When a franchise approaches its seventh numbered installment, having already had a bunch of DLC packs and spinoffs, you must think it gets harder to innovate.

I know the likes of Madden, EA Sports FC and NBA have to do this annually with an existing formula that goes beyond an expanded roster, so at least Civilization VII has had nearly a decade to finetune. But what soon becomes clear when playing Firaxis latest is it’s more often than not a greatest hits.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, by the way. In fact, I deeply appreciate it. Trying to summarise what has worked for this franchise over the last thirty years is one heck of a feat, then bundling it all together to try and create the definitive experience.

Except Firaxis haven’t just settled for that, they’ve also tried to innovate. And it’s in that they may have unravelled the fine stitching just a little bit.

The biggest switch up and change here is the addition of ages. I get why they’re here. Civ runs are long, they’re often played over several days and it can often feel like once you’re lagging behind, you really struggle to catch up. The idea of splitting the run into three ages is to give you something of a soft reset in-between runs, trying to freshen up the experience so it doesn’t just become more mindless clicking, and so you can regain lost momentum.

It’s a smart idea and something that was brought forward by Humankind. Interestingly enough, though, both to mixed results. In many cases, it seems, due to a bit of burnout.

There’s something about bringing this to Civ that both works incredibly well, creating nice stop off points to take a break and to cleverly introduce more updated concepts, but in a slightly detrimental way by stripping away this idea of permanence as everything will need to be cut down and revamped, as if you’re starting over.

For better or worse, the thing that’s always worked in Civ is you start an empire from the barest of bones and build it right up to the space race to see who can hold all the glory, everything maintained throughout. That’s still somewhat the case here, for sure, but the aim is more to focus on winning in each age to give you an advantage in the next.

You’ll earn legacy points which can be spent to give you a bit of a headstart during the transition, you can change your civilization depending on how you’ve played during the age and align your chosen leader to a different nation. And a big one, any wars you may have been in will automatically end, once again giving you a cleanslate in the next.

And one could argue the above goes against the grain of what Civ is. Certain buildings you’ve built immediately become outdated and need to be replaced. Armies are weakened immediately because they’re using old weapons and armor, and depending on what you’ve learned and how you’ve defended yourself, the crisis at the end of each age could seriously leave you hamstrung.

The interesting thing this does offer, though, is you can ‘win’ in each age, even though the overall victor will not be declared until the very end. But it’s almost like creating a Mario Kart leaderboard vibe throughout an entire run, and I guess makes the game more universally appealing and approachable, especially seeing as you have multiple chances to make breakthroughs. Considering this is the first Civ game to simship on consoles as well, it does make sense in a desire to broaden the audience.

Personally, I got to grips with it pretty fast and actually really enjoyed dealing with the unique, unexpected scenarios that would pop up that feel appropriate to the times. Civ 7 also throws objectives your way to also keep things interesting during runs, and these are determined by your choices. Depending on whether you listen more to your Science or Military advisor, for instance, your objectives are shaped and moulded around that.

It also ties into who you’ve got as your leader and have picked from the ridiculously deep roster of globally recognised pioneers, each with their own quirks and specialities.

But the thing that surprised me the most is the cut-off point. In something of a shocker, as of now, Civ 7 does not take you to the modern day (and beyond) which has been such a massive part of the series. In fact, it doesn’t go beyond World War 2. One has to think this will change with the DLC to follow, but for now, this is quite a massive shift for a Civ game and one that may not be too popular.

I guess the thinking behind this is to speed up the game. There are only a certain amount of turns that can take place during an age and entire run. To keep the game speed down, presumably, and make sure it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Something, tonally, Firaxis have got very right here. They’ve managed to sensibly condense a hefty, chunk of a game into more manageable slices. Especially when you think about online multiplayer and finding a happy middle ground.

Should Firaxis have left in old-school Civ rules as an additional mode, though? Possibly. But for now, that’s not an option and you either vibe with the Age mechanic or you don’t. It’s a bold move, for sure, and it really does set the tone for the entire game because you’re drastically changing up the formula for a game that, realistically, has stayed in a very similar lane for its lifespan.

For that, Firaxis should be commended for being brave enough to experiment, and it is still a very enjoyable way to play, plus you still have the option of going back to Civ 5 or 6 for a taste of nostalgia.

