Civilization: Beyond Earth gets free Steam demo and why that’s important

Remember demos, those things that let you play a certain game for a while before deciding if you should purchase it or not? It is indeed a pretty rare sight to see something like that these days, but Firaxis and 2K Games are offering just that. The latest installment in the highly acclaimed Civilization series is now available to play on Steam at no cost whatsoever, at least for a while. Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth demo can be downloaded from here and all you need is a free Steam account.

It’s pretty sad that a demo is seen as newsworthy nowadays, but many publishers would rather offer us pre-order bonuses as incentive for buying a game rather than an actual small taste of the product. Is testing the game before buying too much to ask? Apparently yes, for the most part. Luckily, there are some companies who still treat gamers like valuable customers and fans of their products and not like mere wallets waiting to be milked. Granted, Civilization: Beyond Earth will likely end up having several DLC packs and maybe even an expansion or two just like many other Firaxis games. But that’s a respectable business model as long as they actually add a decent amount of content so we’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out. Similar to demos, expansions in the real sense of the word are also a rare sight now, with most games featuring barely there extra downloadable content that costs way more than it actual should.We may see something similar with Civilization: Beyond Earth, but I’m pretty sure we’ll also see a real expansion at some point.

Civilization V had Brave New World and Gods and Kings while XCOM had Enemy Within so let’s hope that Firaxis continues the trend of releasing full expansion packs. Interestingly, the mentioned games were made much better by the expansions and it would be ideal if something similar is also being considered for Civilization: Beyond Earth. Don’t get me wrong, the game is great as it is, but it doesn’t really have its own personality and just feels like Civ 5 in space. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In any case, you should go ahead and download the Civilization: Beyond Earth free demo and see for yourself if it’s worth your money or not. I will say this though: if you’re a fan of the previous installments or if you’re just looking to sink hours upon hours into a sci-fi themed TBS then this game will definitely not disappoint you.