When comparing Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth vs BattleBlock Theater, the Slant community recommends BattleBlock Theater for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?” BattleBlock Theater is ranked 38th while Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is ranked 114th. The most important reason people chose BattleBlock Theater is:
There is a modified co-op campaign that requires players to coordinate their actions to succeed. This makes it a fun couch co-op game due to the importance of communication (as well as how fun it is to grief your teammate in person).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Includes systems that add story and philosophical elements to the game
Through quest decisions, the affinity system and the victory condition you choose to pursue, the game asks what type of future would you build for humanity. The choices you make will impact both the gameplay and the outcome of the colony.
Pro Engrossing early game
The game starts by preparing your voyage through space by selecting crew, cargo, etc.
Players have a lot of freedom in what to pick or whether to choose a certain strategy which will impact the rest of the game. How you respond to the environment during the early game may very well shape how the rest of your campaign will go.
Pro Great music
Pro You are not locked to a linear tech progression
Pro Unique take on science fiction
While most science fiction games present one or two ways humanity could develop in the future, Beyond Earth presents six.
Human-Alien Hybrids trying to adapt to their alien planet.
Humans in Battlesuits and LEV weapons with a liking for terraforming.
Societies filled with cyborgs and androids.
Societies of people who want to create the perfect humans.
Societies that are supported by a power base made entirely of machines.
Societies that do almost everything by combining biology and technology to create bio-mechanical weapons.
Pro Great art direction
Pro Involved spy system
The player can send a spy to an enemy city in order to learn what that city is building, what they are using for defenses, etc. This will take a few turns in order to set up, but once it is done, having an inside informant on what competing cities are doing can be big leg up.
Once a spy network is set up, a spy can carry out multiple operations with varying results. A few operations one can take part in is stealing credits, technology, or even research. These are all things that take time to do on ones own, but can speed things up by taking some from other cities while also developing or earning your own.
Overall, this is an improvement over Civ V, where the spy system was a bit shallow, luckily it is quite fleshed out in Beyond Earth, which adds quite a deceptive layer to the gameplay.
Pro Co-op adds a completely new element of coordination to the gameplay
There is a modified co-op campaign that requires players to coordinate their actions to succeed. This makes it a fun couch co-op game due to the importance of communication (as well as how fun it is to grief your teammate in person).
Pro Thought-out presentation that balances style and humor well
The witty humor, enjoyable songs and cutscenes all demonstrate the high level of care and consideration that went into BattleBlock’s design. These things all add up to a game with polish that still stays unique enough to stand out.
Pro Good mix of co-op and PvP multiplayer modes keeps the game enticing
The 2-player co-op campaign is very similar to the single-player one, except that it requires cooperation between the two players. It can be played online or with 2 local players. There is also an arena mode with competitive levels that supports up to 4 players (local, online, or mixed). This gives a good variety of online and local play modes, which should keep the game fresh.
Pro No difficulty spikes, the game is very well balanced
The difficulty curve for Battle Block Theater is so evenly programmed that the player will barely notice things are getting harder. It really does an impressive job of training the player to handle any challenge the game throws at them.
Pro Endless replayability through the level editor and its easily sharable creations
The game has a built-in level editor, and levels (or level packs) can be shared through the Steam Workshop. This makes for a situation where there is an inordinate amount of content for the player to try out, or even create themselves.
Pro Sort of funny but not too much
Light hearted gaming that you can play with your significant other.
Cons
Con Late game is slow
Growing your colony in late game becomes a bit of a slog.
Con Wasted potential
Beyond Earth had a variety of new interesting systems that, unfortunately, fell short of their potential. Units unlocked by the affinity system were only slightly different to what you would get otherwise so your decisions weren't as impactful, quests in reality worked as a choice of upgrade for a building, the freedom of the tech web ended constrained to certain paths due to goals set by the game, and artifacts ended up being unreliable due to their randomness.
Con Competitive play feels lackluster
Competitive play is not as enjoyable as the co-op modes due to stiff combat. The mechanics of this wear out pretty quickly.