Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization VII (PS5) – Legendary Strategy Series Builds a Brand New Foundation – Push Square
GuestGuestLogin | Sign UpPush SquareGuestLogin or Sign UpSid Meier’s Civilization VIIPS52025 N/AGame RatingUser Ratings: 1Our Review: Scroll DownSettle downVersion Reviewed: PS5 (Standard) / EuropeanFiraxis’ flagship series returns with Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, and, for the first time in the series’ history, it;s released simultaneously across all platforms, including the PS5.For the uninitiated, Civilization (Civ for short) is the quintessential 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXplot, eXterminate) game where the objective is to lead your faction (Civ) to glory from prehistory to the modern day against computer-controlled rivals, and to claim victory by being the greatest in either science, culture, or military prowess.It’d be impossible to review the latest in such a long-running series without making constant comparisons to its predecessors, and the biggest and most impactful change is the new ‘Ages’ system.Unlike previous Civ games where you would guide one single faction from 4000BC to the near future, a game of Civ VII is now divided into three distinct sections. These are the Antiquity Age (Bronze Age and Iron Age), Exploration Age (Medieval and Renaissance), and the Modern Age (Industrial Revolution onwards).During each age you now control a different Civ that flourished during that period, and so your faction changes throughout the course of the game. Each age has its own optional objectives that guide you to a victory condition and you can choose to pursue one, several, or none at all, which allows you to adapt your strategy as you go along. Towards the end of the first two ages a crisis happens causing progressively worse economic turmoil, until the age ends and your current Civ is reborn as a new faction.Who you choose to play as next varies based on your leader and what you have achieved in game. With the new ages, major things like cities and wonders are kept, but some buildings become obsolete and can be built over with newer improved versions. Doing well in earlier ages gives you legacy bonuses going into the next age, and the overall result of this feels like a campaign of three different back-to-back games.Of course, while this is an interesting alteration, it’s such a seismic tweak to the structure of the series that it’s proven controversial with some long-term players.The other major change is leaders who are no longer limited to leading one Civ. Your leader stays with you the whole game and you can mix and match their unique abilities with the abilities of the Civs you choose to play each age, making each play through feel unique. Leaders also level up after games giving them extra minor abilities, which makes replaying them more interesting.Some of the leader choices are rather unusual and ahistorical, though, and when you combine this with the controversial Civ swapping, you may end up running into Benjamin Franklin who leads the Mayans, then Mongols, then Germany which could end up far too immersion breaking for purists.Another tweak involves cities. All settlements except your capital now start as towns and as they grow can be specialised to the tiles around them. Towns can later be upgraded to cities but it’s not always the best move giving a nice balance between ‘tall vs wide’ strategies.Warfare has been improved thanks to the new army commander units that let you stack up to eight units of your choice into a single tile and move them across the map as one. You then deploy units when you need them to resume the one unit per tile style combat from Civ VI. Reinforcements can be sent to the front lines from a friendly city with a button press. This removes annoying movement micromanagement from long military campaigns.Diplomacy has also been overhauled and now uses a new currency to both propose deals and deny them to your rivals. It also lets you deal with barbarians and cities states. You won’t have enough for everything so you must spend it wisely.The new navigable rivers have been a long-requested feature in the series and mean naval units can play more important role throughout the game as well, exploring beyond your shores in the Exploration Age.It’d be unfair to judge vanilla Civ VII to its predecessors with multiple expansions and DLCs so naturally some features such as the World Congress are predictably missing. It’s likely that these will be added in future expansion packs. There’s also poor variety of map types to choose from and the ones available don’t generate very interesting worlds.There’s also no Earth map so players who enjoy true start location games are out of luck. Some basic quality-of-life features are also absent such as the ability to re-roll the map if you don’t like your spawn position. You can’t even play ‘one more turn’ after the game ends – blasphemy!Fans of multiplayer should be aware that although its available with cross-play functionality, it’s otherwise bare-bones and there is no teams or hot-seat mode available.What’s most shocking, though, is the third and final age of the game only last until mid-twentieth century and so modern units such as helicopters and stealth bombers are completely absent. As data miners have recently revealed, the missing ‘Atomic Age’ appears to be cut content and will likely be sold later as paid content. Combine this with DLC being released as soon as three weeks after launch date (which you will need to buy if you didn’t cough up for the more expensive editions of the game), and some fans understandably feel furious they’re being sold an incomplete game.The games visuals look gorgeous and appear to be a mix of the realistic style of Civ V and the more cartoonist style of Civ VI. There’s lots of details to notice such as watching the crew of a tank mending it while the unit heals or a scout on lookout mode literally climbing a lookout tower. The combat looks great, too. Cities expand organically, with each building you create being rendered on the map, although this can lead to over-detailing and its often difficult to see what’s in each tile without zooming in very close or relying on