On February 6, Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 became available to owners of the extended edition. Gamers evaluated the new part of the series as “extremely negative.” The Blix team analyzed what exactly did not like the players and why Civilization 7 did not meet the expectations of many gamers.
Contents
Highlights
- Review of Civilization 7, which went into early access
- Description of the pros and cons of the new part of the game, which players named
The developers remain open to discussing all issues, and you can contact them:
Civilization 7 Review
On February 6, the global strategy game Civilization VII went into early release. Players who bought expensive pre-orders were dissatisfied with the result, and the game’s interface received a lot of criticism. The Blix team will tell you about it all in the order below. But first, let’s analyze the statistics.
Be that as it may, the game’s launch online proved to be relatively high (43,120 people). Peak online reached 62,931 about a day after the Early Access release. Still, Civilization VII has been waiting for the last 9 years, and it has made its mark. And that’s precisely the problem with the game.
The comments on Steam leave a very mixed feeling: only 47.80% of the reviews are positive, and the rest are negative. What exactly is the problem? Tell us about parsing comments from players.
Another novelty, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, received more positive reviews. You can read the game review and analyze the players’ feedback in our article: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Is Finally Here-Fans React to the Long-Awaited Sequel.
Global Changes to the Game
The most immediate changes are to the formula “take a historical culture from an ancient village to modern world domination.” Your choice of leader is no longer tied to his historical location.
The game is divided into three eras: Antiquity, Modernity, and Modern Times. Each era partially resets international relations, trade, reserves, and building effects.
The first two eras end with escalating crises that force you to choose negative modifiers until the action breaks. On the one hand, it diversifies the routine, but on the other, many people don’t like it.
The system of diplomacy has been reworked, which is responsible for unique points. You can earn them for performing special tasks and spend them to improve relations with neighboring states or to resolve conflicts. More realistic art design peculiar to the fifth part is back.
At the same time, Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 has undergone several simplifications. Only two types of cells are used when building: urban and rural. Creating separate specialized regions is no longer necessary – it is enough to place a library and a university next to each other to get a scientific center.
What are the Critics Saying about Civilization 7?
This is how, for example, the seventh part was reviewed by the Guardian, which gave the game a maximum score of 100 out of 100:
The fiendishly addictive sim returns with compelling fresh challenges across the ages. Prepare to say goodbye to a lot of your spare time.
Portal VGC also rated the game 10 out of 10. At the same time, there are plenty of sharply negative opinions: “The game brings a lot of new things to the series, but it’s boring to play,”—said Eurogamer, rating the novelty at 4/10. Following it, Gamepressure rated the game at 5.5/10.
For reviews and ratings from other critics, check out the thread on Reddit:
Pros of Civilization 7
We draw readers' attention to the fact that the spelling of the authors of the comments has been preserved.
Of course, there are undoubtedly more game critics, but users still find some positive aspects. Let’s start the showdown with them.
Some players write that playing Civilization 7 is interesting. They note that the strategy now looks like a decent foundation for future additions. They also note that the game seems qualitatively new, which adds an entirely unfamiliar experience.
All that said, the game itself is extremely fun and the new features are for the better fun-wise comparatively speaking.
Some appreciated the new commander system, which makes running an army easier and more efficient:
Combat is a lot different now that units are no longer promoted. Instead, the Army Commander unit gets all experience and promotions.
New Commander benefits and uses are interesting, the promotions for your commanders are neat and allow for a lot of different types of commanders
Some, such as the Silverlight user, praised the graphics and soundtrack:
The graphics and animations of the leaders are a step up from 6. The new soundtrack is very good.
They also noted that the work with artificial intelligence is now more effective. They also praise the combat:
-Combat in general has been refreshed, and requires more elaborate planning. The AI is also more competent at flanking, focus firing, and conquering your districts and city.
-The diplomacy system is new, and the AI isn’t an exploitable moron like in civ 6 in that regard.
