Civilization VII breaks new ground: how a fresh Ages system redefines 4X strategy gameplay
At Gamescom this week, PC Games Insider attended the Civilization VII presentation and then spoke with Edward Beach, the creative director and lead designer at Firaxis Games.
As usual with a new version of a long-running franchise, the challenge is balancing features beloved by generations of players with innovations to keep the game fresh. Firaxis and 2K announced Civilization VII in June and then revealed its gameplay during the showcase in Cologne.
Most of our one-on-one chat with Beach focused on how his team has reorganised the game into three distinct chapters (the Age of Antiquity, the Age of Exploration, and the Modern Age). This streamlines the late-game content, which has been a pain point for players.
The transitions between Ages enable players to choose different strategic paths and cultural identities to carry forward. Additionally, the game features more flexible leader-civilization pairings, enhanced military gameplay with commander units, and a focus on exploration and settlement, which many players consider the most fun part of the experience. Can these changes make the Civilization experience engaging and approachable for both virgin and veteran players?
Sid Meier launched the very first Civilization game in 1991, and it remains the poster child of the 4X genre. Take-Two bought the rights to the Civilization franchise from Infogrames in 2004 and then bought Firaxis outright in 2005. The last full Civilization game for PC was Civilization VI in 2016. So, what are the design principles behind Civilization VII, which is due on hard drives in February 2025?
“We fundamentally restructured the game!” says Edward Beach. “All [4X] games start out very small, with a settler or a warrior, and you explore the map and get one city going, and it expands exponentially. You start putting more and more cities down the map. Your army gets larger by the end of the game, so just playing through a turn becomes a 10-minute activity.”
Beach reveals that his team
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