Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide Reviews
Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide is an enjoyable expansion pack that offers numerous new features and improvements. However, it's not quite the leap forward that some Civilization fans are hoping for.
Civilization's anything-can-be-traded-however-unlikely diplomacy system was a key element of the game and seems to have been removed and the war and peace system is broken as stands. Hopefully this will all be patched at some point, the way Beyond Earth had a significant patch history, as Rising Tide brings a number of positive changes to the table.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that Beyond Earth fully captures the feel of the Earthbound Civilization games yet, but Rising Tide makes for a far better game than the original.
It still comes up short on character compared to the best Civs and, of course, Alpha Centauri, but it's without doubt less anodyne than before. Diplomacy, however, seems to me like a significant misfire even without the bugs – the question of your place in this new world, and in relation to your rivals, remains unresolved. I suspect Beyond Earth's road to recovery has only just begun.
A few of my complaints from last year remain - the user interface could still use some beautification and the tech web is borderline impenetrable for first-time players. But Firaxis has made some smart choices with Rising Tide. It's starting to distinguish itself from Civilization V finally, and not just in terms of the way units look. Playing Rising Tide - especially on a water-heavy map - feels appreciably different from previous Civ games.