‘Sid Meier’s Civilization VII’ review: One good turn deserves another

As a series, Sid Meier’s Civilization, known simply as Civilization, is a sweeping epic all its own.

In its attempt to capture and depict the entire span of human history, certain game mechanics rise and fall; big ideas come and go. The series attempts to brave new worlds of strategy, even as it earns deserved criticism for simplifying and abstracting some of the most troubled parts of history.

I’ve been playing these games since the Cory administration. A less than legal copy of Sid Meier’s Civilization at my suking pirata (go-to pirate vendor) in Virra Mall became one of the more formative experiences in my life as a player of them interactive entertainments. It taught my ten-year-old brain a lot through technology trees and flavor text written up about various city improvements.

Later this month, developer Firaxis Games will drop Sid Meier’s Civilization VII on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. And it doesn’t just challenge players to build an empire that will stand the test of time, it asks them to build something they believe in. It’s a remarkable continuation of the series legacy with major new ideas that fundamentally change the experience.

Every game of Civilization begins with choosing the people whose history you chart across millennia. They are represented by a leader, a big personality tied to their big moments in history. For the Americans, that’s usually a Founding Father or one of their famous Presidents. For the Romans, an emperor like Caesar or Trajan.

Each leader possesses certain strengths, weaknesses, perks or special units and buildings. The choice sets the template for which you will define your strategy and is important — it’s why the game is called Civilization! 

Separating leaders from civs

Civilization VII upends things entirely by separating leaders from the civilizations. This expands the alt-history fun of the game: not only can the Spanish end up starting the Manhattan Project, but they might just do so under the leadership of Jose Rizal!

And where else can you have Rizal meeting the Inca people?

Players can select leaders to mix and match their traits with the qualities of different civilizations. Instead of assigning Catherine the Great to Russia, you might have her lead the Prussians, who gain combat bonuses for every other civ they are in an Unfriendly relationship with.

The other big change in Civilization VII is that every game now plays out across Ages that divide history into different phases. So rather than playing out as one continuous sweep of history, every game of Civilization is disrupted periodically by a soft reset for all those on the board.

When an Age ends, the game tallies up all you’ve accomplished — such as acquiring the most treasures across distant lands or collecting fancy resources — and gives you legacy points to invest in the next Age. You then pick a new civilization to play, and build on previous triumphs. 

Not everyone is going to like the Ages system. Being able to guide one civilization from the stone age to the space age is the traditional fantasy behind Civilization, even if it’s largely ahistorical. The current powers of our time, such as America and Japan don’t trace their history as a single unbroken line dating back to 4000 BC.

But I doubt that reasoning is going to appease everyone, least of all veteran players. Personally, I found the Ages system made the game more engaging. It gives you intermediate goals to work towards making the long middle of micromanagement feel more purposeful.

The end of each Age is presaged by a period of Crisis, which represents the tumult and chaos of the transition from one epoch into another. As the new Age encroaches, you’ll take different Crisis cards.

“Inquisition” makes it easier for other powers to convert your settlements, while adding happiness to your homelands. “Liturgical Disputes” will deduct happiness from settlements following your civilization’s native religion. No one Crisis card is objectively better than the other; they’re all bad so it’s about picking your preferred inconveniences. 

The impact on the design is profound. Not only does it present the historical truth that civilizations build upon the foundations of cultures before them, but it also adds dramatic checkpoints that keep the game exciting. In previous installments, you’d find yourself slogging your way to the game’s end in the mid-twenty-first century, an experience made worse if you’re lagging behind your fellow civs.

Entering a new Age gives everyone a chance to realign strategies while ensuring that previous choices have effects felt through the centuries.  

Visual attention to detail, district system returns

One of the most satisfying aspects of the Civilization series is how the graphics and art depict all that you and your civilization have accomplished. In the first Civilization, I watched as my palace grew and the city view mode showed what my people looked like with their aqueducts, universities, recycling centers. It was remarkable even given the crudity of 320×200 resolution VGA graphics. 

