CIV 7 - One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards - A Full, Honest Civ 7 Review After 200 Hours

[@boesthius]

THERE WERE SO MANY OTHER THINGS I COULD HAVE MENTIONED that I just didn't have time to delve into otherwise this review would have been like 4 hours long!!!!! The music is incredible, the attribute system is great and doesn't feel out of place whatsoever, the momentos make each game fresh (albeit some are more powerful than others,) the list goes on. Either way this was a long yap session and the tl;dr it's good but needs work...just like all vanilla civs.

[@The_General_Zubas]

I jsut hope and pray that Civ 7, as the end of the dev cycle (because Dev cycles last about a year or 2 after the games release now) is better than Civ 5.

[@ggmoyang]

One thing I noticed is there's 'bombardment strength'. Apparently, units with ranged attack uses that value when attacking district defenses, but does this explained in the game? I'm also curious why devs did this, as Civ 6 style attack bonus and penalty would've worked just as well.

[@michaelmayhem350]

Honestly I would have preferred a 4 hour video & the confidence of knowing everything was mentioned but all the Civ7 streamers only uploaded ~1hr video reviews

[@michaelmayhem350]

@44:09 "the units look great". Don't lie. No one can see the units. I've seen every steamer almost lose a unit and start looking around for it 😂🤣

[@webbowser8834]

@@The_General_Zubas To be fair, that isn't really true for civ games. As mentioned in the video, Civ VI came out in 2016, while the last DLC for the game came out in 2023, 9 years later. The dev cycle for a civ game is considerably longer than virtually any other franchise.

[@csharp-animemusic6558]

as with other civ games, wait a few years for the dlcs to make it a full game, then wait a few years for everything to go on sale for dirt cheap.

[@sound4117]

YEARS? Nah, I’m not waiting that long 😂

[@axletman3394]

Yup. I refuse to pay $70 for an incomplete game, and then $40 for dlc that should have been the base game. The fact that there's already dlc planned for *March* is disgusting.

[@goblinmunda]

yeah I'm definitely going to be starting civ 7 when 8 comes out lmao

[@csharp-animemusic6558]

@ I've got a backlog of other games to play anyway lol, and I can also play civ 6 in the meantime

[@everettharris967]

This is my plan. I did this with civ 6 and still have a lot to do.

[@avenage]

One of the frustrating things about civ6 is that the AI can call you out for things like troops at their borders or settling too close, but you never got that option as a player. So it's nice to see that addressed

[@RobaMostarRoba]

the worst one is when they call you warmonger when other AI declares surprise war on you lol

[@Shinbu150]

@@RobaMostarRoba That always pissed me off. There shouldn't have been any grievances (or maybe half) for taking cities from someone who declared on you. So many games I get stuck in a forever war in the ancient era that threw off the pacing for the rest of the game.

[@crowstick]

I think you can actually?

[@RockSmacker]

​@@crowstick you definitely can yeah. i think it costs diplo favor

[@alfiehutchinson1030]

@@RockSmacker yep, it's just basically never used because the AI doesn't care

[@ryanbusch2885]

Every reviewer: why no map search? Everyone on consoles: still waiting for that in 6

[@paulstaker8861]

On mobile too

[@Shinbu150]

The best change IMO is the Deity AI starting with one settler. No more getting forward settled by multiple civs on turn 3.

[@MickeyMolad]

I'm OK with 2 steps backwards in finding a way to innovate every 8 years. I trust Firaxis to tweak and get it right and Civ is an investment, not a quick playthrough. If they missed a few more areas than they hit, I'll enjoy what I can and play more either later or down the road. They have earned my trust.

[@zacharybecker8228]

They have barely innovated for both 6 and 7 they heavily copied endless legend for 6 and now are heavily copying humankind

[@codyaliff3620]

​@zacharybecker8228 Civ 7 and Humankind went into development at the same time so you're just spewing non sense

[@joshuafrimpong244]

​@@zacharybecker8228Sometimes innovation is a bad thing. Sometimes getting what you know done perfectly is better than doing something new and getting it all wrong

[@Keygentlemen]

@@joshuafrimpong244 Like what Civ 7 does?

[@joshuafrimpong244]

@ In what way?

[@brningpyre]

There were so many points in this video where I had my hands up in the air, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT? WHAT? WHY?" while watching the video. Not being able to queue techs and having the tech tree look like an awful mess is what really sent me over the edge.

