Civilization 7: buggy and unbalanced
Civilization 7 aims to take its series in a new direction after nine years of development. Its new ideas are good in principle, but the attempt fails in practice, mainly due to a poor user interface and dubious decisions by the developers.
My Roman forces, led by Machiavelli, have surrounded the city of Tosali. A few moves more, and my enemy’s city will be reduced to rubble and I can celebrate a glorious victory! But then… bam! The Exploration Age dawns and ends my war. I hadn’t expected that. Seems like I have to get to grips with the new mechanics first.
The Civilization series is considered the mother of all 4X games. In both the wider genre and this series, you’re tasked to lead your people to victory through exploration, expansion, exploitation and extermination.
A map divided into hexagons (or squares before game 5) and turn-based game mechanics have been the cornerstones of the «Civ» series since 1991. Since then, there have been several major changes to the game concept. Civilization 7 again brings many adjustments – unfortunately, few of them are any good.
Source: Simon Balissat
Good changes
Generals
Generals can reinforce your army if they’re in the immediate vicinity, but they also function as transport units. Up to six army groups can tag along with them, which makes moving my troops much easier. One unit still each takes up one hexagon, but without generals, moving my army becomes complicated and tedious since I always have to search for free spaces.
Source: Simon Balissat
Stories
Anyone who plays Paradox games such as Europa Universalis or Hearts of Iron knows that small events provide added depth. Witches suddenly appear, say, and I can either work with them or get rid of them. My decision then brings either a bonus to culture or more happiness to my people. These story elements make the world of Civilization feel more alive, even if they sometimes seem rather clumsy and random.
Independent settlements instead of city states and barbarians
In earlier Civilization games, I was able to gain first experiences of war against barbarian tribes at the beginning of a game. City states, on the other hand, were small states that didn’t fight to win and could be subjugated. Both are now combined into Independent Powers, which can be either hostile, neutral or friendly towards me – a useful simplification.
Influence as currency
I can now gain Influence as a currency and spend it on diplomatic actions. The system is simple but effective. I need Influence both to declare wars and to trade efficiently. In other words, I can either save Influence for big campaigns or invest it directly in order to constantly improve my relationships.
Source: Simon Balissat
Bad changes
Ages
As mentioned at the beginning, the new Age system has its pitfalls. The idea is good in itself. I lead my people from antiquity through the Exploration Age into the Modern Age, with changes between them playing an important role.
Units are downgraded, most of your buildings are no longer worth anything and game objectives change since the map expands too. I can develop my populace and go from the Romans to the Normans to the French, for example. It’s all done to keep players happy and prevent snowballing. Snowballing refers to when a nation dominates early on and can no longer be challenged, by the way. Sounds good, until you yourself are the nation that’s far ahead and loses a large chunk of your progress. Now that’s frustrating.
A disastrous user interface
The user interface in Civilization 7 is often confusing and doesn’t display certain things at all. It’s also full of avoidable mistakes, such as fonts that protrude beyond a button. Need an example? Say I want to send out a trader. Sure, the menu will show me which cities are accessible and which aren’t, but it won’t explain why not.
Also, I can’t just click on cities in the menu and set up a trade route. I have to send the trader to the city myself, then start the trade route there. Why doesn’t the game simply offer a button labelled «Send trader to city»?
Source: Simon Balissat
Missing features
The story stays the same. This game simply isn’t fully developed yet in its current state. Religions and cities, for example, can’t be renamed – a feature available in every other Civilization. As a result, I control the French in the final age but my cities are still called Roma and Pompeii. It’s also been confirmed that a fourth age is still in development. We don’t know whether the developers will add it for free or charge money for an expansion. Somehow the game still feels unfinished, and I get the feeling that the last age was originally intended for the base game.
Conclusion after one week: hasn’t reached its full potential
After a week of Civilization 7, I have to say I’m disappointed. In its current state, I’d keep my hands off the game and fall back on Civ 6 or 5 instead.
No question about it: there’s great potential in this, the mother of all strategy games. But first, the terrible UI needs to be cleaned up and ages should be made fairer. If Firaxis and 2K are willing to spend money and add the fourth age as an update, it could still be something. They’ve already announced some changes in the right direction in a blog post. A VR version of Civilization 7 is also on the cards. Hopefully, their priority will be to improve the PC and console versions first.
Civilization 7 is available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Nintendo Switch. The PC version was provided to me by 2K for testing purposes.
Header image: Firaxis
29 people like this article
Simon Balissat
Teamleader Editorial
Simon.Balissat@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.
