Civilization 7 Review - A failed revolution with a whole bunch of problems
Civilization 7 was supposed to be a revolution, with a new quality and plenty of new features. Instead, it gives the impression of a game released in early access with many problems.
The review is based on the PC version. It's also relevant to PS5, XSX, Switch, PS4, XONE version(s).

Civilization is a series that means quality for fans of 4X turn-based strategy games. So far, we haven't encountered a main installment of this series that has been disappointing. Every part added something new, leading to a gradual evolution of the known format in a direction that seemed misguided to few. Unfortunately, those times are long gone, as Civilization 7 breaks this rule.
This is a game whose developers seem to have gotten a bit lost. Not only is it heading towards places that may turn out to be a dead end, but it also forgets about those elements that made Sid Meier's series such a great phenomenon. The icing on the cake, however, is the fact that this is simply an unfinished game and it would need at least a few more months of work to bring it to a good state.
New age, new me
When discussing Civilization 7, it's impossible not to start with the developers' promises following the game's announcement. The new installment of the series was supposed to shake up the known formula and be a revolution, thanks to which the Civilization series would experience something fresh. That was supposed to be introduced with several new mechanics, including the system of ages and crises. This time, we are no longer playing a single coherent game - it has been divided into three ages: antiquity, modernity, and modern times. Furthermore, in each subsequent play, we choose a new civilization to lead, thereby using new unique bonuses, units, and buildings. Such a solution was supposed to make sure that the game would never become boring, especially in the end game.
But how does it work in practice? The only answer that comes to my mind is "it's complicated." Civilizational purists will never like this system, but if you are open to new solutions, it can really be an interesting feature. Unfortunately, its implementation is far from perfect. The mechanic of ages leads to the removal of one of the most important features of Civilization - being like a sandbox.

Doing specific quests is now an integral part of gameplay.Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Firaxis Games, 2025
In practice, every session in the seventh installment is now three separate turns. During each age, we establish new cities, invest in science and culture, take care of the economy, and fight with other countries. This is, of course, a standard known from every previous installment of the series. This time, however, the Legacy mechanics also hang over the player. This mechanic is divided into four paths (scientific, economic, military, and cultural) and realistically comes down to a series of "quests" that we must perform to gain bonuses in the next age. The game clearly states that this is an optional feature and there is no wrong way to play Civilization 7. Unfortunately, this is as far from the truth as it can be - the bonuses that we get as part of the Legacy are really powerful and without them, we risk problems in the next era (especially since the AI always tries to complete the mentioned quests).
This wouldn't be such a big problem if these objectives were quite general. Instead, they are the same each time and boil down to very specific requirements. Sometimes it's necessary to build a specific number of wonders, in another path we have to assign a selected number of specialists to cities, and in yet another, establish settlements in given locations. At first glance, this solution might appear quite refreshing, but the charm fades when it becomes clear that every following game will be the same, as we are consistently confined to the rigid framework provided by the devs.
It's best to explain this with the example of a military career in the modern age. It would seem that it will require the player to make further conquests and expand the army. Rather, it requires settling only on foreign continents - thus, players who expand their territory within their immediate surroundings will end up with nothing. Even if they occupy dozens of nearby cities and have the most powerful army in the world.
Of course, not every variant of Legacy is bad. I really liked, for instance, the economic path in the modern era, which focuses on exploration and establishing distant colonies to gain access to exotic resources. No matter how intriguing it is, it still requires playing in a strictly defined manner, as the developers determined that players didn't deserve the freedom to make choices.
This is not the only problem with the age system, by the way. Another issue is the fact that ages end and begin at the same time for all players on the map. It doesn't matter whether you've fallen behind in terms of technology, or on the contrary, you've dominated your rivals in this respect. As a new era begins, everyone starts fresh at the same development level, all units receive an automatic upgrade, and the effects of previously constructed buildings are minimized to prevent major disparities between players. In this way, most of the achievements from the previous age become irrelevant, and the only real advantage is provided by the Legacies. You can also forget about the iconic medieval cavalry battles with tanks from Civilization.

