The Civilization games are not known for frenetic speed. Campaigns can be glacial, with cities emerging and advancing over the course of hundreds of turns. That's not the case in the new Red Death battle royale mode. Players are racing across a dying world to find survivors and get to the last dropship leaving Earth... killing everyone else in your path on the way, naturally.
Following a nuclear war, the Earth is quickly dying. A radioactive cloud nicknamed the Red Death is spreading across the globe, atomising anything caught in its way. You select one of eight new factions, each with a unique bonus, and must keep ahead of the cloud. So long as you have a civilian in your army you're in the game, if you lose your last civvie then you're unceremoniously booted into the nuclear fire.
Dotted across the wasteland are ruined cities and military outposts. If you send a unit into these derelicts then you can find new soldiers for your army or, if you're very lucky, more civilians.
As the battle rages into the end game, supplies will begin dropping onto the map containing special weapons, like glorious nukes. Gandhi would be ecstatic.
There's been a great deal of care taken in this mode, it's not some throwaway extra. Units have had visual overhauls, the game's systems have been stripped out and reconfigured to fit the needs of a battle royale, and the different factions all have a distinct character thanks to their unique buffs. Doomsday Preppers, for instance, get a 100% experience bonus; and Borderlords are strongest when fighting on the edge of the safe zone, gaining +10 combat strength; and Mutants take less damage when in the Red Death cloud and move faster.
You can read through all the details in the patch notes on Steam and, if you own Civ 6, start playing today.
Featured Image Credit: 2k GamesTopics: 2K Games