Available on: PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox
Played on: PC
Sid Meier’s Civilization series, like human history, is as much about small iterations as gigantic leaps forward. With three decades of advancements, expansion packs, and updates, a new Civ entry can feel like three steps forward, two steps to the side, and one step backward. Then, three years and one expansion pack later, it will be declared the best Civilization game yet.
For now, Civilization 7 is off to a rough start, thanks in large part to a shockingly inept interface. The many positive changes and features outweigh the few glaring negatives, however, making it a solid investment in the future of the franchise.
Read on for our review of Sid Meier’s Civilization 7!
Manifest Destiny
Like the rest of the Civ series, we begin the game as a settler in the early era of human civilization. We quickly found our first capital city, and begin exploring the wider world.
The art style is a return to more realistic graphics after the cartoony shine of Civilization 6. Biomes are distinct and detailed while leaving room for important resources. And the fog of war is strikingly revealed by flipping over textured hexes. This is easily the best a Civ game has ever looked, backed by lovely World music that differs from Ages to empires and conflicts.
Technology such as Navigation, Bronze Working, and Masrony must be researched over time (by producing Science). By generating Culture we advance to new civics, unlocking more buildings and empire-wide bonuses.
Cities grow to encompass more tiles and capture important resources. Various districts such as libraries and markets can be built to produce better yields. There’s renewed emphasis on creating efficient cities with expert tile placement.
Civ 7 cleverly addresses the city fatigue that has plagued the series — managing a dozen or more cities by mid-game, each with their own production queue. New cities now begin as mostly automated towns. Towns still grow and claim new tiles, but they don’t produce their own buildings or units. Towns can be upgraded to cities by paying a cost that decreases over time, but clever Civ players will balance their big cities with smaller resource-generating towns, just like a proper country.
Army (and Naval) Commanders are another smart improvement. Instead of promoting every individual military unit, only the new Commander units “level up” and gain new skills. Like Great Generals from previous Civ games, Commanders don’t fight themselves, but offer bonuses to nearby units. Commanders can also march with other units as a single stack, creating a one-stack army that’s far easier to move around.
For all its smart changes, however, Civ 7 is held back by a nearly fatal flaw: The user interface is shockingly bad.
Menus are unattractive, and often missing vital information. Even the Civilopedia (if it’s still called that) lacks simple hyperlinks and pop-up tool-tips to further explain various game concepts.
For the longest time I couldn’t figure out what the Happiness I was generating each turn was actually doing. Then I couldn’t figure out how many turns until my next Celebration. Other weird omissions include a lack of renaming cities, not being able to back out of important diplomatic messages (like trading a city after a war), and no messages or indications of a city’s previous production.
These are all basic things that any 4X game released in the last decade (including Civ 6) should have, let alone the biggest series in the genre. The developers have addressed this issue and are working toward a fix, but it’s a shocking stain on release.
Through the Ages
Civilization 5 added hex tiles and tactical combat. Civilization 6 expanded cities onto districts. Civilization 7’s defining new feature are the Ages.
Instead of playing as a single historical empire or nation, Civ 7 focuses on a single historical leader, such as Augustus Caesar, Catherine the Great, or Queen Himiko. Our immortal leader then chooses a Classical-era civilization for the Antiquity Era. No more playing as the French or Americans in the Bronze Age!
If you’ve played Humankind (one of our favorite 4X games in the last few years), you’re already familiar with the concept of evolving Ages and switching Civilizations. Only certain civilizations are available to play in the Ancient Age, with more unlocking later on.
Civ 7 only has three Ages: Antiquity (Ancient era through the Iron Age), Exploration (Medieval through, well, the Age of Exploration), and Modern (Industrial Revolution and onward). Time ticks toward the next Age, but every time a Civilization completes objectives on a Legacy Path, the next Age draws even closer.
Legacy Paths work as quest objectives for each Age, culminating with a final victory upon completing one of them during the Modern Age.
The four Legacy Paths are Military, Economic, Cultural, and Scientific. Each Path has different objectives, such as capturing settlements, or settling on new continents across the ocean. The objectives help shape each game toward specific goals, and feel especially helpful for newer players.
However, unlike Humankind, once a new Age is unlocked, everyone is forcibly advanced to the next era, and must choose their next civilization.
The new Age changes diplomatic levels, deletes or upgrades units, and reverts upgraded cities back to towns. These jarring changes can be incredibly frustrating, especially if the player is in the middle of an important war or wonder construction.
Evolving through the Ages lets players build on their past achievements (or failures), giving Civ an almost RPG-like progression. In fact, every Leader has a skill tree of bonuses earned from completing objectives.
Unlocking new civilizations when changing Ages also feels like a unlocking an advanced class in an RPG. Most Leaders and Civilizations have access to one or two civilizations when the next Age arrives, but accomplishing certain goals could unlock others. For example, in my game as Pachacuti, I unlocked the Normans in the Exploration Age by grabbing a lot of Iron deposits. It’s a neat system that rewards careful planning, while still letting players adapt and change as the need arises.
The Rating
Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 is rated E10+ by the ESRB. Content Descriptors include Alcohol and Tobacco references, Mild Language, Mild Violence, and Suggestive Themes. The graphics are less cartoony than Civilization 6, but warfare is still relatively mild, with soldiers falling over when shot or attacked.
The Takeaway
I’ve been a fan of the Civilization series for over two decades, but the best time to get a new Civ game is as late in its life cycle as possible. Civilization 7 is no different. Many game concepts have been improved or changed in the right direction. I’m tentatively excited about the Ages system, though it could use some fine-tuning during the actual transition.
As with every new Civ release, it’s difficult to compare with a previous entry after years of expansions and updates, and Civ 6 reigned for ten years. Despite some flaws, Civilization 7 is a worthy successor, and should stand the test of time.
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