Sid Meier's Civilization VII Review

The name Civilization has always been synonymous with 4X games, much like Hearts of Iron 4 stands as the premiere Grand Strategy game. It has always been a beloved series created by a legendary developer and has stood as a standard for 4X and strategy games for a long time. Yet its newest entry, something that was supposed to be one of the biggest strategy game releases of 2025, has had a tumultuous release, with varying opinions and ratings. 

For those few who don't know the name, Sid Meier's Civilization is a series of 4X Strategy games wherein, as the name suggests, you build your civilization from a list of historical factions dubbed civilizations. The game has been widely known for its use of historical leaders and simple complexity, which has made the game a household name to many casuals despite being a strategy game. Developed by Firaxis Games, the same guys who brought everyone XCOM, Civilization VII seeks to reinvent itself, changing its shape from the earlier games with new systems like Towns and Ages.

As you begin a game, you start off by picking your leader. Each leader is very unique in their playstyle, providing buffs and perks, some of which can be customized. This makes Civilization VII highly replayable, as it is intended to be. With over 20 leaders to pick from, it has a wide range of cast but still doesn't meet the high numbers of 42 nation leaders in Ara: History Untold. 

20 is still a lot, and not to mention, five of these leaders have a separate persona, giving you 25 different playstyles to pick from. These leaders may also level up as you play them more, giving you more ways to either customize them or make them stronger. Added to that, you can unlock different perks, called mementos, that allow you to customize your leader further.

Afterward, you pick your age and civilization. In Sid Meier's Civilization VII, you have three different Ages: Antiquity, the Exploration Age, and the Modern Age. Once you do that, you will now pick your civilization. ' But hold on,' you may ask, remembering how we already picked our leader. Well, in Civilization VII, you get to pick a specific civilization and then evolve into another, HUMANKIND style.

While this system isn't that bad at its core, playing off rather well, it is still a very weird choice to add. After all, the game is called Civilization. So what's the point if you can't stick with, let's say, the Mississippians? This mechanic would fit so well if you could change your leaders instead of civilizations.

Rant aside, each civilization you pick means even more harmony or disharmony, with newer perks and bonuses being added. With all three methods of adding bonuses, you could really find some very funny or rather OP combinations. As you finally get into the game, you start off with a founder, not to be confused with a similar unit, the settler. The difference is important, as the founder creates cities while the settler finds smaller towns.

In the early game, you rely on freshwater, one of the game's main resources, and ideally, you want to build around freshwater and other resource locations. The map is still a hexagonal grid, and your units get to move a certain number of hexes per turn. The movement system itself is similar to and derivative of Civilization V, so those familiar with that game will fit right in.

Another change for Sid Meier's Civilization VII is that you don't have any builders anymore. Instead, cities grow naturally over time, giving you these growths as a sort of resource, which you use to physically expand into a specific hex surrounding your city.

Your city's growth is not the only thing you tackle, as you find yourself having the ability to recruit a unit. Usually, this would be the scout, who you use to explore and find yourself points on the map where small events lie. The cities themselves are where you will produce most of your things, from structures to people. There is only one production place you can give up at any time, and she definitely does not want the job. 

Again, diplomacy is tied to a single number, which is Influence. The events, in general, are not too great either, so you'll constantly be choosing between 'less resources or less influence' or, in some cases, just a random hit to your Influence. All that aside, you can't interact too much with other civilizations, and even declaring war on them feels strange as the reasons are always weird. In the case of peace deals, you can only ever ask for settlements, and often, it'll just be a few. There goes your decisive victory; all you get to show for it are two settlements.

You have other resources at your disposal, like gold and Influence, and you start off with nothing in these regards. You use gold for almost everything in regard to expansion, recruitment, and construction, whereas Influence is the main resource for diplomacy. Another key resource is science, which measures how much and how fast your research is going to take.

The tech tree remains simple, with a less linear progression, where you unlock a tech to be able to get to the next tech. There's not much to it besides this. Apart from that, there are so many more systems, from Religion to Government, yet they have little going for them. 

