While selecting my colonists' Earth-bound origins for the first time in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth, I could take a guess as to what the Polystralia or the African Union were meant to represent. I couldn't, however, give you a single clue regarding what they meant in a gameplay context. Ask me anything about the ARC or the Kavithan Protectorate, and I'll offer you the same, slow blinks I gave to my monitor when it first showed them to me. Right from the opening of my time with an extensive preview build of Beyond Earth, the game presented a series of jargon-heavy sci-fi moments that were a potent taste of what was to come.

In previous Civilization games, I could use my knowledge of real-world history to guide my initial choice of the dozen or so societies on offer and know that their attributes at least loosely reflect their real-life counterparts (sometimes very loosely; see: Brigadier General Gandhi).

Civilization has always benefited from history: the history of lessons learned by the developers over time, sure, but also the benefit of foreknowledge. I know that muskets are better than spears. I know what benefits researching the assembly line is likely to provide. I know what Mr. Anderson's sixth grade history class taught me about conquistadors and the Industrial Revolution. What I don't remember Mr. Anderson telling me about is the effect of Genetic Mapping on my Purity Affinity.

I'm going to step out on a limb and say that science fiction is cooler than sixth grade history—sci-fi is responsible for Dune, Foundation, and The Matrix, after all, while history is responsible for Russell Crowe's continued career. In the context of Civilization, though, I didn't realize how vital the context of history was to the series' workings until it was replaced by this sci-fi changeling.

The series has never shied away from complexity, and its most recent installments are labyrinths of menus and text. Sid Meier's production line has typically put in place dozens of interlocking systems—culture, religions, trade—that the player is free to ignore or combine at their leisure. Beyond Earth is no different. In fact, there are more options at play with than ever before. The downside is that, while much of the game is surprisingly familiar under the veneer of terraforming and bug-eyed monsters, playing it without the benefit of familiar names, places, and events is like learning your native tongue all over again.

The meaning behind the meaningless techno-babble, however, is often as cool as a jump to the future ought to be. Much of my 250-turn preview build felt like a re-skinned Civilization V—swap out the barbarians for dime store Zerglings and you get the idea. I was disappointed by the polish of the overall presentation, though. Sure, alien gases float across the plains while solar satellites orbit overhead. But the gas is washed out and spreads with a malaise that just makes it hard to see, while the orbiting equipment doesn't actually orbit—it appears static.

Then the sandworms came. If the totally-not-Zerglings were meant to be the barbarian hordes, the sandworm was Conan. And if Beyond Earth can't depend on my 12-year-old self's knowledge of Byzantine spice tariffs, it can assume I know a 300-ton subterranean leech is bad news. I pulled back my soldiers—the first unit I build in any Civilization game—and settled for bombarding the slug with rockets from my colony's capital.

Exploring my Affinities

In Beyond Earth, exploration seems to no longer be a game of farming cavemen for experience over 20 turns. Caught between hazards like sandworms, monsters with ranged attacks, and creeping, damaging miasma, the early stages of the game are much slower than in previous titles. The challenges also hint that military might may not be such a direct path to victory for player and AI alike. Whatever planet the campaign generates, it's much more hostile to every participant than the Earth ever was.

To survive in such an environment, I had to experiment with the aforementioned Affinity system. While Purity, Supremacy, and Harmony (the three affinities) all contribute to Beyond Earth's endless techno-babble lexicon, they're also potentially the game's most important addition to the Civ formula, at least in the early going. Completing certain quests and research endeavors earns experience in any of the three philosophies, eventually leading to a higher level that grants long-term benefits to your civilization and a tree of aesthetic and combat bonuses to your units. I get the impression that each affinity also eventually leads toward one or more paths to victory.

I've learned to put up with Affinity's goofy naming structure mainly because it may be the game's Rosetta Stone, providing meaning to what would otherwise be confusion. The tech tree that forms what is, to me, the heart of every Civ game has been replaced in Beyond Earth with a "Tech Web." At least in the early turns, the web offers the sort of scientific variety you'd expect after several hundred years of interstellar exploring. In Civilization V, the tech tree always started with four basic technologies essential to every culture. Beyond Earth begins with six, none of which feels more essential than any other, and all of which branch down multiple paths. It could just be another spigot of confusion adding to the game's downpour, but the Affinity system ties it all together.

Not sure which bafflingly named technology to pick next? Just work toward the one that gives you your next level of Supremacy. It's a guiding hand for a complicated system that actually opens up more options, rather than eliminating them. Meanwhile, since offensive upgrades are tied to Affinity progress instead of basic technology, you needn't waste time on “frivolous” military research just to keep up with neighborly despots if you had another, non-military path to victory in mind.

I still have questions about Civilization: Beyond Earth—more than I did before playing it, actually—but Affinity and a more varied environment have me eager for the answers. I just might have to brush up on my Asimov first if I want to understand them.