Things are even more stunning in the age of 1920×1080, 2560×1440 or even 4K resolutions. While Civ 6 did this with a stylish board game look inspired by sail age cartography, this installment is more directly inspired by museum dioramas and hobby miniatures. I’ve zoomed in on many a Civ map before and this one is the most satisfying.

WORLD BUILDER. It’s still great to marvel at the civilization you’re building.

You can really see the attention to detail, achieved largely without much technical compromise. Every unit and building feels tactile, almost as if each one could be picked up to admire the paint job of a master hobbyist.

These visuals are necessary to depict the district system introduced in Civ 6 as part of the city growth mechanics. In previous games, cities occupied a single tile or hex wherein city improvements existed somewhere in that space. The district system makes it so that every schoolhouse, rail station or anything else has to be assigned a hex, adding more strategy to the city building part of Civilization.

Unfortunately, the district system was my least favorite part of Civ 6. In theory, placing a bazaar next to a river to gain a bonus to gold output or a temple adjacent to mountains for additional happiness seems sensible and rewarding. But it also made city growth a numbers puzzle rather than a fun construction mini-game.

I’m sure some ultra nerds who dig this stuff, especially the ones who love to agonize over numbers in European board games. But for those who play Civilization for the simple pleasures, this pressure to optimize can be a bit much.

It’s not much better in Civilization VII. The most welcome change is that districts don’t need to be themed, which means freedom to place your stuff where you want. Warehouses act as multipliers, for example, with granaries increasing the food output of every farm, plantation and pasture.

Another tweak is that newly acquired tiles start as rural tiles with a relevant improvement like a mine or farm, while urban tiles expand outward from your city’s center. But despite these changes, city growth still feels more fiddly than it needs to be. Some players will delight in that, but not me.

Effective hand-holding to guide new players

Fortunately, learning the game’s mechanics is better this time around. Civ 6 tutorials and tooltips were often overwhelming, and had language rooted in the pedantic precision of tabletop games. Civilization VII presents most of its concepts with greater word clarity and makes better use of icons and terms to communicate what you need to manage your people and cities.

The in-game encyclopedia, ‘Civilopedia’ is also more intuitive and searchable than that of previous games. 

Diplomacy system, a highlight

While I’m really taken by the dramatic changes introduced by Ages and the potential unleashed from decoupling Leaders from their respective civilizations, my favorite tweaks are to the diplomacy system.

Those of us who have played multiple Civ games or other 4X games like Master of Orion and Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri are used to unpredictable alliances and rivalries. The reason why Gandhi and his nuclear weapons is such a meme is because of our experiences with mercurial personalities.

Your relationships with other leaders and civilizations is negotiated through influence, a currency accumulated through civic policies, political buildings and various diplomatic moves. You spend influence from a menu of actions such as proposing treaties, initiating cultural endeavors and engaging in sanctions and espionage.

Civilization teaches you how to play nice with other peoples of the world…unless they happen to own a tile that has luxury goods like oil, gold, or luscious oranges

Each of these have clearly listed costs and numerically measured effects, resulting in a kind of diplomatic clarity we didn’t have in previous games. 

Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is likely going to be as divisive as some of the most contentious releases in the series history. But as a rule, those are the installments that have actually proven to be the most beloved. Civ 5 was controversial for its shift from square tiles to hexes and the addition of greater restrictions to unit movement, but it is well regarded for its tactical depth. Civ 3 added a wealth of detail that some considered overwhelming but is now considered foundational.

And in that sense, Civilization VII feels like the beginning of some bold and exciting ideas. It remains to be seen which aspects of this game will land with newcomers and series veterans, but already the game takes the chains off the alternate history fantasy while rebalancing the flow and pace for greater playability and a more even playing field between players both human and artificial. Post-launch DLC has already been announced, and will likely clarify Firaxis’ overall design vision.

There’s so much more that can be said about Firaxis’ latest attempt to simulate the sprawl of human history, but when Civilization VII launches players will be assured that the future of 4X strategy lies in just one more turn. – Rappler.com

Sid Meier’s Civilization VII launches on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on February 11, 2025. This review was written using code provided by the publisher, 2K Interactive.