In case it disappears or hasn’t rolled out to all regions yet or something, here’s the demo option showing up in the US.
Civilization: Beyond Earth is dialing back the years by actually providing an honest to goodness demo to people who want to sample the game before buying. What a marvellous throw-back to an era before publishers were terrified that actually letting people play their games might prevent them from throwing $50 blindly at it.
I know, that’s a bit cynical. Sorry everyone.
Anyway, to grab the demo just head over to Civilization: Beyond Earth’s Steam page and look to the right of the usual “Add to Cart” button. “Download Demo” should be there as an option. Click on that to make all your dreams come true.
It’s 5GB in size and, if the previous AMA on Reddit is anything to go by, should be a turn-limited version of the full game. I’m not sure exactly how many turns it gives you, because I’ve not downloaded it.
If you’re wondering why we haven’t reviewed Civilization: Beyond Earth, the not-particularly-exciting reason is that despite multiple requests for review code neither 2K nor their marketing partners at Access PR were willing or able to provide us with one. In light of that, the demo is probably your best bet for figuring out whether this game is any good or not.
