Sid Meier’s Civilization heads to the stars

SINGAPORE — The well-loved Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise has always been grounded by Earth’s history. Now, the turn-based strategy game is heading to the stars with a new one, Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth (Civ:BE).

The science-fiction-themed entry to the Civilization franchise, Civ:BE will get gamers to lead their people to a new planet and create a civilisation and explore humanity’s future.

“We’re starting with a backstory where Earth has been shaken by some great and terrible event and the surviving nations and international groups realise there is a limited window of time when they can leave the Earth,” said Mr Will Miller and Mr David McDonough, lead designers of Civ:BE, in an email interview. “They begin creating hundreds of thousands of colony ships and send them to new planets, where humanity can try to continue.”

This won’t be just another Civilization game with a futuristic skin, as changes have been made to the gameplay. A big difference is what the lead designers call a “non-linear tech web”.

“This tech web feels like you are making new discoveries,” said the lead designers, in contrast to the old Civilization game where players gained access to various types of technology in the same order that man did in the course of history. “There are many other changes as well, from the look of the alien world to the way military units upgrade, to the quests that provide a story and guidance to the player.”

For long-time turn-based strategy fans, the premise of Civ:BE might sound familiar: Civ:BE developers Firaxis released Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, which shared a similar premise 15 years ago. For Mr Miller and Mr McDonough, Alpha Centauri was an inspiration.

“For both of us, (Alpha Centauri) was one of the games that shaped us and made us want to be game designers,” they said. “But we see Beyond Earth as its own game, drawing on some of the same ideas, but taking them in a new direction.” ALVIN CHONG

Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth will be released this autumn for S$63.90 on PC, Mac and Linux.