Table of Contents
amazon Sid Meier’s Civilization Beyond Earth – Rising Tide reviews
Background and Context
Civilization: Beyond Earth was developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games as a spiritual sequel to the legendary “Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri” and a futuristic take on the traditional “Civilization” formula. The game is situated in a distant future where humanity colonizes an alien world, and it thus departs from the historical groundwork of so many of its predecessors in favor of speculative science fiction thematics. While “Beyond Earth” was supposed to introduce players to the world of advanced technological innovation, alien life forms, and the promise of laying the foundations of a new civilization, it was met with mixed reviews. The visionary grandeur of the game was commended by critics and players, while most of the time it was lambasted for being shallow and unpolished as compared to past “Civilization” titles.
The October 2015 release of “Rising Tide” set out to counter numerous criticisms of “Beyond Earth” by expanding its horizon of challenges, polishing its mechanics, and offering new functions. The expansion was intended to enhance the base game’s experience through aquatic gameplay, improved diplomacy, and greater scope for strategic decision-making. Whether or not “Rising Tide” could turn out to be an equally satisfying experience was still, however, an unanswered question upholding the legacy of the “Civilization” series.
Gameplay Mechanics and Features
Aquatic Gameplay
Among its key features, “Rising Tide” introduced aquatic gameplay, an element that changes the world interaction for the players in a fundamental way. In the base game, oceans and seas were mainly obstacles or ways for expansion, otherwise of little use. “Rising Tide” turns this huge expanse of water into strategic and bilaterally advantageous land for expansion and development.
Players can now create floating aquatic cities on the surface of the ocean that can be relocated to other nearby areas. The mobility provides a new aspect of strategic depth, enabling players to decide based on considerations of resources, enemy presence, or environmental issues for placement of coastal cities. Aquatic cities can extract ocean resources like geothermal vents and coral reefs that bring with them myriad benefits and expansion opportunities.
These aquatic features have evolved into a whole host of new units, techs, and buildings to support life on the ocean. The use of naval units had been somewhat overlooked in the base game – but are now critical for exploration and combat. The tech tree has been expanded to include various upgrades for aquatic cities and units-another incentive for players to embrace the new gameplay.
Enhanced Diplomacy System
Diplomacy has undeniably been one of the main pillars of the “Civilization” series, and “Rising Tide” presents perhaps the most advanced dynamic system that attempts to match the complexities of inter-civilization relations. Within the new diplomacy system, diplomatic capital acts as a resource that players can spend to influence other civilizations, negotiate deals, and build their standing in the global arena.
In particular, the enhanced diplomacy system introduces another key feature: dynamic traits. Each leader acts according to sets of traits that evolve through their acts, decisions, and interrelations with other civilizations. The traits, therefore, determine the common patterns of a leader’s thoughts and behaviors and grant gameplay bonuses as well. Players may alter their traits in exchange for diplomatic capital, thus allowing themselves an opportunity to follow shifting strategies as the political landscape necessitates.
With this, favor entered the new system; basically, favor could be thought of as currency exchanged for benefit between countries. Favors may be called in to garter support during diplomatic negotiations or, conversely, may ask for favors when people are in need. This long-term strategic path imbues diplomacy, wherein players reflect upon their actions and alliances over the periods.
While the enhanced diplomacy system spices the game with variety and depth, it is also not without its own limitations. Some players tend to describe it as overtly complex or convoluted; others report some victories when late-game states become unmanageably filled with alliances and rivalry attempts. Very annoying was also the diplomatic behavior of the AI interacting with players, which sometimes seemed just intuitive and downright illogical.
Affinity System Overhaul
Though representing the philosophical and ideological paths down which civilizations can advance, the affinity system is evidently marked for a grand overhaul in “Rising Tide.” In the basic game, each civilization could either adopt an affinity of three: Harmony, Purity, and Supremacy. Each offered a divergent view of technology, society, and interaction with the alien planet, said interaction being facilitated by units, buildings, and bonuses each path’s unique ones.
“Rising Tide” adds hybrid affinities in which players may pursue goals involving an amalgam of both affinities. Hybridization provides an avenue for players to build their civilizations far more flexibly, encouraging more varied strategies and playstyles. For example, Harmony, being eco-friendly and integrating alien, could be combined with the highly advanced technology and military might of the Supremacy affinity to give one civilization a dual aim of autonomy from foreign encroachment and technological superiority.
