Paradox Interactive is continuing its mission to make genuine competitors to everyone’s favorite franchises, today announcing Millennia. This time, 2K’s Civilization series seems to be in the publisher’s crosshairs, as Millennia is a 4X strategy game that will see you overseeing an empire across 10,000 years. Although that may sound very familiar and safe, the developers at C Prompt Games are shaking things up with the inclusion of what they call Variant Ages.
How it works is that you’ll start in prehistory, in the Age of Stone and progress through the different eras of history. In Millennia, you’ll guide your burgeoning civilization using National Spirits that confer certain bonuses and investing in six different areas of governance and culture: exploration, government, warfare, diplomacy, engineering, and arts. Each playthrough will consist of up to ten Ages to explore, with each offering unique units, rules, buildings, and more.
However, fulfilling certain objectives can shunt history onto different courses than what happened in reality. The announcement trailer below shows off some of these possibilities, which include the Age of Alchemy, Age of Old Ones, and Age of Aether. It also offers glimpses of what can happen beyond the present day, including the solarpunk Age of Ecology, the alien invasion scenario Age of Visitors, and the Age of Rogue AI.
Although Millennia is the first project from C Prompt Games, it’s headed by some impressive staff. Its co-founders are Rob Fermier and Ian M. Fischer. Fermier also co-founded BioShock developer Irrational Games and was lead programmer on System Shock 2, but more recently worked on Age of Empires Online and Orcs Must Die! at Robot Entertainment. Fischer, meanwhile, previously spent more than a decade at Age of Empires and Halo Wars developer Ensemble Studios, ending his tenure as lead game designer before also moving on to become the design director at Robot Entertainment for almost ten years.
Paradox plans to publish Millennia in 2024, and only a PC launch is confirmed so far. The publisher also has the next iteration of its SimCity-killer Cities: Skylines 2 out on October 25 and Life By You, its take on The Sims, scheduled for March 6, 2024.
