
Of the five, only one is completely unchanged from previous games in the series: Domination, or defeating every other colony on the map. There are five conditions for victory, and it is up to the player to determine which one to pursue. Each turn, the player can slowly improve each of their cities and develop the colony's economic, cultural, and scientific achievements. Once the colony ship and planet are ready, the ship makes planetfall and the game begins. The planet itself can also be tinkered with, from size to climate to resource abundance and more. This is considerably more personalization than was available in previous 'Civs', where the player only received one bonus based on the civilization’s leader (all real historical figures). The nascent colony’s sponsor, cargo, spacecraft, and personnel can all be changed based on the player’s style and objectives. Every society with enough resources sends a colony towards a distant planet, the future of the species in their hands.Įach game of 'Beyond Earth' starts with the selection of several options. 'Beyond Earth' takes place several hundred years in the future, where a calamity known as "The Great Mistake" has made Earth more or less uninhabitable. Most 'Civilization' games take the player on a journey through the basic lifecycle of the human race as we know it, from primitive hunter-gatherers to space-age cyborgs.

With each release in the 'Civ' franchise, the rules and options available to each player have become increasingly complex. Soldiers can be sent out to fight and conquer other civilizations, and workers can improve basic resources, create roads, and gather advanced resources. The player establishes and maintains cities using the basic resources found on hexes, and with these creates buildings, world wonders, and mobile units like soldiers and workers. There is a map covered in hexes, with each hex representing a single piece of terrain – water, hills, canyons, etc. The conceptual framework of any 'Civ' title is the board game Risk.
