Recent reviews by Pope - Onii Chan

TL;DR: Huge Civ fan here, been playing for 15+ years with thousands of hours in the series. Civ VII looks gorgeous and has some cool ideas, but it feels soulless, like a beta or a mobile game. The UI is garbage, the era transition mechanic is frustrating, and removing leaders from civilizations kills the immersion. Diplomacy is a joke, and for €70 (or €130 for the Founder’s Edition), it's just not worth it right now. New players might enjoy it, but veterans—stay away for now.

I've been playing Civ for over 15 years, sinking thousands of hours into the series. Through all the changes—some great, some questionable—the core of Civilization always remained intact. So, of course, I was hyped for Civ VII. But after playing for a while, I can't even bring myself to finish my first full game. Something feels... off.

The Good
The game is visually stunning. The city growth mechanics and the introduction of districts are interesting concepts. Generals and admirals finally have more depth, and their gameplay impact actually works well. They’re not just passive stat boosters anymore but feel like meaningful strategic assets.

The Bad
UI & Information Overload (or Lack Thereof) The UI is a disaster. Important information is hidden or missing entirely, making it harder than ever to make informed decisions. If you've read other reviews, you already know how bad it is. No need to repeat what’s been said a hundred times.

Era Transition Mechanic – Poorly Executed The era system now is a forced transition where all civs get carried into the new era bringing every civ to the same technological level. I get it you don't want tanks to fight warriors. The problem? There aren’t enough eras to make this system feel smooth, and the transitions themselves are frustrating. Cities get downgraded, buildings disappear, and worst of all—units are either deleted or randomly relocated. It makes progress feel arbitrary and needlessly disruptive. Instead of a rewarding evolution from, say, the Ancient Era to the Medieval Era, it just feels like the game is constantly pulling the rug out from under you. Putting everyone on the exact same level is also not what anyone ever wanted. Make it maybe proportional to the current tech level of the civ, some might get a head start some are running behind. Or do it like you did in CIV VI -> enough civs have a certain technology level -> a new era starts without the whole transitioning and putting everyone on the same level stuff. There will always be civs which can't keep up and are being conquered because they didn't have the tech or culture its how the real world works!

Leaders & Civilizations – A Huge Step Back One of the biggest missteps is separating leaders from civilizations. Civ has always been about guiding a nation and its leader through history, forging an identity, and developing a connection to your people. Now, you swap civilizations mid-game (looking at you Humankind), breaking all immersion and strategic continuity. Playing as Egypt and suddenly turning into a Spaniard and then to a Russian feels completely unnatural. It removes a key part of what made the series unique—the sense of leading a civilization and its leader through time, shaping its destiny, and adapting to its strengths and weaknesses. Instead of evolving your nation, you just swap costumes to get a different bonus and buildings. Who thought this would be a good Idea? If I want to play Humankind I play Humankind. This is not a CIV feature for me and every CIV fan on earth.

Free Cities vs. Major Civilizations
To be fair, the improvements to free cities are one of the few genuinely good changes. They feel more dynamic, more relevant, and they introduce more strategic considerations. You can help them with military and growth to your liking, the system is just more controllable. I love it! However, that’s where the good news ends. Everything related to major civilizations has taken a huge hit. Diplomacy is almost nonexistent, trade is a joke, and meaningful interactions between major civs are practically gone. You don’t negotiate, you don’t influence, you don’t really play against them—you just exist alongside them. The world feels hollow, with civilizations acting more like passive obstacles than actual rivals, friends, foes or allies.

Maps & Content – A Lack of Variety
I won’t even start on how tiny the maps feel or how limited the selection of civs and leaders is. Civ VI had this issue at launch too, and it got better later, but still—this feels barebones for a full-priced release.

The Verdict
At the moment, Civ VII is a massive letdown. There are good ideas buried under frustrating mechanics and questionable design choices. The game just feels unfinished, like a beta with a AAA price tag. I got the Founder’s Edition hoping for improvements, but €130 for what feels like an early-access title? That’s rough.

If you’re new to the series, you might find something to enjoy. But if you’re a longtime Civ fan? Do yourself a favor and wait until they (hopefully) fix this mess.

Classic, even better with Mods, perfect combo of Micromanagment and somewhat meaningful Diplomacy. Eras could be way longer tho....

Einfach nur gut. Selbst wenn man nix mit DnD am Hut hat sollte man es sich nicht entgehen lassen.

Connecting to (american) servers (as a european) is a Nightmare, so right now its not worthy of a recommendation in my opinion. Especially when the game hast the tags "multiplayer" and "coop" I expect a working server system, it cant be that you cant find dedicated servers and only can join through joining a friend over steam.

The Game is all about you, getting you'r Ass handed to you, in Multiplayer games, by the Tyranids.

Solid 5/7 will play fithy-xeno-scum again

I wont recommend the Game right now since its horribly optimised. The Gameplay is good and I've found myself investing entire days in the Game and all but the Game laggs heavily at the later Stages of your round if you don't have a Nasa-PC. Even on all settings on "low" (or "medium" apparently in 2020 theres no "low" setting) the Game gets laggspikes or even crashes 3-4 hours in your game, so I guess its not the Graphics that produce the laggs, something in the Game is bottlenecking.
Also what I experienced is that the Game doesn't run smooth if you've got some Programs or a Browser open in the backround/second screen. I'm very disappointed that this game runs so bad on an I7.

So for the Gameplay it would certainly get a recommandation.

But if you want a Game that Works fine like an fully released one should do then its nothing for you unless you have like I wrote a top notch gaming-rig or patience.

Für Early-Access schon einiges dabei, ideal für Spieler welche anstatt mit Stress eher mit ruhe Vermögen aufbauen wollen.

Maps sind leider noch zu gleich.

Erfordert Skill um gute Ergebnisse zu erzielen.

Ansonsten aber auch super für zwischendurch mit Kumpels!