Hybrid affinities also affect the restructuring of the game’s tech tree; thus, players may now access hybrid units and upgrades that harness the advantages of combinations of different affinities, thus providing new tactical opportunities for both combat and city development.
To some extent, the affinity system changes deepen and replay “Rising Tide,” whereas balancing some of those changes presents a challenge. Some hybrid combinations seem very powerful or weak, leading to imbalances in gameplay. Progression regarding affinities can also seem a little disconnected, as players struggle to adhere to a coherent strategy matching their chosen hybrid direction.
Worldbuilding and Narrative
Environmental Design and Alien Ecosystem
“Rising Tide” has furthered the already potent environmental design of “Beyond Earth,” with the expansion pack offering many more diverse and gorgeous landscapes. The aquatic cities and naval units bring the oceanic environmental drawing from living spaces, with further richness given to the world by underwater ecosystems and bright coral reefs. The new types of alien fauna that inhabit the planet will again challenge and interact with the player.
Further deepening the environmental storytelling is the emergence of new biomes and types of maps that come with their own challenges and opportunities. From icy polar areas to tropical archipelagos, these sets of environments engage not only in stark contrast but also in direct influence on gameplay. Similar biomes may host all the resources one would want and yet be most difficult to traverse while another might be offering just enough in strategic assets and none in natural advantage.
Interaction between human civilizations and alien ecosystems is a theme found throughout “Rising Tide.” Exploitation and coexistence or domination over the endemic species of life becomes a balance continuous against the threats inherent in such exploitations. This conflict is present within the social narrative of the game and conditions in which its player path will decide upon environmental changes, relations with alien species, and the general environment in which their civilization can survive.
Storytelling and Narrative Choice
Although “Rising Tide” will have no linear narrative structure, it is equally important as a narrative tool, for players will get to craft their own stories when playing.” Decisions made by players-from how they pursue their chosen affinity path to what deals they forge diplomatically-shape the narrative arc of that civilization. Quests and events in the game provide players the opportunity for a second layer of storytelling where they face moral and strategic choices with long-term impacts.
The expansion pack has ushered in new narrative elements that consist of faction leaders with personalities and backstories even more delineated than in the base game. These faction leaders are not merely more AI opponents; instead, they represent the opposing philosophies and different styles of colonizing the new world, which adds layers to the political landscape of the game. The diplomacy, wars, or trade between these leaders-all contribute to an emergent storytelling tradition from the “Civilization” series.
That said, the narrative experience in “Rising Tide” does have its share of issues. Some players say the narrative lacks an interesting overarching story, or makes little effort to explore the implications of its choices. While the emergent storytelling is interesting, it can sometimes feel a little disjointed or incomplete, especially in longer games where the focus would be drifting more toward mechanics rather than narrative advancement.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND-DESIGN
Graphical Note
“Rising Tide” retains the same kind of look and feel introduced in “Beyond Earth,” which puts forward the futuristic feel and alien enchants. Colorful and detailed “Rising Tides’ away” felt a lot like the lifeworld, with the addition of new water-under-the-sun views being a bright mark contrasting the world. Floating cities boast sleek futuristic contours, nicely engineered for fluid movement along the oceans-cum-smooth gloss flowing finish of glass and concrete.
Aliens are there from the alien design of creatures to the environmental layout, mainly having different species and biomes, which feel believable and otherworldly. Use of color and lighting within the game creates the right atmosphere across various map areas, whether it be the eerie glow of bioluminescent plants or the glare of the icy polar regions.
The overall visual presentation looks appealing enough, yet “Rising Tide” does have some graphical shortcomings. The game engine seems solid enough; yet, after years of upgrades, some textures and animations now seem really dated compared to those in more recently released games. Furthermore, performance can really show some inconsistency, especially in the late game when it gets filled with units, cities, and environmental effects.
Audio Design and Music
The audio design for “Rising Tide” underscores the futuristic ambience of the game, with a score that seems caught seamlessly between orchestral and electronic, providing grandeur and an otherworldly feeling. Atmospheric and dynamic, the music alters its world, tone, and intensity depending on the game situation in question, including exploration, diplomacy, or warfare. Returning to “Rising Tide” since the original “Beyond Earth” soundtrack, composer Geoff Knorr has created new works that enhance the general experience. The soundtrack evokes feelings of venturing into an unknown territory and the excitement of building a new world.