Typically for Civilization, in the game will build a lot of iconic wonders.Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Firaxis Games, 2025
The new crisis mechanics are likely the most annoying aspect related to undermining a player's achievements. At the end of each age, one of several available events begins, for instance, an epidemic, a barbarian invasion, or social tensions in the colonies. The idea itself sounds great, but its implementation once again leaves much to be desired.
The devs clearly assumed that the crises they created would certainly pose a great threat to the player. The problem, however, lies in the fact that they aren't too demanding, even at higher levels of difficulty. So, we find ourselves in a situation where our country can function efficiently, keep developing, and easily construct even expensive wonders, yet the game will persist with the narrative that the world is falling apart before us. After the crisis is over, regardless of how we manage, we will face negative consequences in the form of reducing the level of our cities. All of this gives the impression that Civilization 7 is somehow scripted and the devs want us to play in a certain way, rather than create our own stories.
- core of the gameplay can still be engaging;
- beautiful graphic design of the map;
- great soundtrack full of influences from various cultures;
- beautiful audiovisual setting;
- new city development mechanic.
- very limited replayability due to the Legacy always looking the same;
- age system limits the classic sandbox nature of Civilization, and the lack of a fourth era suggests plans for aggressive monetization;
- Crises, although interesting in theory, turned out to be a minor threat;
- interface is an unreadable mess;
- major simplification of mechanics from earlier games and lack of QoL features;
- bugs affecting the gameplay;
- AI is even worse than in previous games, as it can't handle the new mechanics;
- game feels like it's actually in early access.
A series of unfortunate mishaps
Alright, but since I've already complained about the new stuff, maybe at least the old, good mechanics still do the job? Well, I can't tell they do... The creators seemed to focus so heavily on the new features that they overlooked their accomplishments in improving other elements of Civilization. In the seventh installment, we will also find the mechanics of religion, systems, or city-states, but all seem to be much more limited than before.
This is most visible in the area of politics, as the previously mentioned systems are depicted here in an almost primitive form. In every age, we can select from various systems of government, like autocracy, democracy, monarchy, and others, but this has no consequences. The choice of the system boils down to just one element - the bonus that we will receive during the golden age achieved by a long period of happiness among the citizens. However, it doesn't affect the available policies, their number, or anything else. And yet, it would have been enough to carry on the good idea from the sixth installment, in which the form of government decided how many of each type of law we could introduce.

Who we can play in the next age depends directly on our performance.Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Firaxis Games, 2025
Diplomacy was similarly reduced. At first glance, there are many options on the screen for relations with other leaders, but this is largely due to the transfer of espionage (in a much simpler form than in the sixth installment) to this window. A few treaties were added, which guarantee scientific, cultural, or food benefits for both sides, and the aspect of direct trade with rivals was eliminated. This was replaced by a change in the merchants' actions, who, after sending them to distant cities, give us access to all resources extracted by a given settlement.
We can only exchange cities with other countries, which is particularly amusing during peace negotiations. At the moment, the most effective method of conquest is to declare war on someone, wait within your own borders for the enemy to arrive, destroy their army, and then wait for a peace proposal. Then, in the absence of any other options, AI will willingly hand over its settlements to us, even if we haven't actually posed a threat to any of them. In the previous installments, our opponents would have paid us with gold or resources, but here there simply aren't such options, so they immediately jump to exchanging entire cities.
There are many other examples of simplifying well-known mechanics. Religion is now a system that is only useful for securing a few minor bonuses in cities with temples. Nation-states have become barbarians - some are inherently hostile, while others are friendly. Furthermore, after forming an alliance with one of such settlements, rivals no longer have any option to compete with us for their favor. I understand that these elements will likely be expanded through the various DLCs the game will get, but right now they are too basic to arouse any interest.
Early access at full price
All the things I've mentioned so far could be considered the game's skeleton. That is not the only source of problems. The whole game gives the impression of a title released in early access, which should wait at least a few more months for a full release. The technical condition or interface quality also raises concerns.
UI is one of the first things that more critical players paid attention to after the announcements. There's no point in beating around the bush - it's just a terrible mess. The interface is incredibly difficult to read and makes it challenging to access any valuable information. At times, it even gives the impression that the game simply doesn't want to share its secrets with the player. As a result, it becomes more difficult to grasp new elements, and we can easily become disoriented in the chaotically designed windows.
The icons are small and blurry, interface elements merge with the surrounding graphics, and there is an absence of helpful filters or overlays to provide better context to our influences and development. The best example of how the UI was messed up would be the technology tree. Someone decided that it would be a good idea to label the developed technologies with brown, and those available for development... also brown. I probably don't need to tell you how much this complicates things.
To this, we also need to add the lack of quality-of-life solutions, some of which date back to the times of Civilization 3. In Civ 7 there is a lack of at least the auto-exploration option, which seemed to be a standard. You also won't change the direction in which your unit is heading quickly enough. Rather than a single click to a new location, you must first cancel the unit's movement and then choose a new target.
In Civilization 7, you also won't find many gameplay customization options. The map sizes are only three, of which the largest is "standard." There aren't many variations in map generation, and in the end, nearly all of them, aside from the archipelago, look almost the same- typically two unnaturally shaped patches of land divided by small islets. Of course, such artificially presented worlds are the result of the need to generate a map with the Legacy mechanics in mind. So it's no wonder that the map creator also lacks options for changing temperature, rainfall, sea levels, and similar features.
Add to all this a very poor AI, which clearly cannot cope with the new elements of the series. This is especially noticeable during wartime, as artificial intelligence struggles to comprehend the new mechanics of managing entire armies with a commander's assistance. The fight against AI is comical even at high difficulty levels - opponents can't handle conquest even when they have an overwhelming advantage.
And what about the technical condition of Civilization 7? It's not good here either. The game is literally filled to the brim with bugs. It's not a big deal when it comes to funny glitches like unit models that casually stand on the ocean as if nothing happened. However, bugs often affect the most important elements, such as objectives from the mentioned Legacies. They often fail to pass, even when specific conditions are met, or they malfunction if we finish a later quest stage sooner than the game planned.
These many problems are not only related to gameplay issues. Civilization 7 also lost some of its soul in other aspects, for instance, due to the lack of presence of real great creations in the game. Instead of beautiful paintings, literary masterpieces, or musical scores that added charm to the previous installments, we have generic "codes" and "artifacts" here.
Despite everything, it’s still you
However, when you momentarily forget about all these issues, turn a blind eye, and immerse yourself in the game, you can feel that somewhere out there is THAT Civilization, which so many players from around the world have loved. Despite my problems, there were moments when I was manically clicking through the next turns to see where they would lead me. I was annoyed by bugs, but I kept playing anyway because the deepest foundations of this game are still a proven formula. Their disadvantage is the limited replayability resulting from the introduction of Legacy, but if you ignore that for a moment, you will certainly have a good time for a while.
I can't really say that everything in Civilization 7 went wrong. There are some elements that can even be considered outstanding. Just take a look at the graphic design, which is stunning. A multi-layered landscape, rivers that can be rafted, cities spreading across the land, and natural wonders combine to form a game rich in detail. I have often zoomed in just to briefly enjoy the sight of mountains rising from the ground next to a small town, or rivers flowing between charming buildings.