The UI was a bit hit and miss for me at times. On the one hand, I’m impressed by the way it’s been optimised for a controller. Say what you will, but this a touch screen or mouse and keyboard game first and foremost. But I dived into Civ 7 with my pad on my Steam Deck and was pretty impressed at how well all the menus and operations were handled. I’d never play that way out of preference, but it’s nice to have options.

Speaking of Steam Deck, Civ 7 runs pretty decently, though this game is surprisingly data intensive and really set the fan on my Deck going! It was also quite a battery burner, though the one work around I tried was using GeForce Now and streaming it that way. Game ran like a dream at max settings and barely stuttered for a moment’s notice. But yes, you’ll really want to check your specs for this one. Civ 7 is a surprising beast!

It’s probably a lot to do with all the activity happening on the board at any one time. There’s lots of rival civs, the graphics are as high-end as they’ve ever been, and following on from Civ 6 Gathering Storm, Natural Disasters have a big role to play. In fact, sometimes it gets too much. I had volcanos erupting during my three-age playthrough almost every other turn at one point. I’m not sure there’d be much of an Earth left if that was the case, but what do I know about geography?

But disasters play a big role – everything from flooding to large wind gusts, each will affect your towns and cities in unique ways, often destroying squares and causing you to fix things on the fly, while also trying to build up your colonies to be the biggest and most powerful on the map.

The maps in general do feel a tad small, though and in general Civ 7 just feels a bit cramped. From the amount of buttons all over the screen, to the huge amount of popups that crawl through to tell you about every little thing and the random activities you’ll need to address.

One of these is the narrative arcs that feel very age-appropriate and illustrate the changing of the times, often giving you opportunities to gain bonus to your Civ happiness, science or political manouerving. You often need to make a choice between two, though sometimes you’ll get an opportunity to take on an additional objective from the story that can lead to grander bonuses and opportunities.

To win an age, you’ll need to have fulfilled your objectives, so need to tailor your research and production to that. It’s a smart way to focus your gameplay and give you something of a guiding hand, though the key decisions remain in your hands, whether you start wars, form alliances, make pacts and how rapidly you colonise the lands around you.

In its essence, this is still Civilization, but with some new ideas engineering the core loop. You still get randomly attacked by independents, though sometimes it’s very difficult to see if your cities are under attack and when they become dense with the squares filled out, it’s even harder to see where you’re being attacked from.

Everything also feels kind of small? It’s to fit more onto the screen and you can of course increase the visibility of the key text boxes and messages, but it almost ends up filling too much of the screen, so you’re either fighting a battle of it being too cluttered and too much to pay attention to, or clogged up and hard to see.

It also does feel like you can just tap through the scenes and sequences without much recompense or consequence, especially when you know early on that you’re boxed in by the countless other Civs on the map or your way behind in technological advancements. Again, that can be indicative of a Civ experience, but I felt hit by it more here, especially when bonuses stacked and I already felt like I’d been leapfrogged and had no chance of getting back on the front foot.

So this is an interesting one. You feel like they’re not giving us the full experience out of the gate because there’s a healthy content roadmap to come, though there’s still more than enough to sink your teeth into here. The various leaders offered really open up playstyles to suit you rather than forcing you to play a certain way, the core experience has been more streamlined to make the game accessible to more audiences and the age seperation at least gives you a chance to play catchup.

But a lack of offering the classic mode, not going beyond WW2 and some difficulties with the UI do make this one slightly tougher to love than previous entries. I’m very excited to see how Civ 7 evolves over the next few years and how much support Firaxis will almost certainly give the game, but there’s no question this is the most divisive game in the series. Some are not a fan of these changes, some, like me, are more receptive to them, but one thing no one can deny, it’s a game that, right now, is leaving a fair bit on the table to give to us down the road.

Verdict

Civilization VII is undoubtedly the most divisive instalment in the series to date. Removing the classic formula of play for the new Age system is a bold stroke that, for the most part, does pay off for the series. It rebalances the gameplay to make it more approachable for a wider audience pool – feeling surprisingly comfortable on controller – gives players more chance of winning conditions in a gameplay style that feels appropriate for them, and the objective based system really diversifies each playthrough to make it unique. However, some UI issues, lack of a classic mode offered and a shortened end date than expected mean this one isn’t going to be what everyone wants, even if it’s mostly, the Civ you know and love. 

Pros

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Civilization VII is out now on all formats.

Played on PC and Steam Deck

Code Kindly Provided by 2K for review purposes