14 DAY TRIAL // One of the main aspects of the new Civilization: Beyond Earth is the new Affinity system that allows the player to decide how his faction will push forward the core nature of humanity as a species and the development team at Firaxis is ready to offer more details on the Harmony choice.
In an official blog announcement, the studio quotes co-lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough and art lead Mike Bates.
They explain that, “The Harmony Affinity is themed around a faction’s integration with the alien planet. Players who decide to develop the Harmony line will transform their people through genetic manipulation to become one with the alien environment. Units and buildings take on more organic forms, so you end up with tons of cool unique units like tanks that look like living creatures.”
Gamers who choose to live in pace with the alien planet rather than battle it will be able to get advantages to their economy and their technological progress, but their biggest power will be to simply use units, like the giant siege worms, to attack their enemies.
The company says that gamers who use Harmony will be hated by those who have chosen to purify humanity or to embrace a cybernetic future in Civilization: Beyond Earth.
Firaxis adds that mostly curves and organic features were used to convey the unique nature of the Affinity.
Firaxis explains that, “Even though Harmony is the Affinity closest to being ‘alien’, we wanted to avoid vivid greens so no one’s first thought is about ‘little green men’. Harmony ended up with a more grayish green that is unique to Beyond Earth. We also use colors found in the natural resources of the planet to help distinguish this Affinity.”
Both Purity and Supremacy offer interesting choices for gamers and the developers want all players to try out all the options, increasing the replayability of Civilization: Beyond Earth and making it more open in the end game.
The new game from Firaxis is designed to keep some of the core concepts of the franchise it is part of, like the fact that one military unit can occupy each hex and that units can evolve as they gain experience.
But the company is also innovating, introducing more player choices and a new tech progression built around a web rather than a tree.
Civilization: Beyond Earth will be launched exclusively on the PC before the end of the year.