Though I have been playing variations of strategy games all my life, taking on the review for Sid Meier’s Civilization VII felt a lot more intimidating than others. With an already extremely dedicated fan base, Civ VII went for a more welcoming approach, which is great for players who love 4X turn-based strategy games but aren’t familiar with Civilization games specifically. Unfortunately, a lot of the more hardcore fans may take issue with the new approach.
The basis for Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is simple, in theory. Take over the world. No, not exactly. Civ VII allows you to carry on throughout history in three ages: the Antiquity Age, the Exploration Age and the Modern Age. These ages expand across thousands of years, allowing you to take your leader and parts of the world you helped create with you through each age.
One of the new additions to Civ VII is the ability to pair any leader with any Civilization. When you start to make your choices, the game will let you know which may be the most historically accurate in case you’re looking to stick to it, but you are now able to pair anyone with any location, mixing and matching bonuses to see what you can do. There are also options like difficulty, game speed, map type, and map size, plus the ability to turn off crises, change the game length and more. You can also play each Age individually if you want to explore a specific part of the game instead of an entire run.
There are over 20 leaders in Civilization VII, so the possibilities of pairing leaders with civilizations with ages are truly endless. You can throw Benjamin Franklin in the middle of Egypt or Confucius in Rome. Why not? Each age will progress exploration becoming more and more indepth. For instance, the Exploration Age allows you to tread deeper waters and find new continents, compared to the Antiquity Age, and it brings on the choice of religion as well.
The Modern Age takes your world a step further, allowing you to build rail stations or factories to boost trade, research flight, or excavate artifacts. Your armies are condensed, but some carry over under new names. Buildings like Ports, Ironworks, City Parks and Grocers have been added as well.
Each leader has likes and dislikes, for instance, my first choice was Hatshepsut in Egypt, and she likes leaders with fewer Wonders of the World and dislikes leaders with more. She receives bonuses toward constructing buildings and wonders on navigatable rivers, and gains culture for every imported resource.
Each leader has their own bonuses and caveats, and the more you play with them, the more they expand as well, so the number of hours that could be spent in Civilization VII is astonishing if you really want to pull off a completionist game. As leaders level up, they will gain new bonuses to add to the originals, like added resources or lower influence costs for certain actions, and that is just toward the beginning of the game.
“Where Sid Meier’s Civilization VII has exceeded my expectations is in how truly stunning the game is.”
Tutorials have been “revamped” for Civilization VII, and I genuinely don’t know how I would have survived without them. There are so many intricacies in the game that require past knowledge or experimentation to figure out. Even with these new tutorials, I still found a lot unexplained. The Codex feature is handy when trying to learn what something is, but not always so useful when you want to know how to do or how to use something.
Playing through the Ages in Civilization VII feels like you are in control of your own journey and is relatively relaxed, you have time to explore, make choices each turn, and really consider what you want your civilization to accomplish. For instance, I enjoy exploring as much of the map as possible. Finding other leaders, new resources, independent towns and any other overall surprises are some of the most satisfying parts of Civ VII to me.
However, my experience with the game will be completely different from someone else’s or perhaps even different from my next run. Jumping into multiplayer in Civilization VII is really what opened my eyes to how different the game can be for each player. When speaking with friends, I was asked which way I was trying to “win,” whether it was with a scientific, economic, militaristic or cultural focus.
Truthfully, I tried a few different options in my playtime, and nothing ever truly felt like a win-or-lose situation while playing; it was always learning. Watching my world progress in different ways was satisfying. To truly win or reach “total victory,” you must complete a Legacy Path in the Modern Age. This is where you will choose to master the Economic, Military, Science or Culture path.
It wasn’t until multiplayer that I learned there was no other way except world domination, it seems. It doesn’t matter what genre of game you play; online gamers will always resort to war. After a few attempts at online games, I soon learned that bolstering my military would be the only way to survive, so unless you have friends online or really enjoy mastering your military, be wary.
I think the most important point to get across when it comes to Civilization VII is that no two games will ever be the same. The combinations of leaders, resources, and focuses are enough to satisfy even the most intense gamer, provided they are willing to experiment and expand on whatever their preferred gameplay style is. If you are open to experimenting and exploring new avenues, the possibilities are endless.
In one game, take over the world, in another, focus on your culture or scientific research. In the Antiquity Age, place your focus on your military, as it is something that carries into the next age with you, to a point. But in the Exploration Age, maybe you want to expand your economic goals. Personally, I would prefer one massive map that grows with you over the ages.
I was a bit disappointed to find I would lose nearly everything from the Antiquity Age, aside from some of my military (though it is reduced) and the AI relationships I had built or burnt with other leaders when I reached the Exploration Age. Sid Meier’s Civilization VII seems to reward restarting and rebuilding over and over rather than a consistent, long-term approach.
“No matter how you look at it, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is a testament to how good games can be.”
There are a few quality-of-life features I would love to see implemented as well. For instance, zooming out further would be nice. Right now, when you head into later Ages, the world gets bigger, and to pull out far enough to see a bigger portion of the continent would make life so much easier. I would also love to be able to cycle through any armies, scouts, settlers, etc., that I had on the move. There is so much going on in the map at one time, and if you happen to set one of them to wait, the game won’t ping you about them again, so it is very easy to lose or forget about them.
Where Sid Meier’s Civilization VII has exceeded my expectations is in how truly stunning the game is. Comparing screenshots to Civilization VI isn’t even a competition. With nearly 10 years between games, it makes sense, but even newer 4X strategy games don’t have this level of detail. When zooming in on towns, cities, or even individual characters in Civ VII, you can still see the grain in logs and buildings, fires roaring, shadows in their clothing and more. It is something beautiful to behold.
Even when not being controlled, you can see warriors keeping an eye out for danger, makeshift cranes dangling in the winds and rocks being pulled from quarries. Even the oceans are flowing. Nothing looks like an afterthought in Civ VII. Of course, this level of detail is dependent on your system, but if you are capable of running Civilization VII on high graphics settings, I suggest you take some time and scroll across your map. That being said, I was also able to run Civ VII on my ROG Ally X and use controller support. Civ VII is extremely adaptable.
No matter how you look at it, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is a testament to how good games can be. With endless hours of content, a satisfying gameplay loop, outstanding graphics, and more than a whole world to explore, Civ VII is a game worth adding to your wishlist. You won’t find a game with more content than this.
