The big update developer Firaxis was working for Civilization VII is here. Update 1.2.2 brings a lot of changes, including some based on community feedback, as the the historical 4X strategy game tries to bring the Civ fanbase that isn’t entirely sold on the latest entry’s biggest changes.
One of said big change is the introduction of Legacy Paths. With a game of Civ VII now effectively splits into three distinct game sessions, Legacy Paths serves as way to achieve “victory” that will come handy in the Modern Age where you can achieve proper victory, by pursuing four sets of linear quests unique to each Age.
Fans who prefer not to be on rails and follow the “correct” way to win a Civ VII game can now turn Legacy Paths on. The option allows you to turn specific one individually (like turn off the Cultural Legacy Path during the Exploration Age where you have to go spread religion), or turn them off by Age, or all of them altogether.
There’s also now a toggle to turn off the requirements to unlock a civ during Age transition. Previously, you are required to fulfill a criteria (hidden in some deep menus) to unlock a specific civ to transition to the next Age, though some leaders and civs will have natural transition paths that unlock by default. You are guaranteed a chance to play as the Chola if you start as the Maurya, and then can transition into the Mughals, which is also guaranteed if you pick Ashoka as your leader, for example. An option can be toggled on to just unlock all civs for transition, like it’s a cheat code, but as a option.
This does feel like a back down from the original Civ VII’s vision. Though at this point, we won’t be surprised if there’s an option to not switch to any other civ being added later.
Civ VII Update 1.2.2 also adds Large and Huge map sizes, available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 and of course on PC and Mac. Players on last-generation consoles won’t have access to this.
In addition, Steam Workshop is now available, which means official mod support on the Steam version of the game is now available.
Update 1.2.2 even addresses the lacklustre UI with a revamp of the loading screen. Leader portraits are bigger, the background art of the civ fades more in the background (the idea was to have the leader superimposed into the background but some art work better than others due to mismatched perspectives) and crucially, the layout of the leader and civ details are much clearer to read. They are seperated in tabs, but it’s better than the wall of text it used to be, as if it was a holdover from previous Civ games.
As a neat little touch, the narrator now reads through all the paragraphs of the civ’s description rather than just the first sentence.
There’s a lot more to unpack. From changes to the Treasure Fleet (now Treasure Convoys, they can run on land now) to additional Pantheons, Beliefs and City-State Bonuses. Check out the full patch notes here.
This was definitely worth delaying the scheduled paid DLC drops for.
Update 1.2.2 for Civilization VII is now live on all platforms.
Civilization VII is out now on PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Check out our review of the game based on the 1.0 release here.