2K and Firaxis Games have announced Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide, the expansion pack for their 2014 turn-based strategy title Civilization: Beyond Earth. The expansion is currently in development for Windows-based PC, slated for a fall 2015 release. The price will be $29.99 in Norther America.
Rising Tide is meant to expand Beyond Earth to new frontiers on the planet’s surface and across its seas, adding more choices and diplomatic options as players build “one more turn” toward a new vision for humanity’s future. New aquatic gameplay will explore the oceans for colonization by dramatically extending the play space, while an overhauled diplomacy system will provide players with additional layers of dynamic choices and options to shape the diplomatic landscape while engaging with the AI and one another.
Sarah Anderson, SVP of Marketing, 2K Games: “Firaxis Games has an impressive track record of delivering robust and innovative expansions that radically change player experience while adding extensive replay value. Rising Tide is no exception, offering new features and overhauled gameplay systems that will challenge players embarking on a quest for planetary domination.”
Sid Meier himself: “Rising Tide builds upon the lore of Beyond Earth, breaking away the historical boundaries of the original franchise and furthering mankind’s search for a new home in outer space. Whether colonizing the planet’s oceans, acquiring new Affinities or meeting exotic new leaders, aliens and units for the first time, Rising Tide offers more ways for players to write their own stories on a new world.”
Key features of Rising Tide include:
- Building floating settlements and accessing natural resources hidden beneath the seas of the alien planet, while alien beasts with unique abilities inhabit the water and challenge players in distinctive ways;
- Shaping the diplomatic landscape by upgrading traits, changing diplomatic relationships, and leveraging the benefits of your allies, all with political capital;
- Unlocking a dynamic set of Diplomatic Traits while activating different combinations in response to the changing world;
- Playing as one of four new factions, including the Al Falah, a group of nomad explorers descended from wealthy and resilient Middle Eastern states;
- Investing in multiple Affinities to unlock hybrid Affinity units and upgrades for the first time;
- Collecting and combining alien relics via a new Artifact System that unlocks powerful benefits;
- Exploring one of two new biomes, Primordial world, an untamed biome rife with volcanic activity and indicative of a chaotic landscape still forming in the new world.
