Firaxis shares some Civ Beyond Earth #gameplay at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 ahead of Mac, Windows, #Linux and Steam release date/s. The new game, built using Civilization V technology, will not only give players a replay-able gaming, but will also let them create an infrastructure of solution on how to solve a humanitarian crisis, apart from going to space.
The game starts with a setting 200 years from the present day Earth after our civilization suffered the “Big Mistake” – Will Miller of Firaxis said they won’t be giving specific mistake, or mistakes, but the theme of Civilization Beyond Earth indirectly tackles a possible dystopian future – that we humans are destroying this planet and governments worldwide are on the brink of collapse. The game offers an “optimistic” view — and the only way to continuity of our species is going to beyond our solar system. This game reminds us of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, and it’s like a Civilization V game with futuristic setting and with a sprinkle of Alpha Centauri.
So there was a humanitarian crisis, and the game starts right after your team leaves Earth and moves to an exoplanet far from home. The player can pick the kind of people, kind of civilization, the leader, the spaceship, and the cargo. Picking will affect the overall gameplay, so apparently, picking “traits” will add more reasons to play more.
The game arena of Beyond Earth is an exoplanet, or a planet located outside of our solar system and revolves around its own host star. The fictional Civilization planet is somewhat habitable, but with native aliens, new energy sources and weird terrains. Miller revealed that there are three types of exoplanets (or biome) that a player might encounter — lush, Arid and Fungal biomes — with Fungal as the weirdest and the planet with most in-house AI aliens. Speaking of aliens, Firaxis confirms that aliens on Beyond Earth are not just the post-apocalyptic version of barbarians — they’re also factions which could affect the outcome of the whole game.
Civilization Beyond Earth also starts with the player as the first inhabitant team of the exoplanets, and rival factions, whether they’re friendly or like Montezuma-space version, are coming to the planet after some turns, like 50 turns, 100 turns, etc. These rival teams can also land near or far from the player’s host domain.
Similar to Civilization V and its expansion packs, Beyond Earth provides combat experience, but it’s a bit different from warriors to gunpowder units found on the original game. Firaxis also changed the way players upgrade the tech tree — it’s now a tech web. This new feature is the most intriguing aspect of the game, at least in our opinion. Imagine, the player can either move to the left part of the tech web first, sacrifice some cool techs located at the right side — and vice versa. This new feature gives the player more control over how they want to play the game — sweet!
At E3 or Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014, Firaxis also revealed some of the victories. Firstly, and the most common is the domination victory which requires the player to kill-off all rival factions and claim the new planet. Secondly, there’s emancipation victory which will unlock a warpgate from the exoplanet to Earth and open a communication and capture Earth, and the opposite of emancipation with the task of bringing more people from Earth to the new home. Then there’s transcendence which involves artificial intelligence (like a solaris) and secret of the newly discovered planet, and many more. Beyond Earth’s goals, except for domination, are like the Space Victory on Civilization V — the player must collect some “things” and experience tasks before the unlock.
The release date of Civilization Beyond Earth is scheduled in Q3 of 2014, and will also invade the Mac OS X operating system (aside from Windows). Steam will also release the game, but no word yet if the platform will exclusively release the game’s official Mac version. See the whole gameplay preview from Gamespot below:
Reblogged from: popherald.com
