Sid Meier’s Civilization is a turn-based strategy game series that has many fans around the world and has become one of the typical representatives of this type of game. Now, the latest one is coming, and Civilization 7 will be released on February 11, 2025.
Civilization series has developed to the point where this series has become one of the game types that strategy players are almost certain to experience, just like Call of Duty for FPS or Age of Empires for RTS. Although these games make some changes in each version, their core does not change.
While the core of Civilization as a turn-based 4X strategy game prototype remains unchanged, its iterations have had an impact on the actual gameplay, sometimes even completely changing it. Civilization 7 is no exception. In fact, it will be one of the most drastic evolutions in the history of the series, breaking a paradigm that has not been touched since its conception. It is a bolder and more risky attempt than the past few generations, which may be the right choice, although the previous generations of Civilization are still very playable. From the system that allows you to change the age of civilization to the new style of painting that is easy to obtain information but close to reality, the developers are making all-out efforts to make changes.
Age
The biggest change between Civilization 7 and its predecessor is that you no longer use the same civilization from beginning to end in a game. In Civilization 6, we will go through 9 stages such as Ancient Age, Renaissance, Industrial Age, and Information Age, as well as Dark Age, Ordinary Age, Golden Age, and Heroic Age that are entered through scoring. In Civilization 7, the age system has been simplified and integrated, and a game is divided into three age stages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern.
The time of Age is very long. At normal speed, you may still stop at BC after playing more than a hundred rounds. However, the total length of a game has not changed much.
When you come to the next age, you can choose to change your civilization, but not all civilizations can be selected. If you want to unlock other civilizations, you must first meet some conditions. This is a very good design that takes into account both the gameplay and the rationality of the plot. After all, if you suddenly switch from the ancient Greek civilization to Chinese civilization, it would be too abrupt.
Each initial civilization has at least one reasonable evolution route. For example, Egypt can transition to Songhai Empire, and then to Buganda. In addition, if certain conditions are met during the game, more late civilizations can be unlocked. For example, if a certain amount of horse resources is guaranteed in Antiquity Age, Mongolia can be selected in Exploration Age. Another interesting example is to start with Rome, then choose the Normans, and finally become England.
Every time you enter a new Age, you need to choose a new civilization and obtain the corresponding bonuses, units, and map graphics. The leader selected at the beginning will always remain the same. These leaders have permanent characteristics, and this time they still use 3D models. And the leader’s clothing will not change with the adaptation of the age, so players will not see Confucius wearing modern suits.
At the end of each Age, players need to face Crisis as the end of a great age. Natural disasters and enemies will appear around your civilization, and you need to choose a crisis policy card to deal with this final crisis. However, crisis policy cards are basically some negative effects, and all players can do is to choose one of them that has the least impact on your civilization.
Maps
Like Civilization 6, cities still cover multiple grids, but now there are only two types of districts: urban and rural. At the beginning of Antiquity age, you can build two buildings in a city district, and this number will increase over time.
Depending on the buildings you choose, you may also unlock special bonuses. For example, when playing Egypt, I built two Egyptian-specific buildings in the same place, making it a unique burial district. If you need a “tech district”, the method is no longer to build an academy district dedicated to technology directly. Instead, you should make a city district specialize in technology and maximize the effect through the complementarity of buildings.
When you come to a new age, the new civilization will be built on the ruins of the old civilization, and you will not find traces of the old civilization in the new civilization.
And Builder, this unit that has been with us for many years and made players love and hate it, has been completely deleted in Civilization 7! We can directly produce scout units and infantry units at the beginning, which speeds up the pace of players’ exploration.
Graphics
In general, Civilization 7 looks beautiful. Civilization 7 adopts a cartoon style, but it is more realistic and has more texture. The style is mainly inspired by miniatures, railway models, sandbox scenes, and museum exhibits. Everything on the big map is pleasing to the eye. Now the cities in the player’s territory will be more three-dimensional, and the little people on the map seem to be more vivid.
The details of the leaders are much better than Civilization 6. Each leader’s clothing is decorated with small details that match his own civilization, and now the leaders of two civilizations will interact with each other when negotiating.
There are many changes made to Civilization 7. In short, it is not inferior to Civilization 6, and it also optimizes many gameplays. Civilization series games are always fun. There are so many things to explore and discover, and so many new rules and systems to learn and use. For players, this is the real charm of a new strategy game. You go further and further to test the limits until you finally break through the limits and have to find new limits to explore.
