Civilization 7 Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Since its humble beginning back in 1991, the Civilization series has undergone many changes, evolving into something great, much like the civilizations you control in game. Civilization 7 has evolved once more, introducing some new concepts, but simplifying the formula in many ways.

Because of this shifting focus, Civilization 7 can feel like less of a sequel and more of a sideways set. It’s not that I dislike the way the game plays, but some of the changes are certainly jarring, and the comparison points to Civ 6 or Civ 5 are impossible not to make. As the old adage goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well, Firaxis tried to fix it anyway with mixed results. From an accessibility standpoint and with the simultaneous launch on console in mind, Civ 7 is great. It’s streamlined and simplified features will be great for people getting into the series for the first time, but anyone looking for anything a bit more mechanically complex might be left wanting.

One of the first big changes comes in the form of how you actually pick your leader and civilization. This has now been split apart so that you pick a leader first, and then a civ for them to lord over. Your leader stays with you through to the end of your campaign, but the introduction of distinct Ages – Antiquity, Exploration & Modern – will see you changing civs as time passes. Each time you move into a new one, time will skip several hundred years, and you pick from one of a bunch of new civs to lead, specific to that era, and linked in some way to your previous choice. This means at the start of the game you could be playing as Greece and by the end, the USA.

On one hand, in a way this is kind of cool, because it lets you be a little more customisable in the way you play with unique units, bonuses, civic trees and more. On the other hand, I found it quite jarring that I couldn’t play just one civ out till the end. To me it takes away the whole point of picking a civ in the first place. If I want to lead Spartan