14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Firaxis working on Civilization: Beyond Earth is ready to deliver more information on the new Affinities concepts that gamers will be able to use in the coming turn-based strategy experience.
The information comes from an official blog post that involves details from Will Miller and David McDonough, co-lead designers for the title.
They explain that, “Affinities play a central role in every game of Beyond Earth. Your faction always starts off human, but the decisions you make in the tech web will take your faction to the next stage of humanity. There are three very different Affinities – Purity, Supremacy and Harmony - that represent some post-human ideas we found to be the most evocative.”
Purity is the Affinity for those who do not want the core elements of humanity to be changed in any way, which means that they will use all means necessary to terraform the alien world, and also unit designs linked to those seen on Earth.
Harmony-focused gamers will do the opposite and embrace the alien life forms and change their own DNA to be better adapted to it, which means that units will be based on creatures that they will meet, and they will never change the alien world too much.
The third Affinity is Supremacy, which is for those players who want to develop advanced technology and use implants to modify their citizens, with cool, powerful units and a willingness to modify the core elements of our race.
Firaxis says that gamers in Civilization: Beyond Earth will be able to use whatever reason they want to choose their favorite concept and that hybrids can be created that combine elements from two of them.
The developers add, “As you progress down an Affinity, you gain unique upgrades you can’t get under the other affinity lines. Selecting an upgrade applies it to all units of that type. For example, any and all Marines deployed on the planet will receive the new upgrade as soon as you choose it. Upgrades can’t be revisited, so players have to think hard about what they’re willing to give up.”
The team wants to create a lot of variety for players and give them plenty of incentives to try out all the three Affinities in subsequent playthroughs.
Civilization: Beyond Earth will be launched exclusively on the PC and players will be able to play it before the end of the year.