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Is this the bleakest video game intro ever?

Is this the bleakest video game intro ever?

Is this the bleakest video game intro ever?
Danielle de Wolfe
15 October 2014

The future - a gleaming horizon of hope, where infinite possibilities, adventures and experiences await mankind. Unless you've got the wrong barcode tattooed to your wrist, in which case the future isn't for you.

That's the brutal crux of the introductory cinematic of the eagerly awaited (no really, we've put it in our calendar and everything) video game, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth.

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The space age chapter of the grandfather of all strategy games, Beyond Earth sees the series shrug off the familiar format of previous titles and bury itself in sci-fi fantasy. Rather than starting out with a fledgling nation of historical Earth, the game begins where Civilization V (and previous instalments) ended - with a victorious race for the stars. New planets are ready to be explored, with hazardous environments to tame and alien wildlife to avoid (or kill). 

If the cinematic intro is anything to go by, this is a bold, brutal new adventure for Civilization. We can't wait to play it (but we'll have to - it arrives 24 October).