Civilization VII review: A major overhaul solves Civ’s oldest problems

I’ve spent comparatively little time playing other 4X games. I had a couple of weeks where I got really into Endless Legend, but it didn’t stick long-term. I played a lot of Master of Orion II back in the day, but I’ve only played a couple dozen hours of Stellaris. I did, however, obsessively play Alpha Centauri. I also love The Battle of Polytopia.

If VI was your favorite Civ game, if you always play on Deity, or if you’re a hardcore player who plays 5,000 hours a year, just know that I’m coming at this from a different place than you are. I hope you can still filter through that and find the information you need here, though.

This review is based on two full-length playthroughs of all three ages of Civilization VII, plus a little extra dabbling—a total of about 35 hours. I mostly played on a Windows PC, but I also tested the game briefly on a Steam Deck. The Mac, Linux, and console versions were not made available to me.

Let’s dig in.

The ages of civilization

Civilization VII overhauls the structure of a Civilization game more radically than we’ve ever seen. Whereas previous games had “eras” (Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, Modern, Atomic, Information, and Future in VI) that acted as a soft structure for how the game progressed, VII cuts everything down to just three and names them “ages”—Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern.

(This is not to be confused with the boom/bust system of the dark and golden ages in VI.)

But unlike the eras of yore, VII’s ages are presented and play almost as distinct games. Ages do not just mark the passage of time; transitioning from one to another involves significant changes to the map and objectives in the game, with a summary screen displayed during each transition.

Each age has its own tech and culture trees, buildings and units, and even unique victory conditions and game systems. For example, the system of spreading religions around the globe with missionaries and tracking the religious makeup of cities is exclusive to Exploration, even though there are some more basic applications of religion in Antiquity.