Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide Preview

Sid Meier's Civilization® Beyond Earth: Rising Tide is a role-playing, strategy game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K games. It is also the first expansion pack set to be released for Civilization: Beyond Earth on October 9th, 2015. In addition to new factions, biomes and units, the major new features in this expansion include a brand new diplomacy system, expanded aquatic gameplay, expanded exploration options, and hybrid affinities.

After the initial wave of great colony ships departed Earth, the jubilation of humanity was ephemeral. Those left behind fell into a violent struggle over the quickly-diminishing resources on their barren home world. From this tumultuous time, 4 new factions arose. These newcomers were founded not in the idealism of their predecessors, but on opportunism, resilience, ruthlessness, and, most importantly, a commitment to their own survival. Now, many decades after their first landfall on a new planet, the proud survivors of the first expeditions beyond Earth look up to see the skies darkened by a new breed of pioneers. 

Developer Firaxis Games has a reputation for making bold expansions, and Rising Tide is definitely no exception. It doesn't just add content to the sci-fi strategy game--it reimagines certain systems altogether, and brings real characters into the formula. And despite a few cloying issues, Rising Tide's changes make for a more balanced, and more memorable, empire-building experience. Beyond Earth, Rising Tide puts you in the throne or council chamber, depending on the leader you choose to be, as you guide your civilization to victory on alien planets in the distant future. The chariots and compound bows of human history are absent. This is a world of exo-suits, plasma weapons, and sterile, bulbous architecture. There's a sense of otherworldliness here that earlier Civilizations don't contain. Rising Tide enhances a lot of things, like diplomacy, exploration, and affinity choice, leaving Beyond Earth a better game than it’s ever been. 

Diplomacy has been rebuilt "from scratch" in Rising Tide. Players can trade for traits that can improve how a civilization functions. A new diplomatic capital system has been added to facilitate diplomacy. Establishing deals with the AI will be much more transparent. Players will know where they stand with other civilizations because of the new fear and respect system found in the game. Through this new diplomacy system, you strike international deals, manage alliances, and change your own leader's personality traits by spending diplomatic capital. Much like culture or energy, this resource accumulates through various perks and buildings, as well as through deals with other leaders. Those figures will, in turn, come to fear or respect you. Build up a big enough army and they'll accept your deals in awe. But manage your civ with a wise leader's acumen, and surrounding dignitaries will join out of admiration. This leads to alliances, new relationships to leverage, and easier deal propositions. If a leader doesn't have a strong opinion either way, they'll be harder to sway. The leaders develop unique idiosyncrasies, growing into angry tyrants or peaceful visionaries. They turn jealous when you make deals with their enemies. They scoff when you refuse their own. 

For the first time, Rising Tide lets you colonize the seas. So while naval combat and exploration are still key factors in any smart ruler's strategy, this expansion brings cities ,complete with all their commerce, resources, and hardworking people, into the waves. In addition to a slew of new naval units such as the submarine, Rising Tide players can build floating cities that can move around the map. Previously land based resources such as Firaxite can be found in the water. Explorers can also now find resource pods and conduct expeditions in the ocean. Finally, the progress of all wars are now tallied with a new war score system. Explorers have much more to do in Rising Tide. Players can now find artifacts that give large bonuses to players. Combining artifacts can lead to buildings and wonders that would not have been available any other way. Finding marvels has can lead to planet wide quests. Harmony explorers also can leash aliens, allowing them to build armies of Aliens to fight for a civilization. 

Rising Tide brings other content to Beyond Earth as well, from new factions to new planet types. Four new factions (one sea based, totally unlike Alien Crossfire, one spy based, totally unlike Alien Crossfire, and two others focused on diplomacy and production respectively). Worlds are now peppered with Artifacts that can be combined in groups of three to unlock bonuses, and brand new Marvels—huge alien structures that start quests for everyone once discovered. Neither cancels out the basic problem of these worlds usually feeling like Earth if our canyons were randomly full of melted cheese (and despite two new biomes, Frigid and Primeval,

Rising Tide is a well-crafted expansion with some pretty awesome ideas. It encourages players to think in diverse ways, But while playing it, you feel you've seen it all due to the lack of dissimilarity from one civilization game to another -- it kinda feels the same.