Civilization VII Review | A New Age for the Franchise

The launch of a new Civilization game is always a big event, though Civilization VII might just be the most exciting one for many fans. After all, not only has it been nearly a decade since the initial launch of Civ 6, but this latest series entry promises to shake up the formula the most thanks to its massive gameplay updates.

To be exact, Civilization VII decouples Leaders from Civs, meaning players can choose someone like Augustus to lead Han China, or Jose Rizal as the Leader of Maurya India. This decision was made because players will need to switch Civs twice in each playthrough courtesy of the new Ages mechanic which splits each game into three phases.

Along with these sweeping changes aimed at encouraging players to actually finish games, plenty of reworks here promise to streamline the gameplay experience, all while retaining the depth that Civ fans love.

As with every transition between Civilization games, there’s no doubt that some players won’t love the big changes from Civ 6. On the flip side, I’m sure many others will enjoy Civilization VII given how its gameplay elements elegantly fit together.

Ages, Legacy Paths, and Crises

While I’ve enjoyed Civ 5 and 6, I do admit that I have some issues with them. I have an affinity for 5 as it’s the first game in the series I played, though I have to admit that the added depth of 6 made it hard for me to go back.

As for Civ 6, I also really like that game despite some of the shortcomings (at least personally). For starters, while I’m fine with the art style, I still think it’s inferior to Civ 5’s more realistic look. The fact that the game rewards wide playstyles more is also something that took me a long time to get used to. More than this though, Civ 6’s complexity, while fun, means there are just way too many moving parts in the mid to late game. I often don’t finish games when it’s already clear that I’m going to win (or lose) because of this.

These exact issues are what Firaxis aims to solve with Civilization VII. Now, the game has a more realistic style while retaining the easy-to-read elements of Civ 6, not to mention that it should now make tall playstyles more viable via the Towns mechanic (which I’ll go into later).

The biggest issue though is that many players (it’s not just me) don’t finish games which Firaxis also said that they’ve noticed. This is in large part due to the snowball effect where a player is all but guaranteed to win if they get a great early to mid-game. There are also just too many things to do in the later parts of a game which can be a bit of a slog.

To solve this, Civilization VII introduces the Ages mechanic. While not new for 4X games (Humankind has a similar mechanic), it is a massive change for Civ as it cuts each playthrough into three big chunks – Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern – with each having a certain theme and gameplay focus.

While you can only win the game during the Modern Age, each Age features Legacy Paths which will help you reach one of the win conditions at the endgame. Think of these Legacy Paths as quest lines that you can follow. You’re not forced to do any of them, but it’s a good idea to make them your goal if you’re just starting with Civ 7. As you learn more about the game, you’ll find that if you play optimally, you’ll hit the milestones of these Legacy Paths naturally.

There are four Legacy Paths: Culture, Economy, Military, and Science. Each path leads to a certain victory type. If there’s no winner by the end of the Modern Age, the player with the most Legacy Points wins – this is the game’s equivalent of a Score victory from previous games.

As for transitions between Ages, when players progress through Legacy Paths, the Age will progress a bit more. This means an Age will go by faster when a player is doing better.

What’s also interesting about these Legacy Paths is that their objectives fit both thematically and gameplay-wise to each Age. This enhances the “unique flavor” of each Age.

Near the end of each Age, all players will have to deal with a Crisis. This Crisis differs during each playthrough, though every Crisis works the same. Once it begins, players will need to select a Crisis Policy – think of these as Social Policies but with debuffs instead of buffs. For example, one kind of Crisis can give you plenty of Happiness debuffs. This can be tough, especially if it hits right when you’re at war.

The three Age structure, Legacy Paths, and Crises are major changes, but they’re far from the only ones. Instead of going through each of the changes one by one like with these three, I’ll instead go through the gameplay of the Ages themselves, explaining what the experience feels like while also going through the other big changes.

Antiquity is a Joy to Play

I’m sure many Civ 6 players would agree that the first 100-200 turns are probably the most exciting phase of any Civ playthrough. After all, there’s nothing quite like exploring the lands and meeting other Leaders, all while expanding your empire and making sure you’re safe from aggressive Barbarians and Civs.

