Sid Meier's Civilization VII

There are not enough negative words in volume nor in magnitude in any existing dictionary to accurately describe how BADLY they botched this release. To be clear, I only played on release. I have encountered this level of disappointment only once before: Fallout 76 To this day, this game evokes one emotion in me: dismay The fact that the tech tree wasn't visually connected on release was a very clear message: "We will release ill conceived, under-baked, and overpriced" What I think is worse is that they really thought they would recover from that degree of shame, and even though I do not like Humankind (the game) I'm glad it is there alongside CIV 5/6 to keep the franchise alive. I am begging you, please don't give these guys money. Sail the high seas if you have to, or get a cheap Euro disk key online. Stop feeding these clowns.

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.

Although there are some nice things about this version (pretty and the districts) it just doesn't feel like Civ anymore, with the age transition still very disjointed after the latest update. The "AI" still seems to be at the same level of VI or earlier, with very basic difficulty adjustments akin to much earlier Civ games. I gave it a good try, but just don't enjoy this version and certainly don't think the game is worth the price tag.

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.

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.

Despite being a huge fan of the series—with 300 hours in Civ V and 150 in Civ VI—I cannot recommend Civ VII. I waited over a year for patches and bought it at a 50% discount hoping for the best, but the experience completely falls flat. The strategy and mechanics feel heavily watered down, leaving the gameplay loop incredibly boring compared to its predecessors. I genuinely struggled to force myself through just one playthrough.