The 4X genre has evolved dramatically in the eight years since Civilization VI was first released. Sid Meier’s strategy-management series of exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination has always dominated – but over the past decade, competitors have emerged.
In Civilization terms, we’ve entered a new era. There are now more viable alternatives to Civilization than ever before, which puts developer Firaxis in an interesting position, on the cusp of a rare moment of all-new Civilization. At first glance, it looks like Firaxis is rising to the challenge with no complacency.
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Civilization VII is about change. It’s clear that Firaxis took a long, hard look at several of its recent contemporary competitors. It feels like no Civilization legacy was left out. That, coupled with a day-one launch on all platforms (not just PC) and a focus on cross-platform play and progression, defines this game. It forced the team to think differently.
In a brief walkthrough of what’s new this time around, I noticed that there’s a lot of change. With Civilization sequels, I think typically each game is defined by a few smaller changes that combine to provide a larger overall difference in feel and flow. Civilization VII, however, offers a host of larger, more significant changes. There are multiple changes that I’d consider to be on the same scale as the series’ move to a hexagonal game grid in the fifth installment—the biggest system shift the series has attempted to date.
Concepts like the separation of leaders and civilizations are so important in terms of the whole civilization meta-theory. The concept of the best combination of leaders and civilizations will inevitably become a point of discussion among fans. Each civilization will now have its own civilization tree, separate from the main civilization tree, which will have unique unlockable content to simulate how that society would operate in the real world. As you go through “eras”, you won’t just unlock new units and technologies: you’ll actually choose a brand new civilization to overwrite your previous one, and your leaders will remain the same.
This is the biggest change: instead of playing as the Romans and maintaining a relatively static empire, you’ll be building up history and culture over time, just as you would in the real world. You can choose to follow a historically consistent path, blending together cultures that are also consistent in the real world, or you may prefer to create entirely new, unrealistic hybrids through your choices in each era.
Instead of each progression tree being set in stone, each era is now divided into its own tech and civic trees, which will obviously remove the anachronism of a player unlocking nuclear fission in the middle of an industrial revolution, but will also clearly tip the balance in interesting ways.
Combat has been overhauled, with maneuvers like flanking maneuvers becoming more feasible, meaning positioning is more important than ever. There’s a new way to group many military units together, using the new commander unit to “march” – which, coincidentally, will make moving armies through one-tile-wide bottlenecks simple rather than infuriating.
Builder units are gone! That means less busywork–or, rather, less “auto-building” work for each new unit they train. It feels like a small change when you say it out loud–but it’s a huge one if you stop and really think about it–and it’s a choice that clearly signals what kind of game Civilization VII could be.
I’ve played Civ 4 through Civ 6 for over 1,500 hours, and I’m enjoying Civ 6 a lot, though Civ 4 is still my favorite. Civ 6 is a great subtle evolution, and tightens up all the ideas expressed in Civ 5 – but I’m glad Firaxis has realized it’s time for something new. In an age where upstarts are everywhere, the market leader isn’t resting on its laurels. That’s exciting.
Conventional wisdom holds that competition is good for markets. Even market leaders are forced to think big and try to deliver bigger and better products when threatened by competitors. Civilization VII is a great example of this. With some major tweaks, Firaxis could deliver the most exciting 4X game in years – but how well these changes work will only become clear after hundreds of rounds and hours of gameplay – not in a quick trade show demo. I can’t wait to get my hands on Civilization VII’s new systems.
