Civilization: Beyond Earth takes a big step from its predecessors and introduces a range of new features as well as bringing back a large amount of the great things we’ve seen from the previous titles in the franchise. Civilization developer Firaxis Games have always tried their hardest to take bold new steps, in Beyond Earth those steps will set players into space.
Does Beyond Earth take the Civilization game beyond our wildest dreams, or has it fallen short of what we’ve come to expect from FiraxisGames? In our Civilization: Beyond Earth preview, we take a look at all of the juicy details we currently know about the game.
Changes to Early Game
Perhaps one of the first differences you will notice about Beyond Earth is the introduction of a new civilization selection system. As always, players will be able to choose between various pre-created civilizations, but after this you will be able to choose your own colonists, spacecraft and cargo.
Whilst these choices may not be in effect until later in the game, it still really mixes things up and changes the boundaries of general strategy in Civilization. For example, whilst we may be able to suss out what a player’s play style may be from their civilization choice, their spacecraft, colonist and cargo choices may mix things up completely.
Another thing to note is that each choice will offer players a different time of long term or one-time bonuses.
The next change to Beyond Earth, which I think may make the biggest impact, is the changes to the process behind picking your first city. You will no longer need to use settlers to start your first city in Civilization: Beyond Earth, instead, each player will be given a seven tile start area within which players can choose where to form their first city.
Mid Game Changes
In Civilization: Beyond Earth, Firaxis decide to mix up the gold and happiness mechanics a little bit. In Beyond Earth, gold is now referred to as energy and happiness is now called health.
Besides from the new name and symbol changes, nothing else has changed here.
One very important mid game change is the refreshed tech tree. There is no longer a tree for technological advancements as it has been replaced with a web that gives players a more non-linear approach to advancing technology.
This is another very important change in Civilization: Beyond Earth that is going to completely change currently formed strategies and play styles.
Late Game Changes
Social policies in Civilization: Beyond Earth have been wiped and in its place the virtue system has been added. Unlike with social policies, all four attributes of the virtue system are available from the beginning of the game.
This whole side of things has been revamped with a new skill tree as well.
Civilization: Beyond Earth has had a lot of changes made to it and in our opinion this offers a freshened experience. Whilst some players may enjoy a new game to get their hands on, seasoned veterans may be a little wary about giving up their hours of strategy practise for a completely new experience.
Civilization: Beyond Earth will be released on October 24th for PC.