Both are streamlined to have only minor functions and usefulness. They are very untethered, so while you don't see any pikemen going at it against tanks, you will find Catherine the Great preaching the great word of the Buddha. There is a civics tree for each civilization, making things much more varied amongst them. 

The Ages system overall is actually pretty interesting and not that bad; it overall has its ups and downs since while it brings forth many, many new issues, it also fixes the biggest issue with older games, where they basically turned into a next-turn clicked by like turn 40. Essentially, it prevents you from winning just after a short while.

Antiquity is hilariously fun, with nice goals and constraints. Less can be said about the Modern age, which just feels extremely annoying to complete. You don't get to see anything relevant regarding it beforehand, so there is no real planning for it.

You are stuck with all of the improvements you made and districts you set up, as most buildings are ageless, so you don't get to upgrade anything. Its economics are very unengaging and repetitive. All in all, the Modern age is just a slog, and it feels like a rushed aspect of the game.

You have a deep disconnect with things as Civilization VII wanted to be a game that isn't 'next turn please,' but seems to have failed to do so. There is an inability to name rivers and continents or do much in the way of diplomacy. What's worse is that everything gets a soft reset every age, which makes sense but, at the same time, is very frustrating.

Even the characters feel soulless and off. You don't really interact with the other leaders. They also seem to lack any and all personality when you do interact with them. All of these, along with the previous disconnect, stem from an intent to make things trimmed down and condensed, except that doesn't work either.

The game does a nice job with its advisors and military leaders, not only because they streamline many things but also because they make certain aspects of wars fun. I only wish the leaders were similar or could be changed. Instead, you are stuck with them through apparently three different ages of human existence and switch through civilizations like it's going out of style. The game still has many hidden mechanics, values, rules, and so on, which makes it undeniably frustrating. Any intended streamlining is lost, as there are still a hundred things affecting the game. 

Furthermore, you can't really figure out where certain bonuses are coming from. And trying to differentiate or select between civilian and military units is a horrible, horrible process. Among the many, many popups you will see, most are extremely irrelevant and useless. This just makes it more annoying when some of them are extremely important.

As for the game's graphics, most of it looks really good. Civilization VII's decision to make things more grounded but not overtly realistic pays off well here. The cities and environments also look great. Overall, most of the actual art style stands up to the Civilization standard. Yet there is one hole in the wall.

 Sid Meier's Civilization VII's UI is horrible. There's no other way of putting it. Everything feels so cluttered and poorly designed, with menu after menu, submenus after submenus. Remember how there's a lot of hidden detail? Well, if you do want to access any of that, you'll need to go through a dozen hoops to find them.

The 'Civilopedia' is also annoying to use, giving you incomplete information and, sometimes, even missing out on information unless you do something very specific. You can't also see any information about the next ages, so for a game that you really want to plan, especially with its district system and ageless buildings, you really want to plan things out.

The music and atmosphere set, on the other hand, are amazing. The main menu music stands at the top, being a great and near-iconic piece that really encapsulates the grandeur of Civilization and gives way to the much gentler verses in the theme. The overall soundtrack is great, thematic, and honestly iconic enough to compete with the likes of the Age of Empires 2 soundtrack.

All of that aside, this is still a Civilization game, and just like any of the Civilization games, it's not that bad. The core concepts are there, and everything is there to be fleshed out. Right now, it is very bare bones, and all its problems are fixable. So, overall, Civilization VII isn't as terrible as many other 4X games, but it is not a good one either. Among the many missing features, the lack of auto-explore, research queue, and general disregard for map variation and options make for a horrible quality of life and dumb down replayability. Some of these features are a standard of the genre and something expected witihn other good 4X games.

 Sid Meier's Civilization VII, in its attempt to tone down the repetition and micromanagement, has harmed it more than any good it did. Aside from the main and core issues of lacking depth in its content and having a horrible UI, Civilization VII isn't that bad. If you want a better game, though, stick with Civilization VI or V.