Slowly developing cities can really impress with their charm.Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Firaxis Games, 2025
The cities themselves, which we are now developing in a completely different way, look particularly great. The buildings in our settlement occupy separate fields on the board (two buildings per field), and we build terrain improvements as the population grows, not with the help of workers. This is not only a highly efficient system that could attract players seeking new features, but it also has an excellent visual appearance. The city regularly evolves by expanding into new areas, and individual buildings form unique compositions by pairing together. This is definitely the best-looking settlements in the history of the series.
The same praise also belongs to the creators of the soundtrack. Both the main theme of Civ 7 and the individual tracks accompanying the gameplay perfectly fit the atmosphere of the game. As we've come to expect from Sid Meier's series, the background features a wide variety of tracks that reference the many cultures found in the game. If you liked the soundtracks of the previous installments, you can also anticipate very positive experiences here.
One aspect of the ages can also be considered an advantage, specifically the mechanics of unlocking subsequent nations. Moving to the next era, we don't have the possibility to choose each of the available civilizations. Instead, we choose from a pool that we gained access to by completing certain challenges. There are many of them and they often relate to the civilizations they concern - for instance, you can unlock France by improving a certain number of fields with wine resources, while Prussia becomes accessible if your army includes enough generals.
Elephant in the room
In the end, we need to go back to another element that could be a big source of controversy. It has been known for some time that Civilization 7 won't include the era closest to us: the modern age of information. The developers have been explaining from the beginning that this is their well-thought-out vision, and we may receive the next era in the future, once they come up with an idea of how to implement it properly.
Right now, the action of the game ends roughly in the 1960s. This is quite a specific vision of those years because we can launch a rocket that will start the age of space exploration, but in the game, we won't find modern weaponry, which was already common at that time. In Civ 7, we also won't get to fully enjoy nuclear weapons, as their production is part of the path to military victory, and the game ends shortly after their development (the "one more turn..." option hasn't been added to the game yet). So why such a strange drop-off?

AI is very eager to give up its cities during peace talks.Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Firaxis Games, 2025
This doesn't look good, as the entire age system in the game appears to have had its continuation removed, possibly for future DLC content. The feeling of premature end of the game is also caused by the victory conditions available in the third era. All of them (perhaps with the exception of the scientific one) sound more like another step on the road to a greater, ultimate triumph rather than a real finale. For instance, we achieve cultural victory not by dominating the world with our influence, but by organizing the World's Fair, an event that is characteristic of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but not very important. Ultimately, there is a lack of a clear conclusion here, and the standard content that has been typical for this series.
VERDICT:
Right now, Civilization 7 is an incomplete and reduced version of the game, which is plagued by many issues. However, you can feel that under all this mess, a good game might be hiding.
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See you in a year
So do I have any hope for the future of Civilization 7? Contrary to appearances, absolutely yes. Right now, this is an incomplete and reduced version of the game, which is plagued by many issues. However, you can feel that under all this mess, a good game might be hiding. I am convinced that in a year when Firaxis has already released a bunch of patches and probably at least one big expansion, Civilization 7 will be a good continuation of its great predecessors.
For now, I will part ways with this game, as after spending many hours on it, I feel exhausted and have the sense that there's nothing new left for me to discover. Unfortunately, the devs' concepts have led to my boredom with the ongoing need to do the same tasks all the time, rather than the thrill of uncovering new things with each attempt. If I wanted to do quests, I would play a good RPG, not Civilization.
Sid Meier's Civilization VII
Right now, Civilization 7 is an incomplete and reduced version of the game, which is plagued by many issues. However, you can feel that under all this mess, a good game might be hiding.
