If you’re reading this preview, it’s likely that you already know what Civilization is on some level. A 4X game encompassing the entirety of human history may sound like a bit of a stretch, but that’s exactly what Sid Meier and the rest of the team aimed for when creating the first – and every subsequent – Civilization game. I think it’s fair to say they’ve done a decent job at it.
I recently had the chance to visit Firaxis Studios in Baltimore, sit down to hear the team’s pitch for Civilization 7, and go hands-on with the latest – and possibly greatest – god game of all time. It all starts with layers, we’re told. Every real-world civilization wasn’t built purely on a horizontal plane; reiteration, improvement, and refinement are all part of any growing settlement, and that’s what Firaxis wants to drill down into with Civilization 7.
Each entry in the Civ strategy game series manages to bring something new to the table, with Sid Meier religiously sticking to the 33/33/33 rule – a third of the game should stick with established mechanics, a third should innovate on what went before, and the final third should add something completely new. It’s a way to keep such a long-running series fresh, while also keeping the familiar ‘just one more turn’ feeling that made it a success in the first place.
The big changes coming to Civ 7 are very big; potentially game-changing, even for those with only a small amount of experience with the series. First off, leaders and civilizations are no longer tied to each other. You can mix and match any leader with any civilization; each leader has a unique ability, and each civilization is naturally suited to a specific playstyle and will generally aim for a particular victory condition.
This new, highly customizable approach to creating your civilization will no doubt open up a can of worms within the Civ community. History purists will want to stick with the classics, but there’s no reason that you couldn’t have Teddy Rosevelt leading the Roman legions, or Ghandi becoming president of the United States – it being mildly humorous aside, this opens the door to countless combinations, many of which could propel you to greatness.
I only had a handful of options during my preview, but it was easy to see the potential, and I have no doubt that the Civ experts among us will be discovering new strategies and angles of approach long after the Civilization 7 release date. It doesn’t end there, either – there are more decisions to make as you advance through the ages.
The second big change coming to Civ 7, and one that directly connects to how the leaders work, is to the ages, and how your civilization progresses through them. There are now three ages, and everyone playing will advance at the same time; there is a percentage meter that ticks up with the passage of turns and events. If you vanquish a foe, for instance, it adds quite a chunk to the age meter.
My preview was restricted to the first age, so it’s impossible to say how this concentration of advancement affects games, but I’m curious to see if this ‘all together’ approach will prevent snowballing in technology – if everyone advances at the same time, will it be impossible to get the technological advantage over your opponents? You’ll have to figure out new tactics to gain the upper hand, which is exciting in a game that has this many sequels.
Linking those two big additions, you’ll now have to choose an evolution to your civilization with each change in age. Again, I had no first-hand experience with this, but the way it was explained to me was that as you advance, you essentially choose a new civilization, with your leader remaining constant throughout.
These civilization evolutions could be a natural progression (we didn’t see many examples, but think of bygone empires that, through the passage of time and various events, have become something different), or they could be something that deviates completely from history. For instance, we’re told that if you have at least three horse resources in your possession at the end of the first age, you can evolve into the Mongols, unlocking their powerful cavalry units to lay waste to your opponents.
This branching civilization evolution blows the scope of your story wide open. With the leader/civilization mashups and a shakeup of your foundations with each passing age, your civilization will likely grow unrecognizable from your humble beginnings when your game ends – as it should be, in my opinion.
It all goes back to the core idea of Civilization 7: layers. You’re creating a bespoke start for yourself, then adding to it each time you pass into another age. I have little idea of how it will play out, but it feels fresh, and as new additions go, it’s about as big as the Civilization series could get.
Those are the monumental additions to Civ 7, but the changes don’t stop there. Barbarians are gone (yay), workers are no more (yay?), and now when you create a new settlement, it doesn’t automatically explode into a city. You’ll use your settler unit to found a town, which works similarly to a city, except that any resources it generates are converted into gold. Anything you build from this town uses gold instead of production and is completed instantly – wonders aside, as far as I could see.
You can then upgrade this town into a city by spending gold. The bigger the town, the less gold it takes to upgrade. There are also town specializations you can utilize if you don’t want to create another city – the mining specialization, for instance, increases the amount of resources gained from mining. All fairly obvious, but it gives you even more choice on how to manage your civ, and how you’ll enact your own particular brand of world domination.
Diplomacy has also undergone a rework and received a lovely fresh coat of paint. Leaders will now interact with each other on the screen, with some dialogue being fully voice-acted. You’ll see other civilizations appropriately react to your proposals; angrily posturing when given unfavorable deals, or showing some signs of joy when you play nice. It adds extra life to proceedings and makes your leader feel a bit less like a soulless avatar.
There is also a new type of political resource – influence – which you use when interacting with the other leaders. You can spend this influence to propose advantageous deals or counterproposals. Opposing leaders and those friendly to you will approach you with proposals a lot during your game, and you would be wise to allocate your influence points carefully, lest you be taken advantage of.
As mentioned, my hands-on time with Civilization 7 was limited to the first age, so it’s difficult to fully judge how these changes will play out over a long campaign. I will say that these new additions made the opening of my story feel a lot more dynamic, and the extra choices gave me a deeper connection to what I was building. Overall, I’d say it’s promising, and while it seems like a shake-up of the core experience, it still feels like Civ, meaning I still wanted just one more turn.