Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide

 PC
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 39
  3. Negative: 0 out of 39
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  1. PC Gamer
    Oct 8, 2015
    73
    A solid expansion addressing the right problems, but still shackled by its core game’s choices.
  2. IGN
    Oct 8, 2015
    71
    Rising Tide's great new diplomacy and artifacts can't quite fix Civ: Beyond Earth's replayability problems.
  3. ZTGD
    Oct 27, 2015
    70
    At the end of the day, Rising Tide accomplishes precisely what it needed to for the Civilization franchise: it provides a good reason for those players who drifted away to potentially jump back into Beyond Earth, and it provides a timely injection of new content for those players who needed something more to continue sticking around.
  5. Metro GameCentral
    Oct 15, 2015
    70
    A useful expansion that unlike most doesn’t ignore the failings of the original, although even with the improvements Beyond Earth still isn’t as engrossing as the real Civilization.
  6. JeuxActu
    Oct 11, 2015
    70
    While the overhaul of the diplomatic system is a very welcome feature delivered by Rising Tide, the uselessness of the hybrid affinities, the tediousness of moving aquatic cities and the quite impressive price tag of the extension only restricts it to the most hardcore fans.
  7. Hardcore Gamer
    Oct 8, 2015
    70
    The new content is undeniably great; the new units add depth and strategy and taking control of aliens gives you a fresh way to play the game militarily, which is quite interesting and fun.
  8. We Got This Covered
    Oct 8, 2015
    70
    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.
  9. Riot Pixels
    Nov 30, 2015
    68
    Rising Tide only looks like a hefty expansion because it fails to breathe life into Beyond Earth.
  10. CD-Action
    Dec 16, 2015
    65
    Rising Tide didn’t even try to reignite my faded interest in Beyond Earth. [12/2015, p.71]
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  11. Yahoo!
    Nov 18, 2015
    60
    Rising Tide sometimes feels all wet, but Civilization’s ship can still be righted.
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  1. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Dec 7, 2015
    The new aliens’n’ocean stuff is thoughtful and entertaining, pushing the sci-fi further and helping Beyond Earth take much-needed strides away from Civ V, building it at last into a game you have to figure out rather than just go through the motions with. 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.

Awards & Rankings

78
#78 Best PC Game of 2015
14
#14 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

User Reviews

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User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 132 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 67 out of 132
  2. Mixed: 30 out of 132
  3. Negative: 35 out of 132
  1. Nikkolette
    Oct 10, 2015
    0
    Absolutely bland garbage. Every fault from vanilla BE is here. To queue, you must click 3 times and enter a city screen, no queuing from theAbsolutely bland garbage. Every fault from vanilla BE is here. To queue, you must click 3 times and enter a city screen, no queuing from the map, and that was in CivIV! No "Rest until Healed", nothing. It is still filled with unnecessary animations. AI is as stupid as it was in BE. The game is just bad, bland and soulless. All this new additions are in vain due to inability to fix fundamental flaws of original game.… Full Review »
  2. Koblihozrout
    Oct 22, 2015
    5
    Do not trust the reviews, it's mediocre 4x game, with unbelievably bad AI.

    The gameplay is slightly improved with this expansion, but    Do not trust the reviews, it's mediocre 4x game, with unbelievably bad AI.

    The gameplay is slightly improved with this expansion, but remains generic, boring, without sense of progression, and devoid of any attachment to the colony or you neighbors. Another turn oh i guess i'll build another +1 food building with generic name, oh i guess i agree to new worthless diplomatic treaty.... I have 6 cities, should i build another one? Nah more micro every turn, besides it doesn't matter, because with every city techs cost more, also virtues cost more. After some initial challenge with aliens you just stop caring, and pray for game to end, or just stop playing.

    As in Civ 5, AI is just plainly stupid, non competitive. It can be somewhat compensated by huge bonuses on high difficulties, but it's never fun to play asymmetrical game. The funny thing is that devs didn't invest any resources in AI development instead they brought aliens as a nation which has unlimited resources and units to compete with player. It makes you wonder if there will be any normal AI opponents in next civilization installment or only asymmetrical enemies like aliens in this game.

    Stay away from this tittle, developers somehow managed to copy civ5 mechanics and create an uninteresting game to play.    … Full Review »
  3. oldshep
    Oct 27, 2015
    6
    Make no mistake, Rising Tide vastly improves upon Civ:BE. However, there's only so much you can polish a hexagonally-shaped turd.

    From the    Make no mistake, Rising Tide vastly improves upon Civ:BE. However, there's only so much you can polish a hexagonally-shaped turd.

    From the first boot up, you'll be greeted with a host of new things to try out. The four new sponsors are interesting, and the revamps of the old ones add to the flavour (maybe with the exception of Elodie). The first time you try it, the new diplomatic traits system seems awesome; it's modular, it lets you upgrade certain parts of your civ...

    And then the flaws start to overwhelm you by mid-game.

    -There's bugs galore; I had water cities not producing on the city hex, another time I couldn't even make planetfall, cities can build any resource-specific building they trade with
    -The new war-score is a trainwreck; the moment you start winning, the AI is forced to give you too much -- prepare for an eternal war
    -A lot of times, the diplomatic traits feel like a non-choice; there are clear winners and losers
    -The late game is still a slog; you may as well rush the new hybrid units and go for a domination victory early
    -Artifacts make the game almost as much of an RNG-fest as Hearthstone; ex. I got the faster agent trait from the artifacts on ARC, combined with diplomatic traits, I was stealing science every two turns (on fast); on the other hand I could've gotten something near completely useless, such as 'cities can attack through obstacles'... yay

    If you treat this game like an engine-building game, similar to tabletop eurogames, you'll have a fun time. Sometimes you want to hilariously develop new virtues every other turn with Al-Falah, then switch to science spam the next. Or wonder spam as PAC. Or trade so much with yourself you end up more inbred that your sister-wife with 6 fingers as Polystralia -- that's fine.

    However, for me, whenever I boot up Civ:BERT, I find myself more enthusiastic going in then coming out. Without a doubt, every time I play it, I'm done by the mid-game and ready to just click next turn until I win; this game has a tendency to way overstay its welcome on your screen. If you're looking for a 4x game with bite, that can hold you for an entire session, I'd suggest you look elsewhere.    … Full Review »
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