The sound effects in “Rising Tide” are equally pristine. From the hum of futurist technologies to alien-creature calls, the audio environment effectively drags a player into the game world. The sounds generated from various actions—whether from putting up a new building, deploying a unit into the field, or starting a fight—are satisfying and add to the feedback loop that holds a game together.
Voiceovers in “Rising Tide” are somewhat scant, but faction leaders and event sound bites add personality to the game. These snippets are well-acted and add to the diverse leaders’ characterization and make the diplomatic encounters more tangible. Nevertheless, the game favors emergent gameplay over written narratives; hence, voiceovers are somewhat trivialized by other audio design elements.
If you’ve ever been interested in deep-sea-based games like Submarine Titan or Anno 2070, the Rising Tide expansion of Sid Meier’s Civilizations: Beyond Earth will also give you the inspiration of similar contact. When people began to reach out to dominate the oceans, the traditional gameplay of the game series was radically changed.
Taking over the ocean means that you will no longer protect the borders of nature. The units can operate quite freely on every “corner” of the map, even the worker units (workers) can “go out” to build works on the sea, exploit the resources or simply create travel routes.
The units at sea became stronger, able to penetrate deeper into the enemy’s territory with a fairly “strong” blood level, strong attack power, enough to pave the way for infantry units to take over. This makes the gameplay “Domination” fierce and difficult when the battlefield exists everywhere.
In Rising Tide, you will also encounter many alien “sea monsters” units, including some special creatures that can be tamed to create “powerful fighters”, such as the monster Kraken can duel. Paired with the three old Cruisers. Like in the old version, you absolutely can choose to develop a military using humans Purity or “exploit” these powerful native monsters to strengthen your navy.
A few new constructions are also “added” to Rising Tide, bringing with them some new abilities that also have a certain impact on the player’s tactics when bringing both positive and negative effects compared to the original version. For example, the defense systems at sea make cities more “strength” with the ability to travel short distances and huge production capacity.
These new elements bring a new wind to Rising Tide, creating new challenges as well as new feelings for those who are too “similar” with land-dependent gameplay as in the original version.
Unlike previous versions that only allowed players to depend on a nation, a certain leader with traits with certain advantages, Sid Meier’s Civilizations: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide gives players the ability to customize these personalities thanks to the “diplomacy” point.
With dozens of new “bonus” divided into three main groups: Science, Military and Economy, players can completely develop according to their plans. not dependent on the “personalities” predefined in the game. If there are reasonable plans and options, the development of these “bonus” points can give the player a strong acceleration compared to other opponents in Rising Tide.
With so many “new” things like that, players have to “get acquainted” almost entirely in Rising Tide to be able to make the most appropriate and strategic development directions. However, AI (Artificial Intelligence) only stops at the old version, so the game seems… easier, even though the player chooses the highest difficulty.
The strength of the units was also not balanced, making the “battle” much more difficult than in previous versions if you were mistaken for a few technical upgrades that were already very troublesome in the original version. Besides, the number and types of “personalities” also contribute to complicating the game, making Rising Tide “difficult” for “new fans” of the series.
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Conclusion
As an expansion, “Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide” sets a high bar for itself by including new mechanics and modifying the existing ones to afford players new possibilities. It takes aquatic gameplay, revamps the diplomacy system, and adds hybrid affinities, thus giving birth to a richer, more varied experience that addresses many criticisms directed at “Beyond Earth.”
Though “Rising Tide” excels in these and many other aspects, it also possesses its own shortcomings. First, the new systems tend to be daunting, and second, there may not necessarily be enough depth to the storytelling for all players. There are also moments when the balancing of some mechanics, such as hybrid affinities, can appear uneven.
However, “Rising Tide” will offer a passably intriguing experience for its customers and challenge them into accepting its complex and futuristic setting. “Rising Tide” embodies the ever-attenuating memory of the game interests in the “Civilization” genre and also speaks to the adventure that developers are willing to take, just as most would not easily accept the merit of the endeavor. For such fans of “Civilization,” who enjoy something a little different, “Rising Tide” will fall into the roster of good offerings for the series and provide a similar strategic depth with fresh opportunities for exploration and discovery.