[@plixsticks]

Easily fixed by mods but shouldn’t be the solution :/

[@TheZaror]

I love how at 36:22 in the video where the UI is criticized the only thought in my head was is the food number clipping into the production.

[@OldEmbarrassingUsername]

Holy shit good eye, also the weird spacing between the gold and science numbers… I think I’m gonna be sick.

[@Omar_Al_Seddik]

10 years of development.

[@J4203-b4r]

Missing documentation/information in the Civilopedia was already somewhat of an issue in Civ 6 for me. There's entire hidden calculations and mechanics that you have to find out about in forum threads or youtube videos, including important ones like era score generation, great person selection, XP generation, district cost scaling, district discounts, builder cost scaling, religious unit cost scaling, global apostle promotion limits. All things I had to look up online. I still don't what the actual odds of Eagle Warriors capturing defeated enemies are.

[@paulstaker8861]

The Eagle Warrior capture never happened for me, always against me 😢

[@lordlubu3029]

Your nitpicks are completely valid, I am shocked so many obvious things are missing or handled so poorly. Since they are releasing DLC so early on I expect that also means a lot of patches and free updates too, so hopefully in a month or two most of these issues are fixed. At least they seem very aware of it.

[@The_Man42]

My plan it to wait a couple of years for dlc and patches to get released then buy it all when it goes on sale

[@Ivan_Ooze]

This kind of thinking is why GTA 6 isn’t being released on pc at launch. But I agree I’ll probably do the same

[@Golemoid]

@@Ivan_Ooze Im pretty sure it's because of piracy

[@Ivan_Ooze]

@ I heard somewhere R* essentially said pc players are “cheap” and always wait for things to go on sale

[@Golemoid]

@ Somehow no other publisher has this issue. Besides delaying the release will only make it worse, nobody's paying full price for a game that's years old.

[@porcu12345]

People are way too forgiving of shipping a half baked base game for premium AAA prices. If this was any other big franchise it would be getting absolutely blasted, but instead we get "it's the usual for civ!" "pretty good for a civ launch!" "it'll be great in a year or two!" 🤦

[@LauraLovesHugs]

but.. it IS typical for a civ game, this happens like every time. pretending it's like particularly terrible this time is just kinda bandwagoning.

[@joshuafrimpong244]

Ok.

[@Zxykary]

​@LauraLovesHugs congrats on getting used to the taste of slop. "Maybe.. they shouldn't regularly release unfinished games." isn't "bandwagoning"

[@porcu12345]

@@LauraLovesHugs Stockholm syndrome! Just because civ always launched unfinished, and fans are used to it being that way, it doesn't make it acceptable to release a AAA premium priced game half baked!

[@joshuafrimpong244]

@@Zxykary that's her personal taste. It shouldn't be the price that it is, but how would they justify demanding more money from you for every content update?

[@AnonSeacat]

I don't think World Congress being gone is a negative. Civ VI became a mess of overlapping systems and way too many currencies and mechanics to keep track of, and keeping different systems segregated off into their own ages is a huge plus for me. If there is ever a WC in VII, I hope it is in a "fourth age" where it takes the place of say the artifact mechanic from modern, but even then I hope it's a bit less invasive. Because lemme tell you one of the things I'm not going to miss from VI is a leader randomly popping up to tell me about their agenda in a full-screen window. I'm glad that VII mostly keeps us on the map, or at least has the map as a background even in diplomacy windows.

[@mtgpieology]

The Civ 6 World Congress is annoying throughout the game. Often when you first get it, you haven't met a few players, so you're somehow voting in a Congress full of people you don't know? Then later the bonuses are either really good or just meh, and there are like 4 of them? I won't miss it.

[@jinxomg]

I hated the congress in 6. Every single time even if you met just 1 civ somehow the entire world knows about your one Luxury resource and vote to ban it. I can't think of a single game where this did not happen. I don't really know if you can make a good congress with these AI. I play a lot of stellaris and even in that the entire galaxy would be embroiled in a genocidal war against the end game crisis then you open the council and see that the entire universe is voting to apply sanctions across the galaxy which only hurts every single member of the council because the crisis is destorying everyone.

[@VanBradley]

My body is ready

[@Slappist_Cast]

But is your mind?