Even with the big changes to Civ 7, the Antiquity phase (which usually lasts for around 100-150 turns) is still incredibly engrossing. That’s because the core goal of the early game is still the same, though Civ 7 changes and adds elements that make the early game even more engaging.

Some of these changes include the removal of Builders which makes city building and management much more streamlined. There’s also the new Towns mechanic. Instead of founding Cities, Settlers now create Towns.

You can think of Towns as Cities that also grow and expand, but cannot produce units and structures. Don’t worry as you can still purchase buildings and units using Gold, not to mention that you can turn these Towns into Cities down the line by spending Gold.

Even if you keep your Cities to a minimum, that is still a viable strategy in this game as you often get enough Gold to purchase military units outright when needed. Plus, production in the Capital city is tuned to be noticeably faster than in Civ 6.

The Towns and Cities mechanic was introduced not only to streamline the number of moves you need to do in each turn but also to make a tall playstyle more viable. Do note that you can play Civ 7 as you would 5 where you are often encouraged to keep your empire fairly small. That’s because the game is still designed in such a way that you’d want to expand as much as possible, though perhaps not to the extent of Civ 6.

Given that expansion is still key whichever Legacy Path or win condition you’re aiming for, exploring the map is still important. In this regard, Scouts have been improved thanks to their new Survey ability which can reveal a sizeable area along with other points of interest on the map. Thanks to this, Scouts are much more useful, so you may want to produce them instead of going with Warriors + Slingers only in the first 50 turns.

These various changes do mean you’ll have to switch up your playstyle if you’ve put in hundreds of hours of Civ 6, though it shouldn’t take too long to get used to. In my experience, I had a tougher time jumping from 5 to 6. The transition between Civ 6 to 7 feels much more natural as the broad strokes strategy in the early game of these two titles is fairly similar.

What changed though are Barbarians and City-States. They’re no longer in Civ 7 as they’ve been replaced with Independent Powers which are a fusion of the two. Some of these Independent powers are friendly, though others are hostile and act similarly to Barbarians from 6. As such, you’ll want to keep military units on standby to deal with them.

Whether against Independent Powers or a particularly aggressive Civ, combat is unavoidable in most playthroughs (especially at higher difficulties) of the Antiquity Age. In Civ 7, combat is improved as you can no longer set your units to instantly go on a defensive stance. Instead, each unit will need one turn to build a defensive settlement, meaning you’ll have to approach combat smartly.

There’s also the introduction of Army Commanders. These units can’t attack, but they can buff nearby units. They can also earn experience and be promoted which gives them useful enhancements like extra damage or better movement. Their biggest and most useful feature though is the ability to pack units. Think of Army Commanders as shuttles for your army. Thanks to this, moving your military units is no longer cumbersome as you can just pack them into a Commander and have it transport your army to the battlefield. This mechanic can also be used in some unexpected ways to save vulnerable units.

Whether you’re a warmonger or a peaceful Leader, you’ll want to take advantage of the Army Commander. What’s also important to keep in mind, whatever your playstyle, is the Influence system.

Civ 7 features Influence which is a currency like Gold that you can use for Diplomacy. You can spend these to befriend Independent Powers or other Leaders, but you can also use them to sabotage other players or denounce them. This is a fairly big change, though as I mentioned after our preview a few weeks ago, this is perhaps one of the best new elements of Civ 7 given how smoothly it fits with the game’s systems as compared to the rather arbitrary deals of the deal table from Civ 6.

To top off all these new enhancements and elements, we have the Legacy Paths. If you follow the Culture path, your goal is to create 7 Wonders which means you’ll have to focus on producing Culture as this will let you unlock more Civics to make Wonder production faster. Meanwhile, the Science Path gives you the goal of collecting 10 Codices, many of which can be unlocked via the Tech tree so getting plenty of Science is key.

As for the other two, the Economic path’s goal is to assign 20 resources which can be done by building trade routes with other Civs and Independent Powers. Finally, the Military path is straightforward – simply get 12 Settlements, with conquered settlements counting as two.

Not only do these Legacy Paths fit thematically for the Antiquity Age, but they also help give players a clearer goal of what to aim for in the earlier phase, especially as reaching milestones in the Legacy Paths will give helpful buffs for the next Age. Even though each path seems disconnected from the others, players will often find themselves progressing through two or maybe even all paths as the game is designed in such a way that you aren’t railroaded to just one (if they play fairly optimally, that is).

