to SMAC than any other game. Besides, it's worth playing anyway because it's a good game by itself and worth a place in any sci-fi 4x gamers hard drive. (The absolute #1 in this category IMO is Distant Worlds though ;) )

Damn, you're a serpent in paradise... :) Just yesterday I made my family budget holed below the waterline having bought Distant World Universe...

< Message edited by Sawelios -- 1/4/2015 7:21:58 AM >

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 2/4/2015 5:43:37 PM

Wolfe1759

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As far as I can tell from the Slitherine forum the developers have now stopped working on Pandora and have gone onto their next project, Pandora may get a final patch though this is unclear and there is a fan based project looking at the AI still ongoing.

This definitely makes me recommend CivBE as the choice at this point as it (based on what has happened with Civ IV and Civ V) will have significant ongoing support, expansion and development.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 6/3/2015 9:38:39 PM

Wolfe1759

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As the new patch is in, a bit against my expectations, I'll have to give it another go

Now the question is Pandora + expansion + patch vs CivBE + (upcoming) expansion - only time will tell.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 6/12/2015 6:02:18 AM

milkweg

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Distant Worlds...that is one of those RTS games that plays by itself and is not a TB 4X game. Yes, I have it.

I just bought Pandora and haven't actually played a game yet so can't comment on the gameplay just yet. Here is the most extensive review I found of it though and they gave it a good score.

http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/12/pandora-first-contact-review/

The review is a 2013 older version of the game too.

"I'm not interested in CivBE and anything else after Civ3"

Civ4 is considered the best in the series and Civ3 is not a better game than Civ4 or Civ5.

< Message edited by milkweg -- 6/12/2015 7:04:04 AM >

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 6/30/2015 5:34:21 AM

NephilimNexus

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Pandora has far more in common with Alpha Centauri than Beyond Earth does, which is pretty ironic.

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 8/14/2015 3:27:05 AM

balto

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Pandora is poop. Civilization Rising Tide (which requires Beyond Earth) is coming October 9. This is the gold standard of gaming, mortgage your house and get on board with Beyond Earth, it is 5 stars out of 5 stars. Check out YouTube for Rising Tide, it will be stupendous.

< Message edited by balto -- 8/14/2015 4:27:43 AM >

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RE: Pandora vs Beyond Earth (Civilization in space)? - 8/15/2015 7:28:13 PM

aaatoysandmore

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If Distant Worlds didn't have a lame brain dead AI it would be the number 1 sci-fi game on the market. But, because the AI is sooooo passive it's not worth the price of a nickel.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri still reigns as the greatest Sci-fi next to Orion II.

CivBE is crapware and no patch is going to save it just like 17 patches to Rome II Total War didn't save it.

Civ II and IV are the best of the CIV series bar none others. That's the facts and you heard it today from one who knows good gaming. I have 40 years experience both playing a beta testing as far back as SSI gaming days.

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