As a popular franchise such as Sid Meier’s Civilization, there are a lot of expectations from hardcore fans for this long-awaited sequel. If I recall, Civilization VI came out in 2016, with its last expansion launched in 2019. So, that’s almost nine years from the base game and six years from its previous major content. Meaning, that Firaxis should gear up something fresh and exciting for fans of the genre and the franchise itself.
Having played for a little bit over three hours of gameplay content during the Civilization VII Asia Media Event in Singapore, I can’t stop thinking about the game, and what could have happened past the age I played in. For being a massive fan of the real-time strategy genre, who also went semi-pro in Blizzard’s StarCraft II, the 4X genre is still a bit new for me. For only having played just five turns in Civilization III, fending off Barbarians in Civilization VI and making my way far into the Modern Era, and not being able to get past Humankind‘s Ancient Era, I thought the genre wasn’t really for me.
To be honest, the complexity of 4X games especially in the Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise isn’t a joke. It can take a lot of your mental capacity to think about the direction you want to go in a campaign — from choosing your government and setting policies to managing your tech tree priorities and city goals. After playing Civilization VII, I couldn’t stop but keep telling myself to do “one more turn.”
Civilization VII turns the tides of what you know about Civilization as Firaxis takes this next installment into a new age, driving newcomers to the franchise such as myself to the world of 4X in the least intimidating way possible. I had a tremendous amount of fun playing the game these past couple of weeks. And I can say, even with the hours I spent in Civilization VI a few months ago, that I feel I now understand the game and the 4X genre better than a few years back.
Civilization VII still follows the sequel development direction of Sid Meier’s — the 33/33/33 approach, as explained by Executive Producer Dennis Shirk in an interview. That’s retaining 33% of what the previous game had, 33% of improving existing features, and 33% of adding new mechanics and elements. Despite pouring hours and hours into Civilization VI, there are changes that make this sequel feel fresh and unique.
As Shirk says, every Civilization game is unique. That statement holds true as I immediately noticed the radical changes in Civilization VII. Leaders are no longer tied to a specific civilization, instead, you are free to choose whichever civilization for that leader. Ever imagine what Augustus could do as the leader of Persia? Or even Hatshepsut crowned as the queen of Rome? This new direction and massive change to leaders and their civilization is pretty much welcomed.
I like it now that I can choose Xerxes for his military perks that give units a boost in combat strength in neutral and enemy territories, amplifying Egypt’s unique infantry units that have already combat strength perks while in friendly territory. I can defend my territories and attack other civilizations with ease all thanks to the perks given by both my preferred leader and civilization of choice. The possibilities are endless, not limiting your play style to a certain leader with its pre-selected civilization. You can now mix and match leaders and civilizations to fit your playstyle.
Much like its predecessors, you still start off with a settler, looking for the perfect area that’s abundant with resources to keep your civilization ahead of the curve. This is where you notice that you are no longer required to train builders to build improvements on tiles. They don’t even exist anymore. Firaxis flat out removed builders and instead has you choose which tile to build an improvement when your city grows. I like this change, actually. I don’t have to spend two to three extra turns just to get a builder trained. While the builders in Civilization VI had some advantages like building improvements on tiles, this simplified mechanic of building tile improvements made one less unit to micro-manage.
Scouts have been refined and are now considered a vital unit during exploration. Unlike the Scouts Civilization VI, Scouts now don’t have terrain restrictions and can move through forests and rivers normally, however, they do not attack; and that’s perfectly fine as they now have two very useful abilities: Search and Lookout. With the Search ability, you can simply just move one tile forward and activate the said skill, which allows you to see one further away to gain a strategic advantage or keep your Scouts safe from enemies. Scouts can now deploy a wooden tower with the Lookout ability to extend its vision range by one until you move them.
When it comes to unit management, the introduction of the Army Commanders significantly improves the overall mid to late-game unit micro-management by a thousand miles. Unlike past Civilization games, Army Commanders can stack up to six units, may it be a cavalry unit or a standard infantryman. Army Commanders are basically Great Generals in Civilization VI, but more refined and better.
Since promotions per unit are gone now, only Army Commanders are allowed to be promoted in Civilization VII. Aside from upgrading them to provide combat strength within their adjacent tiles like Great Generals in Civilization VI, there’s also an upgrade where units immediately earn one move point after getting deployed to the adjacent tiles by the Commander.
These changes towards the Scouts and the incredible addition of Army Commanders have been an amazing quality of life improvement. It makes micro-managing less cumbersome, and exploring the world with Scouts has never been so meaningful.
One of the biggest, and notably the most major change in Civilization VII is the introduction of Ages. Eras have always been the representation of how your civilization has progressed in terms of technological and cultural advancements. Now compressed into three different Ages: the Antiquity Age, the Exploration Age, and the Modern Age. These feature unique nuances ranging from different civilizations, resources, civics and technologies, units, and buildings that define them during that period. What’s interesting is how Firaxis didn’t just add a new time-period name, rather they drastically changed how the entire aspect works.
