2K Announces Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth
Hold onto your hats, Civilization fans, as 2K and Firaxis Games announce that Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth, a sci-fi themed offering in the Civ franchise, is currently in development for PC.
Scheduled for release in the fall, Civilization: Beyond Earth will see players setting off from Earth to lead their populace into a new spacey frontier to explore and colonise alien planets, and in so doing, create new civilizations.
Key features of the game include:
- Seed the Adventure: Establish your cultural identity by choosing one of eight different expedition sponsors, each with its own leader and unique gameplay benefits. Assemble your spacecraft, cargo & colonists through a series of choices that directly seed the starting conditions when arriving at the new planet.
- Colonize an Alien World: Explore the dangers and benefits of a new planet filled with dangerous terrain, mystical resources, and hostile life forms unlike those of Earth. Build outposts, unearth ancient alien relics, tame new forms of life, develop flourishing cities and establish trade routes to create prosperity for your people.
- Technology Web: To reflect progress forward into an uncertain future, technology advancement occurs through a series of nonlinear choices that affect the development of mankind. The technology web is organized around three broad themes, each with a distinct victory condition.
- Quest System: Quests are injected with fiction about the planet, and help to guide you through a series of side-missions that will aid in resource collection, unit upgrades, and advancement through the game.
- Orbital Layer: Build and deploy advanced military, economic and scientific units that provide strategic offensive, defensive and support capabilities from orbit.
- Unit Customization: Unlock different upgrades through the tech web and customize your units to reflect your play style.
- Multiplayer: Up to 8 players can compete for dominance of a new alien world.
- Mod support: Robust mod support allows you to customize and extend your game experience.
“Having celebrated its 23rd anniversary last year, Civilization has cemented its reputation as one of the greatest and longest running franchises in video game history,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth builds upon that success by pushing the series in new directions with players exploring an unknown future on an alien planet.”
“The Civ team was excited about the opportunity to continue the story of Civilization into the future, because it allows the team to break free of historical context,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. “We’ve always let our fans create the history of mankind, and Civilization: Beyond Earth will now let them create the future.”
For those interested in seeing more, take a look at the trailer below, or check out the game’s official website.