Sid Meier’s Civilization games have been around since 1991. And the series has always held a strategy design that everybody else wanted to emulate: Civ games were fun, interesting, filled with variety and deep with levels of play.
With each new iteration, Meier and his team somehow kept things accessible for the newbie first timer, even as they’ve added richer graphics and introduced new leaders to work. And typically, they lightly tweak the game’s mechanics to keep things fresh.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, however, offers much more than just a minor tweak to the original concept. You’re still picking a world leader from a list of historical notables and building his or her civilization through history, but Civ VII introduces some pretty radical changes to the gaming structure.
One of the first noticeable changes is to, well, history itself. Previous Civ games marched through “eras.” Gamers would move through the Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, Modern, Atomic and Information eras as they worked toward an economic, militaristic, scientific or cultural victory.
This new game does away with eras and slices history into three “ages”: Antiquity, Exploration and Modern. And playing through each age—building armies, farms, governments, libraries, world wonders, etc.—almost becomes the equivalent of a full game in itself. The game also offers players new “legacy” pathways that correspond to the different victory types. These pathways include a sequence of objectives that can be chosen and earn points that are tallied at the end of the age.
Oh, and play is no longer as simple as choosing Abraham Lincoln and working at making America into the envy of the world. Now gamers can choose a leader and apply his or her leadership skillsets to any of the major civilizations of that age. So, Charlemagne might sit the throne in the Chinese empire or Catherine might be Queen of the Mayans.
Civ VII also offers up newly tweaked technology and civics trees and adds a variety of “crisis cards” that impact play near the end of each age. And that’s just some of new levels and challenges that players will have to deal with as they strive to build their society.
Civilization VII can be played offline as a single-player game (played from a top-down view). But it can also be played in online and local multiplayer modes. At this writing, cross-platform play (between PC, Switch, PlayStation and Xbox) is not available, but gamemakers promise that cross-platform play will be part of future updates.
Gamers see what it’s like to lead a growing civilization by researching scientific advancements, exploring diplomatic needs, and developing social policies.
And they get a sense of the world history they’re marching through. (Though the ability to mix and match leaders and civilizations lessens that historical connection.)
Gamers also have the opportunity to guide and impact the world in positive and negative ways. In doing so, players see the natural penalties or bonuses at play when making choices.
For those who enjoy strategy games, Civilization VII offers plenty of hours of deep challenge and some new, fresh-feeling play. Those new additions also smooth out some of the “tough slog” parts of earlier Civ entries.
There’s no blood or mess in the play, but as societies advance, world civilizations will find themselves embroiled in combat situations that involve armies and various levels of weaponry (from arrows to aircraft to bombs to military armaments). And combat is highlighted by small explosive sounds and cries of pain.
Interactions between leaders and societies can also open the door to mentions of a leader’s sexuality or proclivities. (Sexual references are never graphic.) We also hear plenty of religions mentioned (such as the worship of Ra), and leaders can choose a faith (Protestantism, Judaism, Taoism, etc.) that they establish and spread to other societies.
There are references to beer and alcohol and exported items such as drugs and tobacco. The words “d–n” and “h—” can appear in the leader interactions.
This is a long game to play. Even when played on “Quick” mode, the game can take many hours.
It should also be noted that Civ VII’s new changes may make play for younger or unfamiliar players a bit more difficult to ease into. The game guides you along with tutorials, but there are quite a few menus and layers to keep track of. Even fans of Civ games may need a little more time to grow comfortable with the changes.
Some may find that Sid Meier’s Civilization VII has an unexpectedly steep learning curve. And it demands quite a bit of time. But in bite sized chunks, this game’s strategy world building is better than ever.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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