[@Dragonzfear2]

Stop defending locking big civs behind dlc after release. The economic victory screen includes GB but it's paid DLC after already paying way too much for base game.

[@jho4977]

Yeah this type of behavior is BS but people will still buy it. Remember playing games to unlock characters? Now you just pay extra to unlock something they could very well just have available day 1.

[@cpzd83]

​@@jho4977dlc's have been a thing for a long time

[@nx_s]

After watching a number of reviews, I get the impression that this is more akin to an early access release.

[@weechy_specialttv2780]

Very simple solution do not purchase this game at full price. Wait for it to be on sale.

[@denisem.1042]

You really hit on some of my issues with Civ 7. There were things in Civ 6 that worked really well and it seems the devs threw out all those things in the new game. It almost seems as if they just decided to build a new game from scratch without much continuity between versions. I only have a 3000 series graphics card, so thanks for the warning about the lag.

[@michaelbeale559]

I have a 2070... Guess I won't be buying it until the optimize the game more.

[@ancientspark375]

I was one of the defenders of the age switching idea, but the fact that your military resets at the beginning of the age reversed my opinion on it. That's absurdly silly.

[@lordlubu3029]

I thought the same, but once you get the context of how combat works it makes sense and isn't as jarring or bad as you think. Civ7 combat is nothing like 6 or 5, units by themselves are 100% cheap and expendable. COMMANDERS are all that matters and you get to keep your commanders. Military units don't even get promotions, and if you did keep them between ages you would need to pay to upgrade them so keeping them is actually a liability and would be worse than just having them deleted and replaced with better units. The new age also gives you enough units to max out capacity in all existing armies so it's not like you start from scratch, it's the opposite, you start out with a MUCH stronger army than before even if it may have fewer units.

[@tw7998]

@@lordlubu3029 the way wars instantly end with age changes is the weirdest thing for me.

[@mzmaster]

As a musician who makes piano covers for Civilization games, I would also shout out the music in Civ 7- all the themes are amazing in their own way! I was also wondering, does Civ 7 have ambient themes?

[@boesthius]

YES i can't believe i didn't mention the music - it's absolutely incredible just as it was in civ 7. there are ambient themes!!!! I honestly have been trying to dive into the actual files of civ7 to find them but I haven't been able to sort through the data hahah

[@mzmaster]

@@boesthiusthat’s great to hear!! because sometimes ambient themes are better then main themes (like Georgia or Gran Colombia in Civ 6) 😅 Thank you for the review 🙏

[@John_Youtube_real]

So true, I'm already in love with the mongolian theme cant wait to play and enjoy the atmosphere

[@fianjames6622]

@@boesthius That's great, BUT... is there a main theme approaching the majesty of Civ 4's Baba Yetu?

[@BrandonMiller-qe1rk]

Thank you for being honest and critical. So tired of content creator cope and lack of spine to speak up about the glaring issues Firaxis devs should be held accountable for.

[@joshuafrimpong244]

That's ironically the media illiteracy he stated was missing

[@Dutch_is_a_Weird_Language]

I bought Civ V and VI when either all or most expansions were out, but I have played them without those expansions to get a feel of their vanilla game. I actually started playing Civ VI in vanilla and gradually added more rules. I remember that I found vanilla Civ V to be almost unbaringly bland Civ VI felt lacking in departments like the City UI, thank you Sukritact for SUIA), but felt more fun at base than V. So hearing that Civ VII is even better, is a good sign for me

[@Veldermann]

About the first month of DLC. "Yeah, it's not very good, but they've always done it that way!" is not the best argument.

[@sound4117]

Don’t pay for it then. All it does is expand on the base game.

[@lordlubu3029]

No one is forcing you to buy the DLC, this is a standard practice in the industry. Complaining about it doesn't solve anything either.

[@Jarnsmidr]

​@@lordlubu3029 complaints are feedback, and feedback CAN do something. Remember the original sonic movie design? Good faith complaints tell studios how to make their product more appealing to their audience

[@tw7998]

@@lordlubu3029 Yes it is how the industry is, it was with CIV 6 that i first felt they were going crazy with DLC to be honest

[@Veldermann]

@@sound4117 Well, for some reason you didn't apply similar logic to the comment and responded:) You could have just passed by silently without expressing your opinion.

