Initial thoughts on Civilization VII’s gameplay showcase video

Firaxis has released the first gameplay showcase video for Sid Meier’s Civilization VII. The gameplay itself begins at 5:36:

Lots of interesting ideas — many of them from Humankind

My first impression is that Civ VII is the sincerest form of flattery to Humankind. In particular, it adopts Humankind’s signature mechanic, switching civs each era — albeit with differences:

• Civ VII will only have three ages (antiquity, exploration, and modern).
• In Civ VII, unlocking later civs will have in-game requirements. In the video (see approx. 17:35), playing as Ancient Egypt has automatically unlocked Songhai, whereas Mongolia would require access to horses.

Settlements beginning as towns, and upgrading to cities over time, also reminded me of Humankind.

Other mechanics also seem influenced by Humankind, although it’s too early to be sure:

• There seems to be some kind of army system (instead of always moving units one at a time).
• There are also hints that the maps have distinct elevation levels — see, for example, the plateau in the middle of the screen at 13:39.

This cements a tradition of cross-pollination with Amplitude games — Civ VI’s districts system seemed clearly inspired by Endless Legend.

Finally, some mechanics appear entirely new to the historical 4X genre. These include:

• The concept of endgame crises from games such as Stellaris, Total War: Attila, and the Total War: Warhammers — here reworked into “end of age” crises.
• The playable map expanding with each new age; and
• The ability to sail ships down rivers.

My questions so far

Given how early it is, there is still plenty to learn about Civ VII. A couple of questions that occurred to me:

• What is the overall design philosophy?
  • For example, Civs I through IV were empire builders, whereas from Civ V onward, the focus switched to specialisation: picking a path to victory before even starting, then choosing an appropriate civ.
  • My guess is that the ages system will shake things up — let’s wait for more detail on how this plays out.
• How well can the developers execute on their vision? And how well will the computer be able to play the game?
  • The infamous example here is the military AI in Civs V and VI, which was never able to adapt to the “1 unit per tile” rule.
  • This, we won’t know until launch.

Overall thoughts so far

At this stage, I feel curious and hopeful about Civ VII. I’m glad that it has plenty of new ideas on display — I think it’s what the series needs in order to keep feeling fresh. Time will  tell how well the game implements those ideas — and if that implementation is good enough to justify the price.

Links

Most of the available previews contain similar information. I found IGN’s the most informative.

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