Unlike other commenters here, I didn't dislike BE. It's a fun game, and it's worth checking out (especially with the Rising Tide expansion). It's very much try

Unlike other commenters here, I didn't dislike BE. It's a fun game, and it's worth checking out (especially with the Rising Tide expansion). It's very much trying to be a spiritual successor, but I'm not sure it really achieves the goal. The setting isn't as convincing (it's mostly Civ 5 in space, with orbital units). The factions all pretty much play the same, just with some bonuses. The biggest problem (though I suppose this has been a problem for all civ games to some extent) is that the AI is bad. It can do tactical decisions, but strategic big-picture it seems to have no clear goal. It's worth checking out, but it's only partly the spiritual successor to SMAC it tries to be. I see a lot of people here recommending Stellaris, I haven't tried it but now I think I should.