I haven’t played many strategy games, and the ones I did, I often stopped after 10 minutes of frustrated sighs. With Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, though, I was able to easily pick up the mechanics of the game and enjoy endless hours of fun. Sid Meier’s Civilization VII was a great game to dip my toes into strategy and ultimately dive in.
When first getting into Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to pick up on the gameplay quickly; there were some things not covered in the tutorial, such as being able to choose an action with the d-pad. Though everything else was explained in great detail. I will say that when I took a break for a couple of days, some of the controls got lost on me.
There is a number of historical figures to pick from, I picked Isabella for the Greek Empire because, although I liked many of the other leaders, I wanted to try and be time accurate (even though I was working through the ages).
One thing I really liked was the system and how I was able to jump around from the different people and places. Being able to focus on the narrative choices without needing to go to another page was super helpful. One thing I did find frustrating was how, while playing as a merchant, you cannot just pick a place to open up trading; you have to have him walk there and then go to his profile and choose that trading route.
The turns feel like they go by too fast and too slowly at times. When I am moving my military, merchants, scouts, and settlers, it often feels like they aren’t able to move as much as I want them to. Which isn’t a bad thing, just something that is very frustrating to have to deal with. Players get around 150-200 turns per age. There are three ages to play through: the Antiquity Age, the Exploration Age, and the Modern Age. Each age has its own technologies, civics, and laws that go into being a great leader. During the Antiquity age, I was not a top leader or innovator. Once I got to the Exploration Age, I had a better strategy going in. I wanted to make my cities and towns as profitable and safe as possible. I also wanted to focus on growing my economy more than what I previously had. I was able to accomplish this and got higher up on the leaderboard.
I will say that I appreciated the advisor telling me about things but often found them annoying when they talked about things that did not directly affect my country. I would often get messages about war going on in another country but never a message or warning that my own country was getting attacked. That was probably the most annoying part of Sid Meier’s Civilization VII.
One thing Sid Meier’s Civilization VII does well is increasing the cost to make choices and actions. When making choices that affect a political alliance, the cost went from 60 to 120 to 180 for the most expensive endeavors. This makes the game feel more realistic, given how the world’s currency is changing and growing, meaning things will be more expensive as time continues with new innovations.
The hexagon tiles make an interesting movement pattern and choices. I personally thought that showing what the tiles were going to do when expanding cities was great. It allowed for me to take priority over one thing or another and decide what should be added or changed. Trying to figure out how many turns were needed to complete a task as well as prioritizing making trade routes helped me get to the end and make a good profit for my country. The leader wheel was nice to have, but I often didn’t utilize it as much as I could have. It allows players to see all the other leaders and whether a leader is doing well or poorly in war. During the second age, I struggled to get high profit for my country while the other leaders had high profit. Though I did better than everyone in happiness for my citizens.
When I was starting to explore the deep seas, it was both terrifying and exciting. I was constantly worried about my ships getting destroyed if I went too far into the deep sea. For this reason, I wanted to upgrade navigation as much as possible to minimize damage. I also prioritized making my cities as expansive and diverse as possible, making every city unique with their own things. The one thing I will note is how the city’s growth is done. I oftentimes felt that my city’s growth didn’t go as fast as I wanted it to go. There were also areas that I wasn’t able to reach fully because of how the gameplay works.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII offers countless hours of replayability. Yes, there are many leaders and other content packs that have to be bought, but ultimately the developers give players lots of leaders to choose from in the base game. I had a lot of fun playing and think people should give it a try if they are wanting to dip their toes into strategy games.
Sara played Sid Meier’s Civilization VII on Xbox Series X with her own bought copy.
