unfortunately would have to say no. bells and whistles and alien fungi but missing the spirit. Stellaris however is AMAZING.. its got the feel of original Master of Orion and old time Civs.

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.

Sadly, no. BE is a dressed up Civ5.