tooltipsComposer Christopher Tin returns to the series and provides superb music with the game’s main theme Live Gloriously. Each Civ has its own theme which immerses you in the culture you are playing as. Gwendoline Christie does a great job of the narration and joins Sean Bean and Leonard Nemoy in the ‘Civ Narrator Hall of Fame’.The UI is the biggest issue with the game currently. Most of the main screens are accessed from a radial menu which seems to work well most of the time. The issues are trying to access all the critical details of your empire such as trying to find out ‘why’ your cities are receiving certain yields and getting a clear overview of what’s going on.In the late game it can get so bad you almost feel like you’ve lost control, and things are just happening for reasons you can’t see. The icons over units and cities are bizarrely small and you need to zoom in or rely on tool tips. Units have important commands that are hidden in sub-menus. A lot of the interface is grey-on-grey and the only thing distinguishing the button you have highlighted is a dim glow effect so it’s often a struggle to see what’s selected and you can often choose the wrong thing by mistake.As you would expect from a console game version of this genre, the controls are not great and can sometimes feel sluggish. Combined with the UI issues it can sometimes make the game feel like a chore to play, although you will get faster with persistence. The performance seems good and has fast load times especially in the earlier stages of the game.Despite its UI issues and missing features, Civ VII is still an enjoyable and addictive experience. Its new mechanics provide a fresh foundation which will no doubt be expanded on over the coming years with more content. If they can get over the substantial formula changes, hardcore fans of the series are more likely to be forgiving of the game’s shortcomings and probably won’t regret their purchase, but more casual players may want to sit tight until the title has been patched and padded out with more content for a more complete experience.Good 7/10Review copy provided by 2K GamesHow we review productsScoring PolicyRelated ProductsPlease note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.Comments 14I’m enjoying it. Very different, but not a bad thing after VI which I wasn’t as into as IV or V. Unlocking Civs is good fun too. The ahistorical parts don’t wind me up as much as I thought, the games have always been silly and III literally had modern day Abraham Lincoln models and Chairman Mao as a caveman. In all honesty, the vast changes have actually increased the scope of where they can go from here, instead of being stuck on a road with only one exit. The UI is a pain though!This is roughly what I’d rate it as well. Not a disaster, but a big deviation from the formula and not always for the best (leaders hopping Civs is very dumb).I expect it will be a far different, and better, game in a year as they update.Of course it feels incomplete, they’ve got DLC to sell.@BamBamBaklava89 The series has had expansions for 25 years. The expansion packs are a highlight, giving you time to get to grips with the core mechanics of the base game before weaving more into the game after development time and player feedback. The issue is the smaller packs that add a Civ or leader or two, which are clearly just to make extra money on the side.I haven’t played this yet, but on paper I am super not into the idea of changing civs mid-game.I’m having a lot of fun with it, though my son beat the game on Deity with surprising ease yesterday – definitely some OP leader/Civ combinations! But that’s also part of the fun with the new format; being able to switch up who you lead to synergise with your chosen leader and/or victory conditions is great, and will provide increased long term replayability – especially as they introduce more leaders and civs.I’m really enjoying it. First game I was clueless but have grown a lot and actually look forward to the age changes. The title music is f’ing glorious. Love commanding an officer to fire his troops in sync. The diplomatic setup is much preferred. 9/10.I feel like civ 7 handled changing cultures better than Humankind did. I guess it’s because there is still. Recognizable leader at the head of each civilization, as opposed to the “personas” that Humankind had. Ages also feel done better too, I look forward to seeing what this game becomes in a few years.This game will really separate the old fans from the new.If it does well long term, then hey, fossils like me will have to dop our caps and say “fair play, old chap. You did a right proper job with that little lady.”For now though, I’ll stick with 5 and 6 and wait for the DLCs to inevitably change something drastic about the formula – just as they always do.I’m enjoying the game but it needs real polish and QOL improvements.It’s probably a good idea to wait for sale.I haven’t played a Civ game in a long time, but I can’t imagine they would be all that easy to play on a console.Nice to see it got a good review, though.As standard then – releases in a perfectly fun but almost beta state, then after a few months to a year it’ll have the DLC’s to turn it into a full game at over £100. I’ll wait for a sale on the ‘Complete Edition’Too drastic of a change for me. I’ll stick to 5 & 6. I only want to play as one nation state representing [insert group here]. I don’t want to be forced to be a different civilization or leader because it’s a new age in the game. And from what I’ve seen the transitions don’t even make sense history wise. So I’ll pass for now. I’ll see what it’s like in a few years after multiple DLCs!I have 6 on PC, PS5, and even Netflix if desired and cross progression via cloud saves. No reason to buy this any time soon. I just wish they would do another Alpha Centauri. Always preferred the sci-fi colony theme. Show CommentsLeave A CommentHold on there, you need to login to post a comment…35 PS5, PS4 Games You Should Grab in PS Store’s Planet of the Discounts Sale (North America/Europe)Recommended PS5 and PS4 games going cheap9 PS Plus Extra, Premium Games for February 2025 AnnouncedStar Wars! Lost Records! 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