Having played endless hours of Civilization 5, I could barely hold in my excitement for this latest installment in the series, Beyond Earth. This spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri takes us from our home planet, to the stars to find a new home for humanity. How you build this home is completely up to you. At this point in our future, countries have banded together to form new sovereign entities, and our primitive battle for control and resources must continue on another planet.
Visually, the environments are as varied as the alien life forms that inhabit it. In your first few playthroughs, your fellow players may also seem varied as well, but I do not see this standing the test of time. Each leader will follow one of three affinities, these are basically their philosophies. For example, a leader following the Supremacy affinity seeks to impose humanities will on the planet, making it suit our needs as the “supreme” race of lifeforms in the galaxy. Inversely, a leader following the Harmony affinity will seek to adapt to this new home, and live among other alien races. Depending on which affinity you choose, your troops will take on a distinct appearance. This basically means that all troops in any given game will basically fit one of three visual profiles, this is not very diverse at all. There are small changes and perks that can now be applied to units depending on your affinity level, but many of them are available later in the game’s progression.
Your troops and units are not the only things that will change due to your affinity. Other world leaders will change physically as well as they travel down any one path. You will watch as leaders gradually become more alien-like as they adapt to your new home world, or they will look like cyborgs as they augment their human forms with new technology. This added gameplay mechanic will serve as sort of a meter, allowing you to gauge just how fanatic your fellow leaders have become, and how aggressive they may be towards you as the game progresses, providing you have opposing affinities.
Another new mechanic is the use of “favors” as a currency. Previously in Civ titles, leaders might come to you in distress and ask you to spare either gold or a resource. In Civilization Beyond Earth, you are now given favors in exchange. This encourages a little more give and take when it comes to trade and helping others. It is nice to know you have some equity in return for your goods, and that you can later lord these favors over other world leaders in order to sway their decision in trade and other diplomatic dealings.
At times, favors will not be enough and you will have to enter… aggressive negotiations. Not only does war take place on land, air, and sea in Beyond Earth, but you can now also launch satellites into the atmosphere that can either act offensively, or buff your troops. This adds another interesting facet to the usual combat within Civilization. You will not only be fighting against other nations however, aliens also pose an ever present threat. Some life forms are merely curious and will approach your various settlements and cities with a watchful eye, others such as the dreaded (and very annoying) Siege Worm will actively attack your units and buildings. Players can choose to deal with aggressive aliens and co exist with the others, or eradicate them wholesale. These actions have consequences however, as an attack on alien life may bring on an attack by much larger aliens lurking at the farthest reaches of the map.
With all of these changes, how does this game feel? At first, I was wary that this was simply a new Civ game with an intergalactic skin, but it is so much more than that. From the top down the experience has been enhanced. The games sleek new UI is intuitive and minimal, letting the game itself shine. The all new research web is a new twist on the ladder we traditionally followed in previous iterations of Civilization, and inspires some tinkering and experimentation rather than just clicking the next rung on the ladder. Other small changes like quest decisions, which place you in difficult situations and force you to decide the outcome, leaving lasting consequences on your Civilization, make the game feel a lot more personal. I am a fan of creating a game and restarting somewhere along the way, always trying to create an even greater empire, and with all the new tweaks and additions, I can see myself doing that for quite some time to come.