Back in college a friend of mine introduced me to a game by the name of Civilization. To say I was hooked is an understatement. We played that game for hours, guiding a culture from the stone age to the space age. Every game was completely different – the maps, the productivity of cities, and the personalities of the opponent civilizations all combined to create a unique experience over and over. As college progressed we also played Colonization, which I found much more challenging, but Civilization was always our “go to.” The year I graduated Civilization 2 came out and I never looked back. Sadly, other than the light-fare of Civilization: Revolution on my iPad, I haven’t played a full Civilization game in several years. Civilization addicts will always say that Civilization has an interesting compulsion behind the gameplay, it’s called, “Just one more turn.” When playing Civilization 2 “Just one more turn” kept me up long after I should have called it a night, trying to get that one more building completed in my weakest city. After that, the Civilization games didn’t hold the same level of enjoyment, “Just one more turn” seemed more like a chore than entertainment. Civilization 3 seemed to unbalanced ¹, and Civilization 4 added so many elements to the game that “fun” seemed to be an after-thought ².

There was one game, however, which kept “Just one more turn” the joyous compulsion I felt when playing Civ 2. It was not technically a Civilization title, but rather a sort of sequel. It’s name was Alpha Centauri. I played this game for countless hours, guiding a remnant of humanity through the process of colonizing a planet and figuring out the mysteries of its adopted home world. Alpha Centauri actually had a storyline which progressed through the gameplay, and this added to the immersive experience. It might be the most amazing game I’ve ever played. I desperately awaited a sequel, but because of licensing disputes one was never released.

This past year, however, a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri did appear, Civilization: Beyond Earth. This game, built on the Civilization 5 engine, is essentially “Alpha Centauri: Redux.” The plot is similar, players guide one fraction of a remnant of humanity through the process of colonizing a new world – a world which contains a certain level of mystery. Players have to figure out how best to manage the alien ecosystem, and determine the best way to deal with indigenous life forms, all while establishing a human civilization on an alien world. I love it.

Beyond Earth is an extremely intricate game, and the ways players can customize the development of their factions forms a staggering amount of ways to play through a campaign. “Quests” will frequently call for players to make a decision on how to utilize specific advancements, and “virtues” form a map of the cultural values for your faction – the way these virtues are applied has a significant impact on game play. The customary “technology tree” from other Civilization games has been morphed to a “technology web,” which allows for a much more free-form way to research new techs. Again, the ways these technologies are applied has a serious impact on the way a game unfolds. It’s an impressive way to balance the nuances of such an immense system, and Beyond Earth pulls it off well.

This isn’t to say the game is perfect. After playing Civilization: Revolution” for so many years it does feel like it’s moving a little slow. I also feel the interface isn’t an intuitive as it could be. There’s a lot going on in the screen, and sometimes notifications which need to be dealt with before the game can continue get lost in the maze. The in-game help, Civilopedia, also doesn’t seem to be as well thought-out as in previous Civilization installments. It took me quite a while to figure out how to “send an expedition” from an explorer unit, for example. For it’s perceived flaws, however, *Beyond Earth has got “it.” As I was playing before dinner I kept thinking, “I need to get ready to eat, but I really want to see what happens after I get to that spot on the map.” “Just one more turn” is back, and I couldn’t be more pleased.