By the time the World Climate overview screen came up to warn me that my industrial contributions were directly causing the planet to warm up, I was already heavily dependent on fossil fuels for my energy and production needs, as well as my military, which was especially important in light of the many civilizations on the map. Since it takes awhile to build up enough CO2 in the atmosphere to affect the global temperature, I kept right on cutting down trees and building up oil and coal dependent units and buildings. I set up a Huge map, Pangaea, and eliminated a few Victory conditions so I could play for as long as possible and lean into the mechanics around climate change. When I got way in over my head and didn’t realize it until it was too lateĭespite being perfectly aware that global warming was a possibility, if not the entire point, of Gathering Storm, I spent the first 250 turns of my game blissfully and perhaps even deliberately unaware of what was about to happen.

Here are five times the global catastrophes in Gathering Storm got too real. Whether you’re fighting climate change or investing into future carbon clearing technologies that (sadly for us) do not actually exist, there are many points in the game where the lessons of the past few decades of global warming research are impressively reinforced, but maybe predictably so (if you’ve been paying attention to the news).Īs I played, I found many opportunities to be reflective, panicked and downright depressed, which is probably exactly the emotional experience you want from a videogame. But thanks to the completely overhauled weather, climate and energy systems, combined with new diplomacy features, there are times where it’s a stone cold bummer.

Civilization VI: Gathering Storm is a great expansion, one of my favorites in years.

Civ 5 water mill