What’s more, these Legacy Paths are an excellent addition for newer players as it can be quite daunting to plan for your eventual win condition right from the get-go. Plus, it functions as a great teaching tool for the game’s various systems which are necessary to learn for the next two Ages.

Exploration and Modern Ages Solve Civ 6’s Biggest Problem

After Antiquity comes the Exploration Age, and as its name implies, the goal here is to explore distant lands. Exploring the world is something you’ll want to do whichever Legacy Path you want to follow.

The game’s first Age pretty much contains you to your home landmass, but at the start of the Exploration Age, you’ll be able to explore the world via ships. Soon, your other units can also traverse the open ocean, with this option opening up much faster than in Civ 6.

Because you unlock traversing the ocean fast, exploring the other continent is a top priority. In exchange, the open ocean will batter your units, so you have to be smart about exploration lest your units are destroyed. This gives exploration a more involved process as compared to how things worked in the previous games.

Once you reach Distant Lands, the game encourages you to get settling as there’s not a big penalty when you build a town far away from your homeland. In fact, some of the Legacy Paths encourage you to do so. For instance, the Military Path’s goal is to build (or conquer) settlements in Distant Lands. Meanwhile, the Economic Path also encourages you to explore as the goal is to acquire 30 Treasure Fleets Points which you can only get by returning Distant Land treasures.

Then, there’s the Culture Patch where the objective is to display relics. You can get these via the game’s Religion mechanic. Yes, Religion isn’t a mechanic throughout the game as it’s now only limited to the Exploration Age. How it works is that you can start a Religion by building a Temple. With a Temple, you can train Missionaries to spread your Religion.

When you start your Religion, you can set a Reliquary Belief which is a condition you must meet to gain Relics. For instance, you can set it so that you gain two Relics every time you convert an Independent Power for the first time. Because of how important spreading your Religion is, building Missionaries and sending them across the world is a key gameplay mechanic when going through the Cultural Path. Again, this is in theme with the Age’s focus on exploration.

Perhaps it’s only the Science Legacy Path that’s the most inward-looking as the goal is to get enough Specialists to get 5 Districts with over 40 total yield. Even then, it would do you well to expand so that you have enough towns to ensure your cities get a fast growth rate.

Because of how the Exploration Age and the Legacy Paths are set up, there isn’t usually a dull moment in this Age. This solves a big problem with many Civ 6 playthroughs where the midpoint of the game can become dull. In this case, the endgame stage can become an even bigger chore, though Civ 7’s last age also remedies this.

The Modern Age is the third and final part of a standard playthrough, and much like the Exploration Age, it also has a unique flavor. At this point, you should’ve explored most of, if not the entire map. The goal now is to get to a win condition via one of the four Legacy paths.

In Civ 6, while the Science Victory has a clear path of progression, the other victories can seem rather arbitrary (especially the Diplomatic victory). For Civ 7 though, all four win conditions except the Score victory require you to reach a certain project or Wonder.

Science still requires you to go on a Space Race, though the other win conditions have something similar. For a Cultural Victory, the goal is to house 15 artifacts which require you to dig them up across the world. Once you have 15, you can hold the World’s Fair to give you the victory.

For the Economic Victory, you’ll need to get enough Railroad Tycoon points by manufacturing goods and slotting them into Settlements connected to a Rail or Port network. Essentially, connecting your empire economically is the name of the game, and when you get to 500 points, you can start the World Bank to give you the victory.

Finally, a Military victory isn’t just about conquering capitals this time. You can also get Ideology Points by conquering Settlements with a different Ideology. At 20 points, you’ll unlock Operation Ivy, followed by the Manhattan Project. With a successful nuclear launch, you automatically get the win.

Given how you reach the win condition in the Modern Age, the endgame stage becomes a more active affair. One playthrough I distinctly remember was a run where I played as Augustus and went after a Cultural victory. While I played my cards right in the first two Ages, I neglected Catherine the Great whose power base was in the other continent. To my surprise, she was also going for a Culture win, so I had to race against her to unearth Artifacts so I could get the World’s Fair first.

