After leaking earlier today, Firaxis has officially announced Civilization: Beyond Earth which is described as a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri and brings the Civilization series to… well, beyond Earth.
Asked why the game is called Civilization: Beyond Earth rather than Alpha Centauri 2, co-lead designer Dave McDonough told GameInformer, "There is a lot of inspiration from Alpha Centauri in this game."
Fellow co-lead designer Matt Miller commented:
"We even have a couple of people who worked on that game still on the team and helping us make the game. It's not Alpha Centauri 2. It's not a sequel. It's a whole new imagining of what civilization in the future, civilization in space could be. There are many homages and nods and winks to Alpha Centauri. And there's a huge creative and spiritual debt we owe to the groundwork that game laid, but this is a whole new idea. The heart of Alpha Centauri lives at Firaxis, though."
The main reason for the name however is certainly the fact that the rights to the Alpha Centauri IP are still owned by EA.
Beyond Earth sees humanity flee our home world because of something called the "great mistake" and Firaxis says that there will be more of a narrative running through the game this time round.
Three main technology trees are present in the game: Purity, Harmony, and Supremacy and some research options will be locked out based on the decisions you've made so far. For the first time, leaders are no longer tied to specific factions, and the victory conditions have been significantly overhauled.
Purity and Supremacy players can win by building a warp gate to receive refugees from Earth while Harmony gamers can achieve victory by awakening a superorganism slumbering on the planet. The other two victory conditions are a traditional military conquest of all rivals and making first contact with an alien species.
McDonough notes:
"Cities, territories, improving terrain, getting technologies, building military units, those are things that every Civ player will recognize and are at the heart of this game, too. But all the flesh that lives on those bones has been totally redesigned. All of it was designed holistically to live on the bones of a Civ game, but be a whole new experience."
Civilization: Beyond Earth is set for release on PC later this year.
