14 DAY TRIAL // Firaxis, makers of Civilization VI, has just announced a brand new expansion for the turn-based strategy game called Red Death. Surprisingly, Civilization VI: Red Death is a multiplayer mode where up to 12 players compete in a free-for-all battle to escape a dying planet that is engulfed in a growing storm of radioactivity.
Simply put, this is a battle royale mode where players can choose from eight apocalyptic-themed factions that offer a wide range of in-game buffs and advantages. The multiplayer mode for PC owners of Civilization VI is already available and it's free, so you won't have to pay anything to get into the fight.
Apparently, the origin of the game mode is quite funny and started as a tongue-in-cheek April Fools joke from the Multiplayer Engineering Lead, Bradley Olson. He scripted the basic gameplay and added it to the game for an April 1 build in the hopes that his colleagues will find it funny.
Since nobody noticed it at first, Bradly informed the design team about it and after learning that this was quite serious, they immediately set up a play session for later that day. Red Death played simply initially, as each player started by owning a Warrior unit and a Settler unit.
During the development of the brand new mode, players could earn new units from friendly villages. Naturally, the game includes a ring of death that slowly collapses in towards the center, and the last player with a surviving Settler won.
After a short testing period, the folks at Firaxis decided that Red Death is ready for prime-time and started redesigning the unit models in-game, creating new terrain, and turn the entire world into a post-apocalyptic setting.
We admit the game mode might not be everyone's cup of tea, not to mention that Civilization fans are unlikely to play battle royale games. Still, considering that Red Death came together in a different way than Firaxis usually develops scenarios and content for Civilization VI, we're willing to give it a pass.