Civilization 7 was always going to struggle. Compared to Civ 6, and, in fact, the rest of Firaxis’ defining 4X series, it feels a lot leaner, trimmer, and more streamlined – the big changes to combat and the new Ages are going to bother some long-time fans, and the weight of expectation, especially in the age of Manor Lords, Stellaris, and Endless Space, is extremely large. It is different. But there’s a great game in here. Nevertheless, the initial Civilization 7 Steam launch is not going well. Only 47% of reviews are positive. Firaxis is aware of the problems and has issued a statement about how it plans to make Civ 7 better.
In my own Civilization 7 review, I talk about how Firaxis has tried to cut back on some of the bloat that normally spoils 4X games. The middle and late periods of your individual playthroughs are less bogged down by micromanagement. There’s a concerted effort to make Civilization 7 faster, and to give the player more space to make meaningful strategic choices. The full Civilization 7 release date will reveal more about what players feel, but the early-access period, open to anyone who purchased the premium editions, suggests that the game is divisive.
More than 5,000 user reviews have been posted for Civ 7 so far on Steam, but less than 50% are positive, damning the game to an aggregated ‘mixed’ rating. A lot of criticism is aimed at the game’s user interface. Other players say that features fundamental to the Civ experience, like being able to manually queue the developments in your tech tree, are missing.
Firaxis has already published the first Civilization 7 update. Now the developer addresses the initial negative feedback directly, outlining precisely how it plans to remedy some of the biggest problems and assuring players that it will work on Civilization 7 for “years to come.”
“Over the last few days, the team has been poring over your feedback, including our most recent Steam reviews during the early access period,” Firaxis says. “As stewards of the Civilization franchise, we hold ourselves to a high standard and always strive to create the best game possible. Civ would not have come this far without you, and your opinions matter greatly to us.”
Firaxis says that it will share a development roadmap as soon as possible, but in the meantime, has identified three key areas for immediate improvement.
“Our top priority is improving the UI,” the studio says. “We need some time to digest all of your feedback, but some areas that we’re already looking into include making UI interactions more intuitive, improving map readability, fixing areas of polish like formatting, and more. We’re committed to getting this right, and will share more details as soon as we can.
“Work is already well underway on patch 1.1.0, which includes fixes and adjustments that were already on our radar. This list includes quality-of-life UI adjustments, ongoing AI balance and improvement, adjustments to diplomacy and crises, plus additional bug fixes.”
Firaxis also notes several community-requested features, and says that implementing these is a priority. These include “adding teams to multiplayer games so people can play cooperatively; allowing full player counts in multiplayer in all three Ages through refinements to the distant lands system; allowing players to pick their starting and ending Age to allow for single or double Age games; providing a wider variety of map types; enabling city and religion names to be customized; and adding in hotseat multiplayer.”
In closing, Firaxis promises that it will “support Civilization 7 for years to come” and assures players that their “feedback remains critical in helping grow and build the future of Civ.”
With launch on the way and, hopefully, a lot of fixes inbound, make sure you pick the best option from all the Civilization 7 leaders. You should also get the lowdown on Civilization 7 specialists, who can help boost production and output in your cities.
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