Firaxis Games has a serious problem with Sid Meier’s Civilization 7. After the historical 4x strategy game launched to mixed reviews on Steam, recent reviews (about 1,000) for Civ 7 have dipped to “Mostly Negative,” and ongoing player count is barely cracking 10,000 players.
Granted, many games would kill to have 10,000 players. It’s fair to note that Civ 7 is also available on many other platforms besides Steam. But for the next new entry in one of the most popular turn-based strategy game series of all time, these are very troubling stats.
In comparison, the nearly decade-old Civilization 6 is still rocking 30-40,000 players on Steam at any one time. Heck, even Civ 5, which released back in 2010, has more concurrent players on Steam than Civ 7, at over 15,000!
In my review of Civilization 7 earlier this year, I admitted that it had a rough launch, but overall “the many positive changes and features outweigh the few glaring negatives, making it a solid investment in the future of the franchise.”
Well, that hasn’t aged well.
So what happened?
Civ 5’s George Washington is not impressed.
Through the Ages
The forced civ-change and three-era structure continues to divide fans and players. Unfortunately, unlocking playable civs by progressing through three distinct Eras is a key feature of Civilization 7. Freely combining historical leaders (Augustus, Ben Franklin, Isabella) with different historical civs (China, Hawaii, Mexico) is a strange pill to swallow for a series that’s so painstakingly detail-oriented.
For example, there’s no way to simply start a game in Antiquity as France. One must first play as Rome or Greece, then later unlock Norman and the French Empire. Alternatively, search for three wine resources to improve. Or play as Leaders Napoleon or Lafayette, and unlock France regardless of your previous civilizations choices.
Like Humankind (which also featured multiple Civ choices and Eras), there are optimal paths that practically limit your options.
I actually loved Humankind and its culture progression when it launched in 2021, but I understand why playing multiple civs isn’t what everyone wants from a historical strategy game. Plus, I would argue that Civ 7 does culture-switching even worse.
It doesn’t help that two of the three Eras are still a bit of a mess. The Modern Age received some love through post-launch updates and patches, but the Exploration Age is still a frustrating experience of forced map exploration and land grabs. The switch to a new Era remains jarring and annoying, resetting many accomplishments and situations.
Every player also has a Legacy path that guides them along certain victory conditions, which makes the game feel smaller and far more limiting, more akin to playing specific scenarios rather than a full Civ game.
Map generation is also an issue in Civ 7, creating worlds that feel more like balanced real-time strategy arenas versus actual world generation. Patch 1.2.1, which just went live this week, finally adds one of the most popular map options with Pangaea Plus, but it’s still a concern for most players. Not to mention we only recently received multiplayer support for proper team co-op games in a previous post-launch patch.
And don’t get me started on the incredibly lame story events, which don’t hold a candle to more narrative rich strategy games such as Endless Space or Age of Wonders.
In many ways, Civ 7 still feels like it’s in beta.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the Civ series. Civilization 7 has the best graphics and art style of any game in the series, the world music soundtrack is solid (though Civ 6 still has the overall best soundtrack), and Firaxis has a proven track record for continuing to update and support their games throughout the years.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 isn’t the first huge franchise game to get stuck with shockingly poor Steam ratings, either. But in this case, the dubious reviews aren’t due to cultural backlash, or technical difficulties, or extra DRM layers. Civ 7’s problem is its core gameplay.
And that’s a big problem.
Civilization 7 is available on PC (Steam, Epic), PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox, and rated E10+.
