Hey, ever wonder what actually happens to your units when you play a Civilization game? We’ll give you a hint: It’s incredibly depressing. Like this opening, from a space “victory” that would wrap up a normal Civ game.
When we checked in on the gameplay, the trailer made vague reference to “The Great Mistake,” not to be confused with the French Mistake. Apparently “mistake” was an understatement, considering that the trailer opens on a father and a daughter being driven to a rocket amid a vast tent city, and only the daughter being allowed on the ship.
Yep, Earth isn’t moving on to great horizons. Earth is screwed! You’re commanding the last hope of the human race as we move to a new planet, kill all the wildlife, and hopefully don’t repeat the mistakes that got us here in the first place! Have fun, kids!
Mockery aside, it is nice that they’re giving this game a sense of stakes, a wind at your back. Civ is a fun series, but it can be a profoundly abstract experience as you play a demi-god ordering people around and declaring wars. The game itself is a bit more lighthearted about the human cost of dumping your units into a poisonous swamp, but the fact that humanity is stake will probably make you reconsider letting the nukes fly.
Or, you know, not. Anybody want to put down an over/under on a YouTube video of the human race being wiped out in five turns?