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Civilization VII will be officially released on all platforms simultaneously on February 11th 2025 and, this August, Firaxis has given us full release details as well as allowing some lucky Civ fans to pretest the game. Here is a synopsis of what I’ve been able to glean so far.
Firstly, though, an insight into the CIV update philosophy of thirds: 1/3rd of the game play will be the same, 1/3rd will see updated mechanics and 1/3rd entirely new. I’ll let you work out which is which but from what I’ve seen I think it’s a bit more than 1/3rd completely new this is a whole new ball game, a paradigm shift from previous CIVs.
Through the Ages
Instead of the many ages we are used to, CIV VII has just 3 Ages: Antiquity Age; Exploration Age and Modern Age. You move from one age to another by going through an increasing series of crisis points until it all boils over. When you move into a new age you can now change your civilization!
Changing your civilization is a fundamental shift and one that was pioneered, not entirely successfully, in Humankind. I wasn’t a huge fan of this but if anyone can make it work then Sid Meier and Firaxis can and instead of getting carte blanche to chose your next civilization you are “guided” towards certain ones that are in tune with where you are. Egypt leads to Songhai leads to Buganda for example though you can unlock other choices dependent on your achievments. Constancy is provided by having one set of leaders throughout and your leader is not tied to a particular Civ.
Leaders are not now restricted to those who actually led a nation but can be other political, military or cultural figures. They can level up and get new abilities and are also not restricted to a particular civilisation. This replaces both old leaders and great people.
Also there are Legacy Pathways that let you define the ethos of your civ that will continue through the Ages.
Down with the Management!
CIV VII has taken significant steps in reducing the amount of micro-management in the game particularly in the areas of building and warfare.
Cities are different now. There are two levels of development. You start with a settlement which will only produce gold. You then need to invest enough gold and/or influence into it in order to grow it into a city. Or you can leave them as settlements that send their food and resources to your full Cities where you build your important buildings. There is also a soft limit on the number of cities you can have.
Cities develop with less direct control. You don’t place citizens into different jobs. There are no workers now. A particular city improvement will be auto built as you pay for it. You can two-tier districts which leads to some interesting combinations.
Similarly, warfare has changed. Action is now much more focussed on the generals. It is they that will get experience and upgrades from battles rather than the individual units. They can also gather units together to travel more quickly and deploy at their target. They can then specialise their upgrade abilities in a number of different areas such as Manoeuvre or Logistics. They can be great on the battlefield or make excellent city governors.
By the way the animations and graphics are awesome!
Whilst all the above is a reduction in micro management for those who found it a chore it’s also a loss for those of us, like me, who liked that bit the best!
And that’s Not All!
There are also many other less fundamental changes. In no particular order here are the ones I’ve picked up on:
· Independent people which are a merger of the old City states and Barbarian encampments into a much more satisfying whole. You can either fight them and pillage their lands or befriend them and guide their development with your Suzerain bonuses.
· In the Tech tree as well as developing a tech you can also put in extra effort to gain mastery with increased benefits.
· Civics can be pertinent to individual civs
· Units can have special abilities that can be activated by missing a turn.
· The Diplomacy and bartering system has been reworked to give a more nuanced set of options that you can change using influence points.
· And now the moment I’ve been waiting for - Navigible rivers! You can now sail ships up and down rivers and to inland lakes etc. When you consider the importance of the world’s great rivers: Nile, Mississippi, Yangtsee, Danube etc. to the development of civilizations it’s incredible this has not been include before.
You pays yer money and takes yer choice
Finally CIV VII will be launched in 3 main editions: Standard, Deluxe and Founders Edition. All are available on Playstation, X-Box and PC with the Standard edition being also available on Nintendo Switch. These increase in price as you get more stuff i.e. DLCs that will get released later and earlier access, from a base in the UK of £59.99 to double that for the Founder’s Edition.
There is also an over the top Collector’s Edition at double that again that includes, amongst other glitter, a statuette and a “The Passage of Time” decorative clock.
Useful to see how much time you plough into the game!