Since its humble beginning back in 1991, the Civilization series has undergone many changes, evolving into something great, much like the civilizations you control in game. Civilization 7 has evolved once more, introducing some new concepts, but simplifying the formula in many ways.
Because of this shifting focus, Civilization 7 can feel like less of a sequel and more of a sideways set. It’s not that I dislike the way the game plays, but some of the changes are certainly jarring, and the comparison points to Civ 6 or Civ 5 are impossible not to make. As the old adage goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well, Firaxis tried to fix it anyway with mixed results. From an accessibility standpoint and with the simultaneous launch on console in mind, Civ 7 is great. It’s streamlined and simplified features will be great for people getting into the series for the first time, but anyone looking for anything a bit more mechanically complex might be left wanting.
One of the first big changes comes in the form of how you actually pick your leader and civilization. This has now been split apart so that you pick a leader first, and then a civ for them to lord over. Your leader stays with you through to the end of your campaign, but the introduction of distinct Ages – Antiquity, Exploration & Modern – will see you changing civs as time passes. Each time you move into a new one, time will skip several hundred years, and you pick from one of a bunch of new civs to lead, specific to that era, and linked in some way to your previous choice. This means at the start of the game you could be playing as Greece and by the end, the USA.
On one hand, in a way this is kind of cool, because it lets you be a little more customisable in the way you play with unique units, bonuses, civic trees and more. On the other hand, I found it quite jarring that I couldn’t play just one civ out till the end. To me it takes away the whole point of picking a civ in the first place. If I want to lead Spartan Greece to a scientific victory, then let me do it, dammit!
Each transition into a new Age acts a bit like a soft reset, although you will take with you certain traditions and other bonuses. Towards the end of each age, the world will face some form of crisis, such as a plague, which needs to be dealt with before the transition can take place. As you play, you’ll be given missions in the form of Legacy Paths, of which there are four, Culture, Military, Science and Economic. Completing objectives within these paths grants you Legacy Points which you can spend on special boons at the start of the next era. In the Modern Age, each Legacy Path then leads to a victory condition.
What this new system does is break things up quite nicely. Games of Civ are often long affairs and the 4X genre has often struggled with an endgame grind, but this three act structure helps with the pacing. It also means that you’re never truly out of the race, as everyone starts on an even keel when a new age begins.
Each era also introduces new game mechanics, such as religion in the Exploration Age, and ideologies such as fascism, democracy, and communism in the Modern Age. They also march technology forward, so those hoping to charge a mass of Hoplites toward a Panzer Tank will be disappointed. You can always return to the classics to relive this age old Civ meme, but that kind of quirky playfulness is missed.
Overall, the Age system does a lot to freshen up the formula and make games a little more fair, but the end game of the Modern Era feels a little lacklustre. The two prior eras have a lot of focus whereas Modern just feels a bit off. There’s no World Congress anymore, which is a massive shame, and the era itself just feels a little bloated and lacking in excitement.
Citizen management and growth has also taken a new turn, with you no longer being able to assign your best and brightest to work specific tiles for bonuses. Now, each city has slottable resources which are picked up when you expand to new tiles as your city grows. Food is generated every turn, and once you reach a specified number of food, you can expand your city to new tiles and immediately put those new folk to work. If a tile you expanded to has a resource, then you can slot that into your city and gain its bonus. This is a pretty versatile system, as any resources gained can be slotted in any city or town where there is space. After a while, having to slot dozens of resources and moving them about can get a bit tiresome, making me appreciate the old methods all the more. This also means that builders and workers have been done away with, and this reduced unit clutter is very welcome.
Diplomacy in Civ 7 also feels less engaging. In previous games, I really felt like I was hashing things out with other leaders, as they would approach me, telling me how much they disapproved of the pillaging of the small village. Now, the leaders seem to have no real identity, with each interaction feeling very transactional. Clicking on each leader takes you to the diplomacy screen where you can spend Influence – a new yield introduced in Civ 7 – to choose certain actions, such as, establishing a trade route or proposing some good old fashion join science research. You can also spend your influence to block denouncements or even perform a little espionage. It’s all good on the surface, showing that the more influential you are, the more people will like you, but it feels a little soulless. I felt that no matter what I did, the numbers would always stack against me. Xerses would always hate me, and my attempts to nullify that hate ultimately didn’t matter. I would keep spending influence to balance the books without any real conversation taking place. The leaders don’t even look at you anymore, just sideways to the on screen avatar of your leader.
The inability to bargain properly with these other nations is also jarring. You used to be able to negotiate yourself a lucrative deal, getting resources you need in exchange for peace, but now, with resources being shared via trade routes, it all felt a little pointless. You can still demand cities in peace treaties though, so there’s that.
Another major change is the way religion works, with the entire process being stripped back. You can still send Missionaries to other cities to convert their masses, and even when you convert them, religion doesn’t spread, and you don’t get any diplomatic benefit from it. You don’t even get Inquisitors any more entering holy combat which is a real shame. The mechanic was introduced twenty years ago, so to see it relegated now fills me with sadness.
I know it feels like I’ve been nothing but negative towards Civ 7, but it really isn’t a bad game, it’s just not as good as its predecessors yet. I still lost countless hours to it while playing and there have been some clear improvements in many areas. Games do have a good pacing to them thanks to the era system and combat has been tidied up.
The UI could do with a bit of an overhaul though, and Firaxis has already stated this is a priority for them to address. Some parts are just not as intuitive as in previous entries and I often spent way too long looking for what I needed. This could be down to unifying development across both PC and consoles, simplifying the experience for pad players, but it’s detracted form the game with keyboard and mouse.