This is also the case with the other win conditions as I found the endgame stage to be much better than in previous games. Of course, while the Ages system means other players can get back into the game after a bad start, you’ll still hugely benefit from a great Antiquity and Exploration Age. That’s exactly what happened in my Militaristic run as Xerxes as I entered the Modern Age with a powerful military with high-level Commanders.

Having three Ages can take some time to get used to, but Firaxis did an impressive job of addressing the issues of Civ 6. I found that in Civ 7, I pretty much finished all my games, and I didn’t feel like a slog at all thanks to how the Legacy Paths and win conditions are set.

From a gameplay perspective, Civilization VII feels incredible, though the big changes do result in some problems that might turn off a certain kind of fan.

The Elephant in the Room

When the three-Age structure was announced, a certain segment of the Civ fanbase did not like the decision as it might make each playthrough seem disjointed. I’ll admit that this is also something I was wary of, and while I enjoyed the game, this issue did not exactly fade away.

One of the reasons why I got into the Civ series was the fantasy of guiding a Civilization from small beginnings to a world-spanning empire. Sure, it’s not realistic for a Civilization to keep its specific culture for thousands of years. Still, it’s just plain fun from an immersive standpoint to lead a historic Civilization to glory, not to mention that because you’re only playing as one Civ in a playthrough, the journey can become quite memorable.

Sadly, this is a key element that takes a big hit in Civ 7. Because you play three Civs every playthrough, there is a lack of continuity. It doesn’t help that the Leaders being decoupled with Civs also weakens the historical or immersive aspect of the game. While I love playing Jose Rizal, it feels weird that I play him while he leads various world empires, many of which are not at all connected to the Philippines.

Even though this “narrative” aspect of Civilization is a big part of the series’ appeal for me, I was able to look past these issues because of how greatly Civ 7’s gameplay feels and flows. However, I can imagine that other players who value this immersive sim aspect above all else can find Civ 7 hard to get into. While the structure and enhancements solve many of the gameplay issues of Civ 6 and even other series entries, in exchange, 7 feels like a history-themed board game the most in the series.

This is arguably the game’s biggest issue, enough that it might be a dealbreaker to some who truly value this aspect of Civ. Still, I see why Firaxis went in this direction, and while I miss the feeling of continuity, the gameplay enhancements are just too good for me to go back to previous titles.

I’ve heaped plenty of praise on Civ 7’s gameplay, but it’s not a perfect game even in that sense. For one, the Legacy Paths, while great, can make each playthrough feel a bit too similar. After all, in the Modern Age, you basically have four versions of the Space Race, though the way to get there is different enough that they don’t feel copied and pasted.

There’s also the fact that the game ends essentially in the Atomic Age. It’s likely that a future update or expansion will expand the game’s timeline, though it’s a bit of a shame that we don’t get to play a post-WWII time.

Finally, one thing that I wish could be improved is the Crisis system. While it does add tension at the end of the Age, it often doesn’t feel as threatening as it should be. That’s not exactly because of the Crisis’ effect on gameplay though, but more so the Crisis doesn’t feel as big of a deal visually. This can be improved I think by making the Crisis pop-ups look more visually striking, or adding more visual effects to towns and cities when a Crisis begins and progresses.

Civilization VII Final Verdict – 9/10

The gap between Civilization VI and VII is the longest ever for the series. After playing the seventh installment, the nearly decade-long gap was worth it as Firaxis truly succeeded with Civilization VII’s gameplay.

Firaxis’ goal for this installment is to streamline the experience without getting rid of the depth. In my time with the game, I can say that Firaxis achieved its goal as Civilization VII solved many of Civ 6’s problems elegantly. That’s because the mechanics have been modified so that it feels great to play from the beginning to the end, all while the new and old gameplay elements fit naturally.

Of course, the massive changes do manifest in a hit to the feeling of continuity and immersion. While this might be an issue to some, it’s not too difficult to look past this, especially considering how great the overall gameplay experience is.

To end, Civilization VII is overall excellent game. I’d even say that thanks to the new direction of the game, Civ 7 scratches that “just one more turn” itch more than the previous series entries.

[This review was made via a PC game code provided by the publisher.]