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We caught up with lead producer Lena Brenk during E3 and discussed the differences between Beyond Earth and the more traditional Civilization experience.

Like many fans, we're excited about Civilization: Beyond Earth not just because it's a Civ game, but because it's a spiritual successor of sorts to Alpha Centauri. Brenk explained how the new entry in the series differs from both old Civ games and the original Alpha Centauri.

"I think it's us looking at Civilization, you know how you leading a Civilization through the ages, but now we're going into the future. So what happens if we ever leave Earth, if we go to another planet? We would still have challenges to overcome, and how would we deal with it as humanity, as a civilisation, so going those next steps to an unknown future. That was the idea."

Brenk continued: "And of course there's a lot of parallels with Alpha Centauri, you know the setting is very similar. I do think it's its own game in some respects, it's different in some respects from Alpha Centauri, it just is a Civilization game at its core. So yeah, leading yourself into the future was kind of the spark where we started."

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One of the things that'll be very different from say Civilization V, is the early game: "I think that especially the first 50-100 turns are a lot about survival. It's not so much about grabbing land because you need to survive first. This planet is hostile," Brenk explained.

"The planet has its challenges," she continued. "You know you just made it off Earth with a ship and you touch down on this planet, and the ship and what you brought is all you have, and somehow you need to make sure your civilisation survives. So that's the challenge at the beginning. It's not really about diplomacy in the early game, or about grabbing all the land. Not yet. Later in the game that totally becomes a thing."