First of all, I apologize for the negativity—if you're enjoying CIV7, that's great! I also loved many of the new ideas and still have high hopes for the future of the game. But in its current state, it’s completely unplayable, not fun, and just tedious.
I think I have the right to criticize it since I paid a small fortune for it (in Brazil, it costs half the minimum wage, just to give you an idea).
In my opinion, a good strategy game needs two essential elements: meaningful decision-making (different paths you can take) and negative consequences that make some other aspect of the game harder. Should I build a granary or a library? Should I choose this or that social policy?
At first glance, the choices seem to be there. That’s what caught my attention and made me spend so much to play early and support future DLCs.
However, they’re so obvious and overpowered that decision-making becomes completely irrelevant.
I’m not a hardcore strategy gamer. I don’t watch YouTube guides, I don’t look up the best combos, I don’t min-max. I just play intuitively—but still in a way that makes sense and is somewhat strategic.
I had never won a CIV game on Deity in my life (been playing since CIV2). I didn’t even try Deity because Immortal was already a tough challenge for me.
In CIV7? I played two games on Deity—one with Amina + Aksumite, another with Ashoka + Persia—and won both with no difficulty.
With Amina, my only goal was to play casually and explore the mechanics. I tried to go for an economic victory but without a super focused strategy. I built things intuitively, picked the best policies, and I won. I was so rich in every era that the game quickly became boring. Sure, at least now the game doesn’t end before reaching the final era like in previous CIVs. But instead of one snowball effect, we now have three. Every era eventually becomes dull because you run out of things to build, you can buy as many units as you want, and there’s no real threat to challenge you.
With Ashoka + Persia, the game was even easier. I didn’t expect the combo to be that powerful, but I had an endless stream of units being produced and bought, allowing me to crush any neighboring civ effortlessly. The only things that slowed me down were the era timer and the ocean. The reset was fun—I thought I was behind in tech and culture, and I probably was, since other civs were producing more. But in the end, it didn’t matter at all.
I picked the Normans in the second era, and halfway through, I once again had so many units and so much money that only the era timer kept me from conquering everything.
The third era is the worst. A mindless race to the objective. There’s no point in building anything because the bonuses won’t make much difference anymore. Economic victory is just buying everything you need, waiting for highway points, and winning. Conquest victory is just producing and buying infinite units until you win. I haven’t tried the other victory conditions, but they don’t seem much more exciting.
In short, decision-making in CIV7 is almost meaningless. Just follow the obvious choices, and you’ll be unbeatable. This is terrible for a stategy game.
I’ve had similar discussions in CK3 forums because I hate this same issue in that game (although mods fix it, and I love CK3 just because of them). People tell me to "just roleplay," but this is was supposed to be a strategy game (which is even less debatable in the case of CIV). I should be making strategic decisions and facing real challenges, not deliberately weakening myself. If a strategy game forces you to self-sabotage to have fun, then it’s a bad strategy game.
The main issues:
- Everything gives bonuses, and almost nothing has penalties. Same problem as CK3—everything benefits the player, and almost nothing forces you to struggle. Just when you think you already have too much money, a random event gives you even more. The economy is completely unbalanced.
- Building isn’t fun because you can build or buy everything. You don’t have to make tough choices. Production and income are so high that every city becomes overpowered by the middle of the era. Just keep building and you’ll become the dominant civ.
- Cities grow too much. I remember in the other CIVs that some cities faced serious problems growing, especially if they were in isolated places and lacked resources. Now it’s different. Every city or village grows infinitely with no effort at all.
- Combat is enjoyable, but unbalanced. Since you can produce and buy infinite units, you can steamroll everyone. There are barely any upkeep costs, and several policies make maintenance even cheaper or completely free.
- The AI is awful. It flees to the ocean where your ships are waiting. It doesn’t build a navy. It offers no real challenge.
- Happiness seems to be designed to limit expansion, but it’s not working.
- Victory conditions are boring, easy, and lack immersion.
- Ages: The concept is great, but by the end of every era, the game becomes frustratingly boring. However, all the ages end up becoming annoyingly boring in the end, when you only don’t destroy everyone out of pure choice, and there’s nothing left to build, so the cities can only focus on producing research, culture, or infinite units..
- Crises are pointless. Even an average player (like me, who hasn’t played CIV in over seven years) can handle them effortlessly.
I don’t usually post in forums, but I really hope Firaxis is aware that, in its current state, CIV7 is practically unplayable and extremely boring for anyone with even a little experience in strategy games.
I appreciate the new ideas, the graphics, and the overall structure, which is fantastic and has huge potential. But right now, that potential is completely wasted due to the lack of balance.
