After greater than fifty hours of Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 and the whole annihilation of my sleep routine thanks to at least one too many mild evening classes, I can confidently say that the newest entry within the legendary turn-based strategy franchise from style masters Firaxis Video games is as strategically wealthy and unapologetically moreish as ever.
Assessment data
Platform reviewed: PC
Accessible on: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Change
Launch date: February 11, 2025
I can’t deny that I went in slightly sceptical too, as Civilization 7 is comfortably essentially the most radical tackle Civilization but. The place earlier installments have relied on only a handful of recent mechanics to maintain issues feeling recent, Civilization 7 makes a number of elementary adjustments to the sequence’ core components which might be, by and huge, masterfully dealt with. The choice to separate Leaders and Civs (the numerous playable historic teams), for instance, is a daring one however opens the door to a complete new stage of planning.
Employed aptly, swapping between Civs means that you can pivot your technique on the fly, serving to to stop these painful, protracted losses that had been as soon as nearly assured to happen in the event you had been unfortunate sufficient to mess up early on. Opponents resembling Humankind have experimented with an analogous mix-and-match components up to now however solely demonstrated the potential pitfalls of such programs with uneven, poorly balanced matches.
These issues are fortunately nowhere to be present in Civilization 7, although, whereas it is among the best PC games, that’s to not say that it is excellent and there aren’t a couple of areas with room for enchancment.
City planner
Civilization has at all times been the archetypal 4X (Discover, Increase, Exploit, Exterminate) technique sport, closely using all the weather of the style’s namesake. You play as a historic chief in a procedurally generated hexagon-tiled map, exploring your environment earlier than founding cities and starting to broaden your empire.
Inserting buildings inside cities gives helpful yields, particularly Science (which is tied to how briskly you possibly can work your manner by way of a expertise tree to unlock more and more trendy items or facilities), Tradition for buying Civics (developments in ideology with their very own distinctive bonuses), and Manufacturing (merely how rapidly you possibly can construct issues). That is on prime of extra materials sources, like Meals (for rising the inhabitants and variety of tiles that your cities occupy), gold (which lets you immediately purchase buildings or items), and Affect (factors you possibly can spend interacting with different leaders).
Studying tips on how to correctly exploit the atmosphere is essential, as tiles have distinctive qualities that make them finest suited to a sure yield. Paired with a plethora of adjacency bonuses and the brand new potential to overbuild (change early buildings with superior variations after they turn into obtainable), managing your cities is a tough however completely partaking problem in and of itself.
It was one thing that I at all times discovered a tad overwhelming in Civilization 6, however one small tweak makes metropolis administration in Civilization 7 that a lot simpler to maintain on prime of. Now, new settlements are mechanically based as small cities, that are way more restricted than full-blown cities and thus don’t require wherever close to the identical stage of micro-management. You may improve cities to cities for a payment, however I used to be content material focusing all my consideration on maximizing the output of simply a few main cities for almost all of my video games.
Spending time creating your metropolises is particularly rewarding this time round, as Civilization 7 is by far the perfect wanting technique sport I’ve ever performed. Every miniature tile is extremely detailed, permitting you to zoom in and see your chosen buildings as they’re constructed. Whether or not it’s the animated livestock, bridges over the flowing rivers, or the big variety of period-appropriate architectural kinds that line the tightly-knit streets, all the pieces seems like a lovely museum diorama come to life.
Make your mark
In fact, Civilization 7 is about way over simply managing the place your topics stay and every match sees gamers working in direction of a spread of victory sorts – with the primary to meet anybody’s situations topped the general winner. The best is Domination, the place you construct up armies and exterminate each different participant by capturing all of their territories. Generals, a brand new unit sort that may band collectively close by troops for straightforward transport, are a improbable addition and remove the frustration that was shifting giant armies in earlier video games.
Different victory sorts are actually tied to 4 new legacy paths (Army, Tradition, Science, and Financial), which offer a continuing set of targets to pursue. Matches in Civilization 7 are themselves break up into three distinct chunks that roughly mirror a key historic interval (Antiquity, Exploration, and Trendy) and the legacy paths have their very own distinctive objectives for every. The Army path, for instance, focuses on capturing settlements in Antiquity, dominating the brand new world in Exploration, and, finally, profitable growth of the atomic bomb in Trendy.
Greatest bit
There are a number of new development programs in Sid Meier’s Civilization 7, together with one that offers you helpful buffs you possibly can take into future video games. Probably the most compelling, nonetheless, is chief Attributes, that are unlocked as you progress by way of a match. They assist improve your capabilities in particular areas, letting you finely tweak your chief to help your personal playstyle.
Tradition, in the meantime, is all about setting up one-of-a-kind World Wonders, founding an influential faith, and at last, a mad rush to dig up historic artifacts from throughout the map. All of them really feel very distinct and efficiently finishing the targets of the 2 preliminary ages gives helpful bonuses for the subsequent like some free inhabitants or enhanced variations of buildings. Consequently, every age unfolds nearly like its personal small-scale sport of Civilization, with gamers racing to finish these mini-goals. It lends matches a improbable sense of tempo, lastly addressing the tendency for issues to tug after the primary hundred or so turns.