Civilization 7 Cons According to Players’ Comments
But the cons will take longer to sort out. Users criticized the graphics and interface and the abundance of technical problems. In addition, fans did not like the lack of Hotseat mode, the small number of rulers and network settings, the insufficient number of maps, and the mandatory binding of a 2K account.
There’s a long time to comment on the UI, but here’s an extended comment from user xXx_Gwenyth_xXx:
The UI is terrible. I can’t find any of the information that’s relevant to my gameplay ever. Notifications are both annoying to click through and simultaneously disappear without any reason. Tactility and telegraphing normally communicated through sounds, camera adjustments, and musical cues are either missing or have regressed into some sort of minimalist alternative.
There are some unflattering reviews of the binding as well:
This is not to mention the whole 2K account integration is so annoying and the fact that elements of the game seem to be barred from access until you’ve done the whole integration process is just a really terrible precedent.
Negative comments are flying in the direction of the maps as well:
Narrow selection of Map types to choose from – literally 3 or 4. And the biggest map size you can go is… Standard. Really, Standard? That’s where you chose to put the limit?
Funny or not, the game’s main innovation also received negative reviews:
– Ages (aka what kills the game): They basically reset the playing field and restrict you. You cannot snowball and get to far ahead in Tech. You can’t get a head start on other continents because to sail the ocean you need to be in the Exploration Age. City States you court leave when the age changes.
The crisis mechanic, designed to make life difficult for the player, has become the most annoying part of Civilization 7. At the end of each era, one of the events begins: epidemic, barbarian invasion, social conflicts in the colonies. The idea is excellent, but the execution is underwhelming.
The developers expected crises to be a serious challenge. However, they do not require much effort, even at high difficulty levels. It turns out absurd: your empire thrives, builds wonders, and develops, but the game persistently says that the world is collapsing.
After the crisis, cities lose their level of development regardless of your actions. Civilization 7 is a rigid scenario in which the developers dictate how to play instead of letting you create your own stories.
The lack of some features has also been criticized:
many features that were in Civ 5 and 6 (like restart on turn 1), no tech/civics queueing, and MANY more are not in the game.
Many reviewers agree that the game was released prematurely and requires significant improvements. The $70 price tag is especially sharply criticized, as players feel it does not match the current quality of the product.
The result? A confused, half-baked product that doesn’t know what it wants to be. After all these years of waiting, this is what we get?
Fans of the series hope that the developers will consider the feedback and release updates that will fix the problems and return the game to its former glory.
You can see more reviews of the game on Reddit, and you can also leave your own opinion:
Developer Response to Problems with the Game
After players massively criticized the early-release global strategy game Civilization VII due to numerous problems, the developers reached out to them and said they would promptly fix all of Civilization 7’s issues.
In response to your feedback, we’ve identified three key areas that we’re prioritizing work against as quickly as possible.
First, Firaxis will fix the interface and readability of the map: Most gamers complained about the overloaded UI and lack of intuitiveness in the controls. The developers also plan to add more maps and hot-seat multiplayer to Civilization 7. The nearest patch with balance corrections will be released in March.
Denuvo Problem in Civilization 7
It is not excluded that Firaxis Games studio will try to make certain adjustments to the UI for the general release, but now they have another concern.
The fact is that Civilization VII came out seemingly with Denuvo anti-piracy protection. But this only applies to the Windows version. But the Linux version doesn’t have it. Naturally, the game immediately hit the torrents. Yes, you won’t be able to play it on a regular Windows PC, but those who own Steam Deck can join in.
Not only that, in Steam Greenlight, there is also a version for Nintendo Switch, and here, PC users can connect by launching the game through the emulator.
Conclusion
Naturally, many have not yet played enough and need to wait until the release for “mere mortals” to conclude, but the situation is complex. The same Civ 6, which some fans considered too “colorful, bright and cartoonish,” boasts 86% positive reviews.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is scheduled to premiere on February 11. In addition to PC, the strategy will appear on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and Switch.
