Civ 7 is the one that finally got me.
We’ve all heard about civilization. Surprising absolutely no one, Civ 7 has received mixed reviews over its first 1.5 years of life. I played it recently, here are my thoughts.
A little history: Most people probably know how Civilization works: You pick a civilization with its own unique perks, establish cities on the hexagonal map, and pursue a victory in Science, Warfare, Culture, or Religion.
Every civilization since the first has changed some sort of mechanic to a varying degree. I haven’t been a dedicated player since the early 2000’s like a lot of the fans, but I’ve kept up on the changes since IV. The community is….. interesting in the same way battlefield players are interesting, so every game since IV has been met with “the previous one is way better!” or something of that nature. The players seem to genuinely hate change (you still have people saying unit stacking should’ve never gone away in 5), so I honestly would never look at reviews or community input when considering trying a Civilization game. The developers always shoot to revamp mechanics and that is necessary for the series to move forward.
What’s new: So what changed this time? Well, a lot! And boy did it ruffle some feathers. At the risk of being reductive, the developers focused on each of the three ages feeling distinct by incorporating major shifts. Gone are the days keeping the same civilization throughout all of history (Pre-historic Boston was certainly something); A game begins with selecting a leader (has their own perks, lasts throughout the entire game) and a beginning civilization (has its own perks). When an age ends, you select a new civilization based on what civ you started with or what you did during the age. It can get wacky, where you get stuff like Augustus leading the Han dynasty then shifting into the Shawnee civilization in the Exploration age, but you would be surprised how often it makes sense with just a little bit of imagination.
The other major changes are the distinction in settlements. Now there are cities which work like old civilization cities, and now there are towns, which are limited in the building options and can support cities. When population in town/cities is added, you select the tiles to receive resources from, rather than all tiles automatically being worked. Additionally, you can place a building on a tile instead of working it, which obviously provides its own bonuses that can increase based on what is near it. Finally, Commanders make moving units around so much easier, so combat has significantly improved.
Execution: So, what are my thoughts on the new mechanics? I love them. Yea, that’s right, I think all the complaining is wrong. This is the most engaging civilization I have played, and I think Firaxis attempted to address a lot of the boring parts found in previous civilization games. It’s not just the new mechanics, it’s also the new iterations of mechanics introduced in older games.
One of my issues with the previous titles was that each game felt the same. Yes, there were different victories, but it felt like they all boiled down to “spam this number by spamming the relevant buildings”. While that is still sort of true, the feel of a full game of civilization in Civ 7 has totally changed. Another annoyance was the list of things you wanted to always do was pretty long. More cities was always good. You always were rewarded for having great science or military. So how do things feel differently now?
To begin, making each age feel unique and have its own set of priorities and problems revitalized my passion to continue the file. It feels less like a marathon and more like sequential sprints, which cuts down on the "restart loop". The new towns and cities mechanic might be the best change since unit stacking was eliminated. In civ 5 and 6, there was never really a reason to stop settling cities until you ran out of space. Now, with the settlement limit, you have to think a little more about how many settlements you want. Additionally, each settlement doesn’t spam the same building layout to maximize your victory. You might establish a coastal town to feed food to your capital. You might lay down a smaller town as a fort town and be a military buffer for your aggressive neighbor. The town specializations ensure you don’t have 15 production queues to complete each turn when modern age hits and give each settlement a unique flavor.
Switching civs (which isn’t required as of the newest update) means you essentially “start a new game” and gives more energy to a stagnant playthrough. You may also have to pivot your strategy as the game evolves. Each age has its own goals and issues to address, meaning I don’t have the singular goal of “spam science” for 600 turns. The culture and science tech trees both provide great benefits, so you can’t completely ignore one or the other. The mechanics really feed well into each other without making each playthrough too homogenous. I haven’t really felt a “Jesus take the wheel” moment in my games as Civ 7 has managed to keep me engaged much longer than previous titles. The way each age has its own priorities and means to address them leads to a sort of “refocus” from the player.
Recently, an update just dropped that changed a few things. For starters, you CAN stay as the same civilization the entire time now. I don’t know why this is such a big deal for people, but it’s in now. Additionally, some of the goals and related rewards for doing well in an age have changed to make each playthrough feel more unique. The game is on sale and everything points to the update being huge for the game.
To finish this ramble, I have some tips for people who pick this game up. For starters, you HAVE to understand how things work for the game to be fun. If you don’t understand how specialists and urban tiles work, your decisions will lack meaning. You have to understand trade offs for your choices to feel fun. Make sure you keep the difficulty level high (I’d recommend Immortal). If you aren’t threatened (via military or just the pace of the game) then everything will feel easy and you will be able to do everything each game. My last piece of advice would be to avoid restarting too much. Mistakes are part of a run, and if you keep restarting you will only be playing 33% of the game over and over again!
Thanks for reading, I’ll be editing grammar and little tidbits as I have the time!