The newly announced sci-fi title Civilization Beyond Earth is taking the long-running strategy series into space, and developers Firaxis have explained the loose narrative that will tell players why humanity is fleeing its home. Beyond Earth will have a release date sometime this fall on Windows PC, Mac, and Linux, for $49.99.
The Civilization series has always been largely devoid of any real narrative, allowing players to create their own stories and histories in each unique play-through. Earth's real history has always been the basis of progression in the series, moving from one past real-life era to the next, but Firaxis has had to craft some fiction of their own for Beyond Earth. So what is it that drove humanity to the stars? A series of events known as The Great Mistake.
"The state of Earth a couple hundred years from now becomes rather dire," lead designer Anton Strenger told Polygon. "There's a series of events which we call The Great Mistake."
Everyone working on the game has been told what exactly The Great Mistake was so that they could cohesively develop the game, but it will be left more ambiguous and vague to players, forcing them to use a little imagination.
"Internally, we've written out exactly what those events are, but for the player, we're leaving it vague and allowing their imagination to fill the gaps," Strenger said. "We don't take such a strong stance on narrative for the game because we want this to be a really repayable experience, a really customizable experience," he said. "A lot of the gameplay systems we're putting in really address that."
Firaxis believes in showing restraint when crafting a narrative, and would rather not limit players or take away their opportunity to be creative. Players will reportedly need to make a choice and take a side at the start of the game which will shape the events. The only details they've mentioned about The Great Mistake is that it involved nuclear technology.
"We came up with, as designers, this geopolitical series of cataclysmic events," he said. "There's a nuclear exchange that a lot of nations fell under."
It's unclear for now how many more details will be revealed either before launch or in the game itself, but we've gotten a taste of what Firaxis are planning and it sounds exciting. They want to give players a rough outline of this fictional history--like the general passing of eras in past Civilization games--and let them fill in the spaces between themselves.
The new screenshots help clear up my earlier questions about whether the setting and gameplay would emulate Galactic Civilizations or Alpha Centauri more closely: they have taken on the style of the latter, their 1999 property that is acting as clear inspiration for this new project. Check out the full interview with Firaxis at Polygon for more specifics, and keep an eye out here for more details as they emerge.
