Sid Meier's Civilization VII

Wow that age transition... I immediately quit the game after "Age Transition" like wtf? Why my wars end instantly? Why we all "Age Transit" together at the same time? This is not the Civ experience I was looking for.

I originally had high hopes for this game. I loved Humankind, so I had was excited at the proposed innovations devs were describing in the leadup to the release. However, they have fallen far, far short of my expectations, and their behavior post-release has me skeptical that I can even trust them to release quality (if potentially misguided) games in the future. As it turns out, the dev's "vision" for the game broke what's been good about Civ for decades while also failing to deliver what they intended to achieve in the process. Now they're spending years scrambling to implement baseline, genre-standard functionality (maps larger than "medium", auto-scout, the ability to trade anything but cities, readable UI, etc.) while also painstakingly undoing "the vision" in a a misguided attempt to deliver on an acceptable Civ experience. The irony is that taking this approach is only failing to reach the bar while also removing anything unique about the game. Youtubers make videos every ~6 months about "whether Civ 7 is good yet" (every one I've seen has said "no"), but it won't ever be. The game was dead in the drawing room the moment the lead designer decided he'd implement the inability to snowball (ie, the periodic removal of military units, and resetting of city progress and tech trees) as a core mechanic to the game. Now it's just a matter of waiting out enough insultingly-overpriced DLC ($30 for a handful of civs, leaders, and wonders?!) for Firaxis to get the message that it's time to move on to Civ 8. Maybe they'll remember what players enjoy about their games and what a reasonable price point are by then.

A long-time enjoyer of Civ, Paradox games, Total Wars, etc., I was tempted to try Civ 7 after the recent update having steered clear due to the departure from the infrastructure that has always made Civ enjoyable. The UI is what largely what killed it for me. Civ 3's UI felt more polished than the alpha-tester feel Civ 7 delivers. Ultimately makes the game feel like a high-end early-2000's game in terms of graphics and that tanks immersion. Age transitions are stark, and the game doesn't feel fluid, leading to a sense that you're playing to end the game rather than enjoy it. The leader choices as well are just weird. Ada Lovelace leading Carthage to War? Okay.

[h1] This Game Still Aint It [/h1] I've never hated a Civ game in my life, but here we are. I've played every single iteration back to CIV 3. This game just doesn't feel like it has the required moving parts to feel like Civ. Civ despite it's complexity was a game that understood it took time to play, and didn't go out of it's way to waste it. I keep giving this game a chance with the updates but, [b] There has never been an installment that dares you to enjoy it as much as this one. [/b] We're not talking about difficultly. We're talking about design decisions that make you realize you might have something, anything, better to do than play a video game right now. Even after all the needed polish updates since launch you can still clear a hostile settlement only to have a hostile warrior spawn in the cleared tile the very next turn. You can still only be 20 turns in and sanctioned blitz to the point you'd rather a diplomatically delegated kick to the d*** than get hit with one more. If you're a long time fan as of July 2026 this game still isn't it. And it may never be. [b] If you want a red flag just look at how many paid dlc items this iteration has compared to what it's predecessor did at this point in it's lifespan. [/b] It becomes clear any design ideas weren't to build the next foundation of a great Civ game you could play for years. It's just here to make you hope the next nickel and dime you spend may be the one that gives you that feeling of accomplishment a game of Civ could give you. Something right now it is not capable of giving you.

The worst Civ game hands down. First, this game is wayyyy overpriced, I bought the game when it was 50% off and I still regret paying 30$. Second, the core game is still the classic Civ type that we all love, but Firaxis for all their wisdom added all these new features but give the most vague descriptions on how to use them. For example the railroad system, one of the most frustrating late game features that is core to defeating the end game, but has maybe 2 sentences on how it actually works. I guess they expect you to try and figure it all out in game, but that just sets you behind and in the long term ends up hurting you. All it would take is some more pop up dialogue helping you, or explaining why you are unable to transport your troops from one location to the next. Instead you are left guessing and pulling out your hair trying to figure out why the system is broke. This is constant and it makes for a overall frustrating game. I could rant about many more new features in this civ but this will end up a 20 page rant on how much this game needs more work. It felt like I was beta testing the game and this is after playing the game a year after release after multiple patches. I feel sorry for the people who bought this game on release, I recommend people to save their money and wait for more patches or an expansion. This game is a broken incomplete piece of trash in its current form. SAVE YOUR MONEY!