Nonetheless, I did discover that following a legacy path does begin to turn into fairly repetitive in time. Every legacy path at all times has the identical objectives, so realistically you’re going to finish up performing the identical actions quite a bit. By the tip of my 50 hours, I felt like I had fully mastered all levels of each the Army and Financial legacy paths and was hesitant to begin recent video games pursuing them. After 100 hours, I can think about actually needing some new methods to win – one thing that I hope can be launched within the anticipated barrage of post-launch downloadable content material.
Tag group
It is not like each match unfolds in solely the identical predictable sample, nonetheless, as the flexibility to change your present Civ firstly of every age does add quite a lot of changeability. That is an absolute spotlight and has been carried out impressively properly. Every age has its personal roster of historic Civs with their very own distinctive buffs, buildings, and items and your alternative of chief impacts which of them you possibly can decide after your preliminary choice in Antiquity. These taking part in as famend abolitionist Harriet Tubman, for instance, will at all times be capable of entry America within the Trendy age, which is a intelligent solution to encourage extra traditionally correct pairings.
You may unlock extra Civs by fulfilling sure standards in every age, too. I performed a sport the place I ended up constructing quite a lot of fortifications to guard myself towards an aggressive neighbor in Antiquity, which unlocked the choice to decide on the Normans within the Exploration Age who partly specialise in protection. That is, in a phrase, good, because it means that you can solely shift your technique if one thing isn’t understanding.
If you happen to go right into a sport meaning to pursue an Financial victory and decide one of many corresponding first Civs solely to finish up eager to pivot to Tradition, you possibly can merely unlock and change to a extra Tradition-oriented Civ once you get the possibility. It’s simpler to pursue a number of victories this fashion too and means that you may typically flip issues round in the event you’re not succeeding.
It undoubtedly helps that there’s an expansive collection of leaders obtainable at launch, with returning army staples together with Napoleon and Augustus joined by unconventional new picks like scheming writer Machiavelli and traveled chronicler Ibn Battuta, in addition to simply over 30 Civs. To prime all of it off, each leaders and Civs have some actually fairly distinctive powers, like Battuta’s Commerce Maps Diplomatic Endeavour that permits you to spend Affect to see one other chief’s explored land or America’s robust resource-grabbing prospector unit.
Code crimson
In direction of the tip of the primary two ages, you additionally need to take care of a disaster, which may vary from the looks of hordes of invading barbarians to lethal plagues that wipe out total armies in only a few turns.
You fight these by enacting necessary Disaster Insurance policies, which usually present some reduction in a single space whereas massively hampering your progress in one other. Understanding precisely which of the insurance policies you’re supplied will have an effect on you the least is a welcome puzzle and the looming risk of a disaster ups the ante at a time once you would in any other case be winding down.
Despite all these bombastic new additions, the one main space the place Civilization 7 really falls brief is in its diplomacy system – which is baffling as, in my guide, it was nearly excellent in Civilization 6. Your interactions with different leaders really feel unnecessarily restricted, primarily centered on forming easy alliances and open border agreements. You may now not immediately commerce gold, which implies no bargaining for an additional chief’s cities or leveraging piles of cash to bribe grasping leaders into initiating dropping wars with others. It’s an actual disgrace, as these programs opened the door to some significantly amusing situations and even helped boost offline matches towards AI.
In any other case, I’ve only a few reservations about recommending Civilization 7. If you happen to’re a lover of technique video games, you’ll undoubtedly have a improbable expertise. As an evolution of the sequence, it’s an admirable success, and, like its predecessor, I’m assured my few complaints will a minimum of be remedied by way of each free and paid content material updates within the months and years to return.
Ought to I play Sid Meier’s Civilization 7?
Play it if…
Don’t play it if…
Accessibility
There are a stable variety of accessibility choices in Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 which will be present in a loyal accessibility menu. Keyboard and mouse controls will be remapped on PC, and there’s additionally full help for customized controller layouts.
On prime of this, you’ll be able to enhance or lower the font scale, allow colorblind filters, activate dialogue subtitles, and allow in-game menu or chat narration. There are a selection of adverse choices to select from when taking part in with AI and a complete tutorial system.
How I reviewed Sid Meier’s Civilization 7
I performed Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 for nearly 60 hours on PC, experimenting with a variety of chief and Civ mixtures. I managed to succeed at every potential victory sort, studying their mechanics and following the assorted legacy paths.
Key specs of my PC construct embrace an Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU, i5-11400F CPU, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. By way of peripherals, I relied on an Asus ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition mouse and an Endgame Gear KB65HE keyboard, plus a Lenovo Q24i-10 Monitor and a SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 gaming headset for audio.
All through my time with the sport, I in contrast my expertise to that of not solely Civilization video games but additionally a variety of different 4X technique titles together with Humankind, Ara: Historical past Untold, Countless Legend, and extra.
First reviewed January/February 2025