This Fall sees the release of Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide, the first expansion to Firaxis’ sci-fi take on the Civilization franchise. As revealed at E3, Rising Tide will feature much-expanded oceanic gameplay. Rather than just being an obstacle to travel across, you can now mine resources and even build full floating cities in the middle of alien oceans. You can check out a featurette on Rising Tide‘s new ocean colonies above.
Another area that’s receiving a major revamp in Rising Tide is diplomacy. Civilization: Beyond Earth added some interesting new wrinkles to diplomacy, but ultimately the system felt a bit shallow and too easy to game. All the Leaders now have special traits and can enter into unique agreements that can earn them political capital. New “respect” and “fear” stats also give you a better idea of where you stand with all the other leaders. All in all, it definitely looks like there’s room for more customization and forging your own path with diplomacy than there was in the past. You can check out the diplomacy walkthrough below.
It definitely looks like this expansion is for fans only, but hey, I’m a fan, so I’m eagerly anticipating Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide. What about you?