>>715780680
The hate for Beyond Earth on release was well-deserved (even if slightly misguided because a lot of it was because people expected Alpha Centauri 2, which it clearly isn't, but it had plenty of issues on its own), but it's improved a lot since then and it appears to me people are just still parroting the initial hate. It's not as good as Civ V, but I consider it a lot better than Civ VI. I don't think it's worth the base 60 bucks (for game + expansion), but I would recommend it on sale.

>>715772802
If you have it for free, why not give it a try? (Assuming you also have at least the first expansion.) The early game is somewhat decent, it just becomes a drag later in the game and becomes less fun the more you replay it.

>>715773692
>(everyone plays Civ modded)
Most people play their games unmodded. That goes even for games that are very popular modded like Minecraft or Skyrim.