Skip to main content

Teddy Roosevelt will kill you with culture in ‘Civilization VI’

“It takes more than that to kill a bull moose,” Theodore Roosevelt famously said after being shot just as he was about to give a speech to an adoring crowd. If you’re Gandhi in the Civilization series, a couple hundred nukes might be enough, but everyone else has a lot fear in America’s 26th president: He’ll kill you with culture.

America has two special abilities in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: one based specifically on the country’s leader, and the other on more general American history. The “Founding Fathers” ability lets you take less time to earn “government legacy” bonuses.

“As a leader, Teddy Roosevelt can provide the Americans with a combat bonus for fighting on their home continent,” the narrator says in a new “first look” developer video. “He also has the Rough Riders as a unique unit. These mounted troops are effective in hills, gain culture from kills on their home continent, and have a low maintenance cost.”

What’s unclear is whether Roosevelt himself will participate in the fighting. He didn’t just organize the Rough Riders; during the Spanish American war, he resigned from his position as assistant secretary of the Navy and led the unit into battle in Cuba.

If you plan to win in a more peaceful fashion, America can do that as well. A special “film studio” building gives a bonus to tourism, as does Teddy Roosevelt’s influence on the country’s national parks. Of course, sending a spy into Yellowstone to feed the bears processed food could probably bring that bonus back down.

“With these advantages, the other ‘civs’ will be wearing blue jeans and listening to your pop music as America cruises toward a cultural victory,” the narrator adds.

Civilizaton VI is out on October 21. During our time with the game, we said it looks like “a worthy successor to its revered predecessor.” Read our hands-on review here.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Embracer Group is splitting into 3 companies. Here’s who owns what
Rise of the Tomb Raider

Embracer, the embattled gaming company that went through a massive restructuring over the past year, just announced that it will split up into three different companies: Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.

If you need a refresher, Embracer Group gained a reputation for acquiring gaming IPs and studios, including everything from Borderlands' Gearbox Entertainment to Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics to The Lord of the Rings' rights holder Middle-earth Enterprises. It functioned as one massive company separated into several operating groups. After a deal with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Group fell through last year, Embracer went through a massive period of "restructuring" where it laid thousands of developers off, shut down studios, and sold the likes of Saber Interactive and Gearbox. Now, it seems the saga of Embracer Group is nearing its end, as the company admitted in a press release "that the current Group structure does not create optimal conditions for future value creation both for Embracer Group’s shareholders and other stakeholders."

Read more
Hades 2: release date prediction, trailers, gameplay, and more
Melinoe standing in a stone circle.

Just like Zagreus' never-ending quest to escape the Underworld in Greek mythology, it seems we too are destined to continue fighting through new levels of demons and monsters in the sequel to the amazing roguelike Hades. We're not complaining, as that game was one of the best games released in 2020, and no one expected a sequel at all, let alone one announced so soon. Hades 2 will be the first sequel studio Supergiant Games have ever made, and it makes sense given how successful and popular the first game ended up being. Aside from some notable exceptions like Rogue Legacy 2 and Spelunky 2, not many roguelikes ever get a direct sequel, so there's a lot of mystery surrounding how Hades 2 will be different from the first game. But there's no need to dive into the depths of the Underworld yourself in search of answers, as we've pulled all the information we could from the jaws of Cerberus.
Release date

Hades 2 has no release date quite yet. However, the team has apparently been working on it since early 2021, and, just like the first, will come out first in early access. Supergiant has stated that details about this early access period would be revealed in 2023, however, that does not guarantee it will actually begin in 2023. The first Hades was in early access for almost two years, but we know that a slightly bigger team is working on Hades 2 from the start so this game may hit 1.0 a bit faster.
Platforms

Read more
Tales of the Shire is a The Lord of the Rings-themed take on Stardew Valley
A Hobbit gardens in Tales of the Shire.

Private Division revealed a new game set in the Middle-earth universe called Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game. The title, developed by Wētā Workshop Game Studio, is a cozy life simulator set within the world of the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In 2022, No Rest for the Wicked publisher Private Division first teased that it was working on a game based on The Lord of the Rings with Wētā Workshop, the visual effects studio whose initial claim to fame was working on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Wētā Workshop has technically had a game studio since 2014, but Tales of the Shire will be its most significant release yet.

Read more