Faction can accumulate power in interesting ways

Nov 3, 2014 15:41 GMT  ·  By

Civilization: Beyond Earth tries to keep quiet, as much as possible, about the Great Mistake which has affected our home planet and persuaded a range of factions to launch starships in order to colonize distant and pretty hostile worlds.

The two co-leads at Firaxis have offered more detail in some of their panels, talking about an initial dirty bomb attack in China which sets off a nuclear missile exchange between the major powers, which in turn leads to increased climate change effects (the link here is unclear), reduced trade and more focus on the internal affairs of the major nations.

Hundreds of years have passed since then, with many actual events forgotten by the public as efforts were directed towards the construction and the launch of the spaceships that carry the hopes of the race.

The studio aims to focus more on the emotions of those who leave Earth in order to colonize new planets and on the important choices that they face when they try to establish themselves here, among other factions and the powerful aliens.

The problem with Firaxis’ approach is that it tends to create a vision of the future which is a little too similar to our present, even if it incorporates a heavy dose of science fiction elements.

Civilization, aliens and reasons for conflict

The narrative of Civilization: Beyond Earth is under pressure in the early part of the game, when surely the various factions should band together, at least to some extent, in order to battle the alien life or to tame it.

The things that separate them are limited initially and the need for survival should be greater than their petty squabbles.

Later during the game, as more tech is discovered, territory is settled and affinities are adopted, there are more reasons for conflict and it makes sense for human factions that are getting strong to try to impose their will on one another.

Implementing a set of cooperative elements at the start of the new Civilization would also introduce an entirely new set of mechanics to the series and it would make the incoming conflict more engaging.

Some of the best board games around encourage players to cooperate and to compete at the same time and almost no strategy video games implement the idea, although the genre is clearly suited for something like this.

As it stands today, the early game in Beyond Earth seems a little formulaic and too close to that seen in Civilization V.