![]() “The Great Mistake was a catastrophe that led to a humanitarian crisis and destabilized the nations of the world. “When we began work on this game, we started with where we are right now, our geo-political landscape, and extrapolated 25 years until what we’re calling the Great Mistake,” said Miller. But while there’s less potential characterization up front than, say Nwabudike Morgan or Lady Deirdre Skye of the Gaians, co-lead designers Will Miller and Dave McDonough assured me there’s a lot of personality underneath the old Earthbound national lines. Other factions include the slavic Kavithan Protectorate and a group called the Pan-Asian Cooperative. ![]() There’s the American Reclamation Corporation led by Suzanne Fielding, and Samatar Jama Barre is in charge of the People’s African Union. I think that’s a good thing, but my nostalgia for the old game got a kick in the nuts.įor one, the factions are all geo-politically based instead of divided by philosophy or religion. While Beyond Earth is certainly very different from a standard historical Civ, the gameplay had a lot more in common with Civ V than Alpha Centauri. I got to explore a new world from a set starting point until around turn 50, and then, while my colleagues all got up for lunch, I stuck around to play through it again. At 2K’s Pre-E3 event in LA last week, Pete Murray from Firaxis let me dig into the alpha build of Beyond Earth. The last sci-fi game from the team at Firaxis – Alpha Centauri was actually the first game published by the studio formed from the ashes of MicroProse – was a huge timesink for me. Orignal Story: To say that I was interested in Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth would be a vast understatement. Like I said, 15 minutes just wasn’t enough time I guess I’ll have to spend dozens (or hundreds) of hours getting to know Beyond Earth better when it comes out later this year.Īfter playing the first 50 turns twice, Beyond Earth feels closer to Civilization V than Alpha Centauri. That didn’t stifle my excitement, though. A 2K rep called it a brand new entry in the Civilization family, but it looked more like an alternate universe Civ V. I left wishing I’d had more time to dig deeper and see more of what set Civilization: Beyond Earth apart from its predecessor. War was waged, and the technologically superior troops made short work of the defending Harmony-embracing civ, which brought the demo to a close. The Supremacy civilization needed Firaxite, a resource important for building units however, it was currently in the territory of a Harmonious civ that wanted humans to be more like the planet’s native species through gene splicing and mutations. In the demo, the player had chosen to go with Supremacy, the belief that humanity would be saved through use of technology. As Greg noted, Affinities work similar to how ideologies do in Civ V: Brave New World. We got a quick look at the Tech Web, which isn’t exactly the same as Civ V‘s skill tree, but the concepts are pretty similar unlocking certain techs will raise the player’s Affinity, whether they choose Harmony, Purity, or Supremacy. No alien planet is complete without a giant worm, and the siege worm that gave me Dune flashbacks surged in and out of the ground as the player scrolled around the map we were warned it would take an army to defeat that one, and the lone Explorer stayed safely away. An extraterrestrial skeleton gave the Explorer unit a bonus, seemingly similar to Civ V‘s ancient ruins. Amongst the lush green vegetation are tiles of a purple haze. There’s the same hexagonal tiles, the civilizations, the land and sea units waging war–of course, this time those units are more mechanical and robotic in nature, and instead of barbarians, you’ll fight hostile aliens as you explore your new home planet. As Greg noted, it looks very much like a sci-fi-skinned Civilization V as someone who’s sunk over 300 hours into that game and its expansions, I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, but it would have been nice to see some more refreshing ideas presented. In a game where a single campaign can take dozens of hours, that’s not nearly enough time to get a firm grasp on just what Civilization: Beyond Earth is all about, but I did feel a few waves of déjà vu watching the presentation. Unlike Greg’s lengthy pre-E3 session, my demo was only about 15 minutes, and strictly hands-off. So, naturally, the 2K booth was my first stop on the E3 show floor. There is one thing we’ve always agreed on, though: our love for Sid Meier’s Civilization. Baseball, for instance (he loves the Red Sox, I adore the Phillies). There are many topics about which Escapist Editor-in-Chief Greg Tito and I vehemently disagree.
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