Civilization 6Â has had an arduous journey to where it is currently, initially eschewed by fans for a plethora of reasons ranging from an overly cartoonish graphical art style to newly developed mechanics. Over time, however, as content was added in and bugs were fixed by the developers at Firaxis, the title has enjoyed a far more promising outlook as net reviews on Steam alone show that 83% of players would recommend this title to a friend. The newest leak may have some changing their minds, however.
The turn-based-strategy franchise of Civilization has tended to include DLC since Civilization 4, and the current iteration of the series Civilization 6 is no different in that aspect. The most recent title, released on October 21, 2016, brings eight pieces of DLC with a combined total of $146.92. The most recent DLC, the "New Frontier Pass" has been issuing out content piecemeal, and the final aspect of the "New Frontier Pass" is due to arrive sometime in March 2021. The Frontier Pass final pack promises a new game mode and one civilization, which may have just been inadvertently leaked.
A forum dedicated to the Civilization franchise uncovered achievements for Civilization 6 that show what the new game modes could very well be. It appears that Portugal is finally going to be a playable civilization in Civilization 6 under the leader of João III, also known as John the Pious. The new game mode appears to include zombies as controllable units, a unique turn from the standard strategy stomping grounds of the title. An achievement is gained by controlling "at least 20 zombie units at the start" of a player's turn. These achievements can be confirmed using SteamDB, showing that Firaxis embedded the achievements for a release relatively soon.
John III of Portugal reigned for more than thirty prosperous years, from 1521 to 1557, marking his reception of power to his death from apoplexy. John III is largely deemed with turning Portugal into a trading powerhouse, marking his reign as Portugal making first trading contact with China and Japan and encouraging diplomacy with former rivaling nations to secure trade routes. One of the more iconic stories of the ruler involved new governors needing to literally fight previous appointees for the position.
The zombies game mode seems to promise a few new mechanics. A variable named "Mutation Strength" seems to affect zombies, where players will earn an achievement for taking down a singular zombie unit with at least 50 Mutation Strength. Along with zombies come traps that will deal damage on various tiles, seemingly at the rulers' behest. A new strategy could be forthcoming where one guides their powerhouse zombies into the territory of a rival nation and have the undead keep the players' units alive and well, although confirmation of how the zombies game mode will work is yet to come.
Civilization 6Â is available on Linux, Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: SteamDB, CivFanatics