Each time you transition into a new time period, let’s say from the Antiquity Age to the Exploration Age, you basically start from the beginning, letting you choose a new civilization. It’s not that you start from scratch, rather, your progress gets carried over to the new age like your cities and towns, your upgraded technologies and civics, and some of your units. Relationships also take a step back during the new age, where alliances are disbanded, and all wars have come to a halt, thrusting you all back literally to turn zero. This means all players progress together into a new age. While some hardcore Civ fans see this as a simplified way to make newcomers welcome to the series, devoiding the deep complexity of a Civ game, I do, however, find the new direction refreshing and a lot more enjoyable. Just like what Edward Zhuang, the Senior Gameplay Designer of Civilization VII, said, “The first turn is always the exciting part of 4X games,” which I wholeheartedly agree.
Just before the transition of a new Age comes in also a huge new feature called Crisis. Players must face a series of historically-themed obstacles and adapt to survive. Crises usually happen when the end of an age nears, prompting players to choose Crisis Policies that will surely hurt their economy, and the happiness level of their population, or even set them back in progressing through technology. It’s an interesting mechanic that shakes things up for players, but sometimes these crises have proven to be just another easy fence to go over. At first, it was fun, especially when you’re caught by these crises by surprise, but over time they start to begin to be ineffective especially when you figure out the most common resources to prioritize. I do hope there will be more types of Crisis Policies that will surely hurt my plans of world domination.
City-states and Barbarians have now been revamped into what they call the Independent Powers. These Independent Powers can either be hostile, friendly, or neutral to you, and this is where your Influence points become an integral part of your diplomatic resource. Unlike the City-states in Civilization VI where you simply assign envoys, converting an Independent Power into a city-state will cost you Influence points and a few turns. If they’re hostile, they’ll soon become friendly to your civ and will eventually convert into your city-state. Once an Independent Power becomes part of a civilization, no other player can take them away from you until they attack them and capture the settlement. This is where I find the Influence mechanic a bit underwhelming as you’re unable to convert a civ-owned city-state diplomatically without waging war against them.
Barbarians in the past have already proved to be challenging, but with Independent Powers, they’re even more difficult especially when there are a couple of them nearby and are hostile towards your civilization. It then becomes a battlefield early on in the game where you have to defend and wait until you can afford to turn the tides through diplomatic solutions. Aggressive negotiations, I may say.
Influence points aren’t just used for converting Independent Powers, it’s also used for diplomatic affairs with other civilizations. Opening borders now costs influence points, even greeting them with hostility already costs influence points. While it may look like Firaxis only added the system for the sake of changing some elements, I do find the change great, though. Not only can I counter a diplomatic endeavor that’s not beneficial for me, but I could also turn undesirable situations to my favor in diplomatic affairs through influence points.
Winning in a Civilization game is usually through different points like being ahead in Science, Culture, Domination, Religion, Diplomacy, or the overall accumulated Score. In Civilization VII, you’re introduced to Legacy Paths: Economic, Military, Science, and Culture. You’re given objectives to complete and reach a milestone in each Legacy Path for your civilization. You can choose to focus on one Legacy Path, or two, or all of them if you’re up to the challenge. But much like in previous Civilization games, it’s always important to have a set goal and adapt depending on the situation you’re in.
To win, you have to be ahead in terms of Legacy Points, or just basically ahead of the overall score. But this new approach to winning a Civilization VII game gives players a much more streamlined, strategic, and meaningful gameplay. The Legacy Path gives me purpose in what I’m building, not shooting aimlessly, and I love it.
The overall graphical improvements in Civilization VII are massive. When you compare Civilization VI to VII, you immediately notice that every building, unit, and tile improvement is made with the utmost respect, thematically and culturally. You will also feel like you are playing some expensive board game where hex tiles are beautifully rendered with gold logos of Civilization VII. Visually, Civilization VII looks top-notch and you’ll get to also see those diorama-inspired cities. Even better, to complement its visuals, there’s the soundtrack composed by Roland Rizzo, Geoff Knorr, and especially Christopher Tin’s “Live Gloriously”. The track is the perfect tune to evoke the game’s glorious changes.
Civilization VII performs incredibly well on PC. While I still have to test it out on the PlayStation since I just received the code a few hours ago, I managed to play the game on the Steam Deck with minimal issues! Sure, there are a few bits of stutters on the Deck when moving the camera, but there are minimal bugs I’ve encountered in my playthrough where Firaxis already laid out that it’ll be addressed during the day one patch.
Civilization VII revolutionizes the franchise with its major changes, making this latest entry such a fun, thrilling, and overall enjoyable 4X game to date! I can’t seem to stop playing, even on the go, even in my bedroom, I always have that “one more turn” moment before I shut my eyes. Civilization VII is simply incredible, and I can’t wait for players to get their hands on the game when it launches this month.
This review is based on a review copy provided to us by the developers/publisher.
Sid Meier's Civilization VII
Civilization VII revolutionizes the franchise with its major changes, delivering a thrilling and incredibly enjoyable 4X experience. With its compelling gameplay and "one more turn" addictiveness, Civilization VII is simply incredible.
The Good
- Visually Amazing
- Stays true to the "one more turn" mantra
- Quality of Life Improvements
- The Introduction of Ages
- Leaders Not Tied to Civilizations
- An Epic Soundtrack
The Bad
- Very minor stutters on the Steam Deck
