In an exclusive reveal by Game Informer, Firaxis has officially announced Civilization: Beyond Earth.
The new game takes the classic Civilization gameplay that we all know and love, and launches it far into the future. It’s not a continuation of Alpha Centauri, however - Firaxis is adamant that while they took much inspiration from the much-loved game, Beyond Earth is an entirely different beast.
“”There is a lot of inspiration from Alpha Centauri in this game,” McDonough says. “We even have a couple of people who worked on that game still on the team and helping us make the game. It’s not Alpha Centauri 2. It’s not a sequel. It’s a whole new imagining of what civilization in the future, civilization in space could be. There are many homages and nods and winks to Alpha Centauri. And there’s a huge creative and spiritual debt we owe to the groundwork that game laid, but this is a whole new idea,” says co-lead designer Dave McDonough.
Released all the way back in 1999, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri reimagined the addictive turn-based gameplay of Civilization, setting it among the stars as various different colonist factions battled it out for dominance of the planet. Where Beyond Earth differs, however, is that you’ll have the freedom to choose from three very different technological paths. Choose the path of Purity, and you’re able to terraform the planet in a way that it ends up resembling Earth. Harmony, meanwhile, will cause your population to adapt to their surroundings, rather than the other way around. Finally, choosing the path of Supremacy focuses on technology, as your citizens utilize the wonders of science to survive in their new surroundings.
In an interesting twist, depending on which path you choose, your victory conditions will change - each path has a special victory condition that can only be achieved by them. This is a marked difference from regular games of Civilization, where every player had the same set of victory conditions open to them.
In another departure for the series, Beyond Earth will feature a heavy focus on narrative. You’ll be able to undertake quests which will reveal more of the backstory behind your arrival on the planet, and how you choose to resolve these missions will influence the evolution of your planet and fill in various gaps in the narrative.
Despite these drastic changes to the familiar formula, the developer is confident that veteran Civ players will still feel at home. You’ll still be improving terrain, researching new technology and building units - but the freedom granted to Firaxis by being unshackled from the need to adhere to the course of human history has allowed them to experiment in ways that they weren’t able to before.
To go along with the reveal, publisher 2K released a trailer, which you can view below.
Dale Morgan
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