Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is the newest mainline entry in Firaxis’ long-running 4X strategy series, which is built on exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating across procedurally generated maps. Taken on its own, each campaign remains a superbly engaging escapade across eras that will keep you playing for “one more turn” until you realize you’re late for your sister’s birthday party. Civilization VII is not just a game that you play to pass the time during weekends–the experience is compelling enough that it is the weekend, and maybe several weekdays of your life, too.
For Civilization VII, Firaxis has made some sweeping changes, most notably with how you progress through each historical period. Several of these new features are welcome, given that they address concerns from previous titles while also making campaigns more dynamic. However, a few design decisions are bound to be contentious, especially for longtime fans, since these mechanics tend to impact the player’s control over certain outcomes.
One of the biggest changes in Civilization VII is how you choose leaders and nations separately. Gone are the days when picking Augustus Caesar or Napoleon meant automatically playing as Rome or France, respectively. Instead, leaders have a unique trait that defines their playstyle, and you can select a country independently to complement that playstyle.
For instance, Hatshepsut’s trait–God’s Wife of Amun–grants bonuses from imported resources and navigable rivers, while starting close to those same rivers, no less. Naturally, as Pharaoh, you would think that Egypt, which also grants extra production on rivers, would be the best civ choice for Hatshepsut. That might be true, but you could opt to try others, such as the Maya for their science bonuses or Maurya for their additional pantheon belief.
This concept is brilliant as it offers unparalleled flexibility in how you approach each playthrough. It also gives you the opportunity to strategize right from the get-go: Should you pick leaders and nations that complement one another well, even if it leads to a more rigid path, or should you go against the grain to come up with surprising combinations?
Likewise, there’s an account-based progression system where you earn Mementos that can be equipped by leaders, giving them beneficial perks such as additional skill points or increased yields. (These can be optionally disabled in multiplayer.) One noteworthy inclusion is the Complaint to Ea-nāṣir–a tablet from ancient Babylon that’s considered by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “oldest written customer complaint”–which provides an Economic attribute point for selected leaders.
The Memento system is certainly an interesting idea that rewards those who like to “main” a particular character. In my case, I played several matches as Jose Rizal, a national hero of the Philippines. Rizal’s unique trait grants better rewards from narrative events–new quest chains for each leader, further enriching the roleplaying aspect as you learn more about these historical figures. Since he has a generalist playstyle, I was free to aim for conquest, scientific breakthroughs, or other means of advancement, tackling a plethora of missions and leveling him up as I went along.
The gameplay in Sid Meier’s Civilization VII should feel both fresh and familiar to veterans of the series and other 4X strategy titles. At the start of a match in the Antiquity Age (which replaces the Ancient Era and Classical Era), you found your capital city and send Scouts to explore your surroundings. Scouts even have a new action that reveals nearby ruins that grant advantageous benefits, making the search for “goodie huts” as hassle-free as it gets.
From there, you send out your Settlers to create settlements as you expand across the continent, while also exploiting resource nodes around you. A notable change in Civilization VII compared to its predecessors is that newly founded settlements aren’t cities but small towns with specializations, somewhat akin to colony planets in Stellaris. You can, eventually, turn towns into cities, which poses more questions that reinforce the game’s strategic depth–do I want this large town to continue specializing in a particular function, or should I turn it into a city so I could be more hands-on with its development?
Growing your cities and towns in Civilization VII is now significantly more streamlined. You no longer need to worry about Worker units (they’re completely gone). Instead, you just click on a tile and a specific improvement, be it a mine, plantation, farm, or camp, is plopped down instantly for free. You can even pair buildings with one another, creating a quarter (i.e. district) that provides bonuses, as well as build over them with more advanced facilities in later eras–yet another facet that should get yield min-maxers excited.
These strategic layers further extend to how you take down your opponents through the Commander system, which replaces Great Generals and Great Admirals. Now, Commanders can “pack” several units within them–perhaps a nod to the old “doomstacks” from earlier Civ games–and enact combined-arms attacks so multiple units can simultaneously strike the same target. Furthermore, units no longer gain skill points, but Commanders do, and their perks affect all those within their radius. Similarly to how you expand settlements, this streamlined process is excellent as it decreases the need to micromanage multiple units by the mid- and late-game stages.
Meanwhile, the revamped diplomacy system, where influence plays a bigger role, now includes treaties, espionage activities, war support, and actions related to independent peoples/city-states. For instance, if you’re lagging behind an opponent, you can incite city-states to raid their lands, while you steal their technologies and cause their war-weariness to spiral out of control. Each of the core 4X gameplay mechanics shine, leading to exhilarating moments where you have to use all available tools to succeed.
The experience is made even more memorable by gorgeous visuals. The map itself comes to life thanks to breathtaking environments, thematic unit designs, and settlements that showcase your chosen nation’s cultural aesthetics. For instance, the buildings in a Shawnee city look vastly different from those in settlements owned by the Mongolians, Ming Chinese, or Songhai. Civilization VII is the type of game that invites you to zoom in and marvel at the details of smaller settlements that have turned into bustling metropolises with distinct architecture and art.
