Civilization VII Hands-on | A Natural Evolution

With the game’s launch just a month away, we got to try out Civilization VII in a preview event for Asian media in Singapore last week. There, we got to play around three hours of the new Civilization game. Of course, that wasn’t enough to explore everything in this latest franchise installment, but it did let us sample some of the many new additions and enhancements.

Perhaps the biggest change in Civilization VII is the new three-age structure. This breaks up each game into three acts: the Antiquity, Discovery, and Modern age. As we only played for three hours, I only got to play through the Antiquity age, though I did at least get to see the age transition and the opening of the Discovery age.

According to the developers, this new age mechanic was made to address the fact that many players don’t get to the end of a Civ game. Even though it’s a big change, Civilization VII should still feel familiar to long-time series fans.

Major Changes, But Still Feels Familiar

My experience with Civilization started over a decade ago as my first game in the series was Civ V. Given how much I played V, I also played Civ VI, though I have to admit it took me a while to get into it. A lot of it was because Civ VI rewarded a wide playstyle where the goal was to get Settlers out ASAP, even if you were gunning for a Cultural or Science victory. This was in contrast to Civ V which rewarded playing tall – a style that I got quite accustomed to.

This wide vs tall dynamic is being addressed in Civ VII as the developers promise the introduction of Towns will make playing tall more viable. Essentially, instead of Settlers instantly founding a City, they instead found Towns. You can’t build units in Towns, though you can purchase structures with Gold. When you have enough Gold though, you can turn Towns into full-fledged cities.

With this addition, players can choose to build only a few Cities that are supported by many Towns. Technically, this is a tall playstyle, though this isn’t Civ V as the early game still feels very much like Civ VI in that getting Settlers out ASAP to found Towns seems to be the best tactic. If you don’t, you’ll quickly find yourself being surrounded by other Civs who are eagerly expanding their territory with towns.

While Civ VI’s optimal playstyle seems to still explore and settle fast, I did like the inclusion of Towns, especially with its synergy with certain leaders to facilitate a tall playstyle. In my playthrough, I chose Augustus who gets +2 production in the Capital for every Town. This meant that after founding multiple Towns, production in the Capital City of Rome was blazing-fast, enough that I was able to build combat units in just two turns.

As someone who likes going tall (given how I don’t love managing too many cities), this is a nice addition as it helped my decision-making process for each turn more streamlined. Even if you like managing multiple cities, Civ VII is clearly a more streamlined experience. For instance, Builders are no longer a thing as you can make improvements on your tiles simply by selecting them. The tech and civic trees are also much simpler now, at least visually. While in Civ VI you can see the entire tree until the endgame, with the new three-age system, you can only see the trees up to a certain point. This doesn’t make the trees smaller, just a bit easier to see and plan for.

Note that while many systems are streamlined, Civ VII still has lots of in-depth systems. Perhaps the one that stood out to me was Influence.

Unlike in Civ VI where you do diplomacy via the deal table, each Civ now has Influence which is essentially a new currency. Like Gold, players earn this every turn. They can then be used to “buy” various actions with other Civs. For instance, you can use Influence for an “Endeavor” with another Civ such as a “Research Collaboration” which gives Science per turn. You can also use these for Sanctions but with a corresponding relationship penalty.

Reworking Diplomacy into a system with its own currency is an ingenious move. While it’s quite a big change from the previous Civ games, I was surprised by how perfectly it fit. Before, I didn’t think much about Diplomacy as it was simply a game of giving other Civs some Luxuries plus Gold I don’t need to keep them happy. Now, with Influence, Diplomacy is a more active affair.

Players will also need to spend Influence if they want to befriend Independent Powers. In Civ VII, Firaxis fused Barbarians and City-States from Civ VI into Independent Powers, some of which are friendly while others are hostile.

The lack of “Barbarians” in this game admittedly lulled me into a false sense of security. It turns out that if you have a hostile Independent Power near you, they act very much like Barbarians in Civ VI in terms of aggression. As such, you’ll still need to have some combat units handy.

When it comes to combat, Civ VII also adds a new Commander which can buff units. More importantly, these Commanders can group up and stack various combat units to make moving them easier. While I didn’t use this as much in my playthrough, I can see it being quite useful for those who want to get into combat early.

While there are plenty of additions, Civ VII feels a lot like Civ VI in the early game, that is until you reach a crisis.

Age Transitions and Crises

So, how do the new Age system and Age Transitions work? Well, when you’re nearing the end of an Age, you’ll face a Crisis.

At points near the end of the Age, you’ll be forced to select Crisis policies. You can think of these as policy cards, but with some tough debuffs. In my playthrough, most of the Crisis policies I got were major debuffs on Happiness, meaning I had to quickly address the Happiness of some of my far-flung towns, lest they break away.

According to the developers, their intention is not only to make the end of each age memorable, but it’s also to keep players on the edge of their seats and not just relax as they go into a Golden Age. In that regard, I think that they’ve succeeded as the Crisis part of my playthrough was a hectic yet fun time.

Speaking of Golden Ages, you can enter the next age with one. To do so, you’ll need to complete one of the four sub-goal trees. There’s one for Military, Culture, Science, and Economy. While these aren’t necessary to win the game, doing so will give you helpful buffs for the next age. Plus, these are nice in that they give you a clear goal to shoot for during the Ancient Age.

The Crisis and Age Transition was perhaps the most memorable part of my playthrough, and I can see other players enjoying this as well. Of course, that’s based on just one playthrough, as there’s always the chance that it will get old after some time. Hopefully, that won’t be the case when the game launches.

What I think won’t get old though is the visuals as Civ VII is exactly what I hoped to see.

Halfway Between Civ V and VI Visually

As someone who started with Civ V, I wasn’t a big fan of Civ VI’s more cartoony art style. With this latest installment, the devs went with an art style that’s essentially at the halfway point between V and VI.

Seeing it in trailers is one thing, but after trying out Civ VII, I can say that personally, I’m quite happy with how the game looks. In particular, I like the visual effects, along with the unit and building design as they’re easy to distinguish while still being unique.

I also quite like the new UI which I think is much easier to read and comprehend than Civ VI’s (which I think can be too busy). Of course, this may come down to personal preference as I’ve seen a number of UI complaints from fans on r/civ, though I think that most players will get used to the UI as they play.

While I’m satisfied so far with what I saw visually, I had a bit of an issue with some of the visual effects and sounds. Specifically, the combat sound and animation were a bit too subtle for me, enough that there were times I didn’t know one of my units was getting attacked. Hopefully, these are just issues with the build that I got to play.

Civilization VII Initial Impressions

Again, I only got to play three hours of Civilization VII – just enough to finish the Antiquity Age (around 1/3^rd of a game). In that sense, I only got a small sample of what the game has to offer, but even then, I found that there’s a lot to be excited about.

Based on my time with Civilization VII, I can say that it feels like playing a natural evolution of Civ VI. The core experience is similar in the beginning, but the new Influence system and streamlined elements make it a more engaging experience in many ways.

If the same can be said for the two other ages, Civ VII should be a must-play for anyone who has enjoyed Civ VI. Though I’ll have to try the game out more to see if the how the three-age structure actually plays out.

Civilization VII will be released on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and macOS on February 11, 2025.