Fans of the venerable Civilization franchise have something extra to be thankful for today as the highly anticipated Civilization: Beyond Earth ($37) lands on the Mac. Currently available at a special launch price on the Mac App Store, the new sci-fi themed chapter takes Civilization players to the final frontier where they must tame a new world and write the next chapter for humanity.
The usual Civilization game play aspects abound here, with players challenged to explore and colonize an alien planet, choose the direction of their new culture, research new technologies, build armies, cities, and wonders, and much more.
While long-time fans will be tempted to make the comparison to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, Civilization: Beyond Earth takes a very different direction from that much earlier sci-fi spinoff, staying true to the classic Civilization game experience with the same core focus on strategy, tactics, and planning, rather than taking a more narrative storyline.
While the game is currently only available as a single-player experience, Aspyr promises that multiplayer is coming in a future update. As expected, you’ll need a fairly modern Mac to take advantage of this one, with a 2.2GHz CPU, 4GB RAM, and a Radeon HD 4850, GeForce 640M, or Intel HD 4000 graphics card.
