Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, the next new entry to 2K and Firaxis’ influential 4X strategy game, has revealed more gameplay during Gamescom 2024 Opening Night Live, as well as on a separate gameplay showcase.
And members of the press and influencers have also had a taste of the game in action. And it looks like Civ VII is making even more sweeping changes than ever when compared to the jump from Civ V to Civ VI before it.
Some of these fundamental changes makes it feel more like other historical 4X games like Humankind. Others are to further enrich the decision-making fun of the game by eliminating micromanaging busywork.
Here’s what we gathered of what major changes to Civilization VII is bringing when compared to its predecessor.
Welcome To A New Age
Past Civilization games portray the changes in time via eras. Players take control of a civilisation that, as the saying goes, can stand the test the test of time.
Instead of progressing through eras (stone age to bronze age to classical to medieval and so on), Civ VII divides its timeline into three separate ages: the Antiquity Age (early game), the Exploration Age (mid-game) and the Modern Age (endgame).
This is a very different system to the ages in Civ VI Rise And Fall. Golden Ages are still a thing, but they operate differently in Civ VII.
Each of the ages can be played on its own, or as the usual full campaign now split into three parts.
Pick A Leader For The Game, Pick A New Civ Every Age
Another big change Civ VII is making is the idea of actually playing as the same civilization throughout human history. Civ’s ultimate quirk is that it’s less of a historical simulation and more of a board game in its design as you can play as the Arabians in the Stone Age or have the Aztecs live on until the modern era. Saladin and Montezuma are essentially immortal.
This time, each civilization is only in play in one of the three ages only. Once you enter a new age, you can pick whatever new civ you desire- though if you prefer to transition to a civ that would make more historical sense the game will also highlight which those are.
For example, Egypt can only be played during the Age of Antiquity, and for the next age, you can opt to play as the Songhai if you prefer the historical adjacent-ness with Egypt. Other choices will be available depending on what leader you’re playing as and what objectives you’ve achieved in the previous age (unlock Mongolia by having 3 horse resources, for example).
You will always play as the same leader, which now has what’s essentially a skill tree rather than a unique ability. The skill tree improves the civ’s output generation. And as a callback to Civ IV and previous titles, each leader has two traits (leader attribute) they specialise in. This can be further improved via said skill tree.
Expanding on the idea in Civ VI where the same leader can lead different civs which leads to more ways bonuses can stack and synergise, Civ VII allows for non-historical leader and civ combos. Want to play as Augustus Caesar leading Egypt? Hatshepsut leading the Maurya? By all means.
The game will also recommend historical leader and civ pairings, some may have more than one (Hatshepsut can historically speaking, fit to rule Egypt as well as the Askumites).
Leaders in Civ VII can be more than just heads of states. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States that’s generally more known for his scientific contributions than his political roles as a diplomat, is one such example.
If you’ve played Humankind before, this concept of switch civs as you transition through the ages will sound familiar.
This paradigm shift will now see civs and leaders designed to be just good overall rather than them being good during a specific part of the game which renders them as situationally powerful.
No Workers Or Builders
Based on hands-on impressions by creators and press, Civ VII will feel immensely different just by not having worker or builder units. So you don’t have to make tile improvements, that is rolled into how the districts now work.
A Different Approach To City Building
With Civ VI, the game evolved to allow more decision-making when it comes to city placement. You can build specialised districts where special buildings that improve a specific yield can be constructed there.
Instead of specialised districts, Civ VII’s districts now comes in two flavours: urban districts and rural districts. Rural districts are essentially this game’s tile improvements and are gained by having populaiton growth.
Whereas urban districts are where buildings will be constructed, so long as there is available slots.
As such, there are no more buildings that are just built within the city center anymore. All of them has to slot into a tile somewhere which makes the city sprawl being expressed not just visually, but gameplay-wise as well.
New Diplomacy
The way diplomacy works is also very different. The diplomacy screen is not just having the opponent leader taking up the screen, rather it portrays the player’s leader and the opponent side-by-side.
Influence is used for diplomatic interactions (also like Humankind).
There are new diplomatic interactions. For example, you can request for a cultural exchange where you gain some culture (at the cost of influence) per turn with the receiving party earning a little less culture. They could choose to support that move (by also spending influence) which equalises and improves the overall yield of the two parties.
You can passively support one side of a war using influence. The party with low war support will gain penalties as the war goes on.
Each new numeral entry of Civilization shakes up the established 4X formula the series is known for. But for Civ VII, it’s clear that the recent new historical 4X games have inspired the team at Firaxis in some ways in this new direction.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII will launch on February 11, 2025 on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), Mac and Linux (Steam) as well as on PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
This will be the first time a mainline Civ game will launch on PC and consoles simultaneously.