Civilization: Beyond Earth First Gameplay Footage

[Steven Bogos]

Civilization: Beyond Earth First Gameplay Footage

Check out the first in-game footage from Firaxis's upcoming space-age Civilization title.

Civilization: Beyond Earth is Firaxis's upcoming space-age Civilization title [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/134629-Civilization-Beyond-Earth-Gets-New-Screens-Designer-Interview] that will see players take a space-faring civilization off to colonize a new world. Up until now, we've only seen some screenshots and heard some impressions, but now, we've got a full eight-minute developer walkthrough, complete with in-game footage.

Firaxis spoke with GameTrailers [http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/3tedfv/sid-meier-s-civilization--beyond-earth-first-look-gameplay-interview] about some of the core gameplay tennants we will be seeing in the upcoming series, such as the "affinity" system, which will have players find balance between three distinct play-styles: "Harmony, Purity and Supremacy".

"The Harmony player is gonna try to become indigenous to the planet ... they get there through gene-splicing and sort of manipulating the morphology of the human species," Lead Designer Will Miller explained. Meanwhile, Supremacy players are "planet-agnostic", and can develop irregardless of their chosen planet by augmenting their bodies with technology to adapt, while the Purity players reject both of these philosophies - they want to instead maintain their humanity and transform the planet into a "new Earth."

Each affinity has its own victory condition, and a massive, sprawling tech-tree will help players down whatever path they choose. "When you start the game, you'll start with technologies most people would find recognizable ... but as you move out, you start to get to the more fantastical," said Co-Lead Designer David McDonough, explaining that the game utilizes a nice mix of both science, and science-fiction.

Either way, it's looking more and more like this game will satisfy the "Just one. MORE. TURN!" addiction of Civilization fanatics!

Source: GameTrailers [http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/3tedfv/sid-meier-s-civilization--beyond-earth-first-look-gameplay-interview]

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[SomeLameStuff]

I just drooled on my everywhere. When's there going to be a more specific release date than "Fall 2014"?

 

[Cowabungaa]

Oh my I want this, I want this so bad. But I must say; it does look like a Civ5 mod, looking at the animations for instance. I wonder how replayable this'll be as well as we only have three factions to pick from.

Also, I was pretty distracted by the Efteling music. Fellow Dutch folk will know what I mean.

 

[Chessrook44]

Oh my I want this, I want this so bad. But I must say; it does look like a Civ5 mod, looking at the animations for instance. I wonder how replayable this'll be as well as we only have three factions to pick from.

I imagine if it uses a Civ V engine it would make sense that it looks kinda similar. As for factions... I don't think they said three factions, I think they said three AFFINITIES. There may possibly be many factions, with some better suited for some affinities than others. But this is just speculation.

 

[RandoUser]

Purity all the way.

 

[Elfgore]

I now have a gaping whole in my life that can only be filled by this game. This fall is going to destroy my wallet, with this, Shadow or Mordor, and Inquisition. I have no clue where I'm going to find the time to play all of them.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Oh my I want this, I want this so bad. But I must say; it does look like a Civ5 mod, looking at the animations for instance. I wonder how replayable this'll be as well as we only have three factions to pick from.

I imagine if it uses a Civ V engine it would make sense that it looks kinda similar. As for factions... I don't think they said three factions, I think they said three AFFINITIES. There may possibly be many factions, with some better suited for some affinities than others. But this is just speculation.

That'd be ideal. Given the fact that, in the game, all the big nations are sending out colony ships it'd be grand if we could indeed pick those. Hopefully that'll be true.

 

[Steve Waltz]

Oh my I want this, I want this so bad. But I must say; it does look like a Civ5 mod, looking at the animations for instance. I wonder how replayable this'll be as well as we only have three factions to pick from.

I imagine if it uses a Civ V engine it would make sense that it looks kinda similar. As for factions... I don't think they said three factions, I think they said three AFFINITIES. There may possibly be many factions, with some better suited for some affinities than others. But this is just speculation.

That'd be ideal. Given the fact that, in the game, all the big nations are sending out colony ships it'd be grand if we could indeed pick those. Hopefully that'll be true.

Greg Tito said [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e32014/11475-Civilization-Beyond-Earth-Hands-On-Sci-Fi-Skinned-Strategy] there would be at least 4 civilizations, but who knows how many there will be total. The more the merrier if you ask me. I mean, Jesus, I *still* haven't played as all of the civilizations in Civ5. There's a massive lineup of civilizations in Civ5, so I think it's safe to assume that Tito just got a little sample and there's a lot more in the game than he was allowed to see in that 50 turn demo.

 

[Xeorm]

Meh, was hoping for something more than them going over the same talking points they've done before, especially if the only gameplay really shown doesn't show it as much more than a fancy civ 5 mod.

The affinities seem cool at first glance...but I'm really more interested in seeing how some of the civs react to the affinities and how the civs are differentiated.

Plus I'm worried about balance. Civ 5 has been fairly awkward in terms of possible strategies one had that could actually work. How closely will one playthrough of each affinity compare to a playthrough of the same affinity? If I go say, purity, does that mean I'm always going wide, or do I have the choice to go tall too? That and how penalized will I be for going wide and grabbing unused territory? That really annoyed me about civ 5, was how rigid their happiness system was in the early game.

 

[Avaholic03]

Did he just say custom aliens? Or do they mean unique units? There's a clear difference. Does that mean that the other tracks will get to make custom units too?

Because I have been wanting custom units in strategy games for a while. Not many games take advantage of that.

I don't think he means fully custom units like in Alpha Centauri. Just units that are unique to each affinity.

Custom units always sound great in theory, but in practice there is always one "correct" configuration that has the best power/cost ratio, and all the other creative units you can come up with aren't as useful.