After having seen all the other reviews, I was cautious. But given the 50% discount at the moment, I thought it would be okayish for the money spent. I was unfortunately still disappointed. I am a big fan of the series, but this title in it's current form isn't for me.

It saddens me to say that even the Test of Time update does not fix this game. I bought it as soon as the update was released because I love building a civilisation from the ground up, progressing through the modern age and beyond. To me this has always been the beating heart of the Civilization games. Unfortunately, the age system completely breaks the immersion. Each age transition feels as though the game board has been reset, with every civilisation suddenly entering the new age at the same time. This just doesn’t feel like Civilization. :(

One of the single biggest requirements for a strategy game is that it is easy to visually process. You should be able to tell what everything is at a glance. No matter how good it looks, it won't be playable if that criteria is not met and that is exactly what happened with Civ 7. The only thing needed to fix this is a strategic view that past entries had, but who knows if they will ever implement one. For as much effort as the dev team put into reducing the burnout from micromanagement that past games had, the art team just made it 10 times worse by replacing clicks with eye strain. The game is exhausting to play and it's also frustrating because you will repeatedly make mistakes from misinterpreting the map tiles. It's a shame because I really like a lot of the ideas in this game. I genuinely think that it can be better than Civ 6 if given the chance. It has the tools to solve most of the complaints that other reviewers have, it just needs the continued investment to grow. I do think like 80% of the issue is with the terrain. If someone made a mod for a terrain lens, it would go a long way, but it would make the game look terrible and you would spend most of the time in that mode lol.

AI is way too random and dumb. Example: I was allied with a Civ and that Civ declared war on my trade partners; I sided with my trade partners and broke the alliance. Then all three of my trade partners declared war on me. My former ally thanked me for going to war with them though I was his enemy now? I conquered all three of the former trade partners with no detriment to my society while having "Too many settlements". Then my Ally-Enemy-Friend was angry that I killed his enemies and started trading with him again, so he attacked me. So he died too. I have a few thousand hours across civ games 987 on Civ 6. I got this on sale hoping that it would have some things ironed out. I was wrong. The UI is still rough, information is hidden in weird places, you can just click your way through the game with very little strategy in mind. Resources get locked out when an age changes, which is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Age change is forced and not earned, and everyone advances at age change along with your units. So science is not a major concern in the game for the first two parts. You can get by pretty easy with a mid tier science investment and still rock the socks off other civs. This game is mindless clicking, no thinking needed. YOU CAN PRETEND YOU ARE DOING SOMETHIGN UNIQUE BY PLANNING EVERY MOVE, BUT IT TOOK ME THREE HOURS TO CLICK MY WAY THROUGH THE AGES AND STILL COME OUT ON TOP. NO CIV-LIKE STRATEGY IS NEEDED AT ALL TO WIN.

This game is still BUNS as of July 9th 2026 the issue is basically the whole game mechanics is built around the different civ/leader hopping and even tho the devs has tried their best to make this game more engaging it still suffers from the underling foundations of the swap and match style i paid $47 for the base version with the new updates and the issue is first you cant beat the game in your first era. if you start off as antiquity or exploration you arent allowed to win even if you steam roll the other civs. it just will spawn more AI units or rebels and even your friends will declare war on you and try to drag you down. even if you beat them all the victory score wont appear until the next era or until the game lets you in the modern age. also all of the war stops when changing eras and so it resets everything. you could literally be one more attack on a city before the end of the turn and if you dont capture it then you have restart at attacking the city all over. this game really forces you to build your cities and town in the antiquity era and pretty much impossible to win a war against a civ in the antiquity era because the AI can spawn so many units at a crazy speed. you can take over a city or two but you really can't just wipe them off. PLUS THEY SPAM SETTLERS LIKE CRAZY they just create two cities while you take one i hate that the leaders dont have their own civs. it's so frustrating tubman is the worst one. its an odd leader and i dont understand it america civ honestly is really bad and lame nothing unique about it the devs just need to release a bunch of more free DLC to make this somewhat better value and just go straight to civ8 and learn from their mistakes navigable rivers is really nice i was never a naval player but this made it more useful and fun that's about the only good part