Civilization: Beyond Earth Looks Great, Brings a Couple of Firsts to the Series

Sid Meier’s next Civilization game was announced this past weekend, and for fans of the 1999 classic Alpha Centauri, there were some great reasons to get excited. At the forefront, Beyond Earth effectively follows in the footsteps of Alpha Centauri, and it will bring with it modern Civilization enhancements. Like Civilization V, it’ll utilize a hexagonal-based grid, and its engine looks to be almost identical – though we’re sure a couple of improvements are in the cards.

As someone who didn’t get into the Civilization series until the last release, I still can’t help but find myself getting really excited for Beyond Earth – and that’s despite me not caring too much for a sci-fi element. I just know what Firaxis is capable of; I have a feeling it could be based on any time-period and I’d be hooked.

There are a couple of things outside of the core game that get me excited as well. For starters, the game is going to be the first Civilization released to Linux. With that, Firaxis joins the growing list of major developers that have decided to begin supporting the OS – a fantastic thing overall for Linux fans.

Second, AMD has also announced that its Mantle API will be supported by the game. I consider this to be very noteworthy given that if there’s a type of game that could benefit from Mantle’s optimizations, it’s Civilization. Given this support, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Beyond Earth offered as a Never Settle bundle selection around its release.

All of those perks aside, the best fact surrounding this game is that it’s going to be out this fall. Go and play a couple of endurance matches in Civilization V, and Beyond Earth should be here.