Explore Strange Worlds
While there’s nothing wrong with the enviroments in earlier Civ games, there’s nothing all that special about them either. Since they all take place on Earth, the biomes and enviroments and the way they interact with each other can’t be very outlandish. In Beyond Earth, however, there’s a lot of potential for very strange and exciting maps with all-new materials and ancient relics to be found.
Some of the planets are even based on existing places, like the Mu Arae f where “the southern hemisphere is a blistering desert where the sun never sets, while the northern hemisphere is perpetually in frozen darkness”.
A big new change is that the map is divided into two parts: the surface and the atmosphere. Satellites and orbital equipment will be able to be launched, and will aid in everything from colonization to warfare.
Alien fauna seemingly takes over the role of the barbarians from earlier games, in that they’re an independent faction unrelated to any civilization that can mess things up for the player if they’re not careful.
While the barbarians in earlier games never became more advanced than they were at the beginning of the game (leading to bizarre situations like players deploying attack helicopters against axe-wielding raiders wearing pelts), the aliens will evolve and stay a threat troughout the entire game. It’s probably not going to be a bug hunt, in other words.