[@mbowman90]

To me, all these little problems scream that production was rushed. Just constantly thinking "we will fix that post release."

[@Flowers4Fischl]

It’s a result of poor leadership no accountability, and collective procrastination. Possibly DEI or Nepo hires on the UI team too

[@johnathanvargas803]

​@@Flowers4Fischl incredibly stupid comment. Far more likely the problem comes from the top-down - exploit customers, lower production costs. rushed production cycle + promise of future patches/civ/leader releases on a continually rolled out schedule (season passes, games as a live service) appears to solve both problems for execs.

[@OneCreator87]

1) Victory Conditions for each Age: YES PLEASE! 2) Increased Length for each Age (and balance game around that increase): YES PLEASE! Great review man.

[@limitededition5578]

What a cool game of Leaders, cant wait for them to make a game about Civilizations.

[@robhimself33]

I've watched a ton of Civ 7 reviews this week - this is IMO the most honest and thorough, and touches on the points that I'm most interested in. Excellent. It is not only disappointing that it's such a predictable part of the life cycle, but after the past two games (all I've played) had such AMAZING UI mods created by the community it's shocking that the devs didn't incorporate some of those ideas into the new game.

[@sambmackenzie]

I can’t believe they didn’t pay Sukritakt like 10k to just design the whole UI for them.

[@dauvyde4665]

when civ 6 came out, I remember everyone said the same things, including me . ''not a real civ game, not the same, goofy characters'' . We will love the game once we learn the mechanics and tweaks that people like you teach us !

[@avayevvnon914]

Nah boot up vanilla civ 6 right now and play with no gov plazas, governors, or gold and dark ages. Civ 6 was an absolute snooze for years but I was very happy when I came back to it. I expect the same of civ 7

[@zacharybecker8228]

nah civ 6 is still bad

[@bushmonster1702]

@@zacharybecker8228 skill issue.

[@Crembaw]

Historically generals fucking around and doing nothing or dying on the frontline is incredibly accurate.

[@Sappy1738]

I just can not get over having to switch civs. I don't pick a civ to play because I want to play some nebulous, tangentially connected, slapdash descendant civ.

[@lordlubu3029]

It's personal preference tbh, I actually think the change is great because it gives way more variety in playthroughs and makes the civs feel more impactful. Nothing sucks more than picking a civ that is only good late game and basically having no access to my UB or UU for 75% of the playthrough. Plus from a strategic standpoint it's way more in depth, it lets you pivot to another civ if your strategy isn't working.

[@cecagna]

I'm at around 28:00 where you're listing things that are missing and I can hardly believe so many Civ essentials are absent. I trust your opinion on the game more than any journalism website or other content creator because we have the same approach to games, especially Civ, so will be watching the rest of the video when I have time. I personally can't get over the civ switching mechanic since it breaks one of the fundamentals of Civ that I love: alternate history. Civ 7 feels like "Civilization on rails" in a lot of aspects. If I want to struggle bus my way through the ancient era with a modern civ, I should be able to do that knowing I'm going to pop off later. Yes, it is funny seeing "American Warrior" or "Babylonian Bomber" but that is one of the endearing quirks of the Civ formula. Firaxis has basically removed a lot of player freedom from Civ in the hopes that more players will finish games, since they identified that as one of their core design principles. What about the players who were already finishing games? My Egyptian friend and fellow 4x nerd is not all too happy about being told his country cannot exist in the modern era. It appears that this iteration of Civ wasn't made with us in mind.

[@LiLKK713PB]

I hear you but I respectively prefer the updated version.. I’m seeing a ton of crusader kings features/vibes with this new and I’m so excited

[@michaelmayhem350]

@42:27 when they first announced the ages system and civ swapping this was the first thing my mind went to. We're just going to have 1 map type because age 2 is always sail across the ocean to the new land. Some of my most fun games were versus 12 civs on a very large pangea map

[@christopherhackett9214]

What you don't want to see "Dickbutttown" the next Civ over?

[@fewell8]

Boes, this is a very well organized and valid critique of the game. Fraxis usually do a very good job of taking feedback and implementing it where it makes sense. I suspect that a majority of these will be fixed within the first few months after release.

[@dragonstryk7280]

I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, the tagline of Civ games is "Can you build a Civilization that will stand the test of time?"... and no, no you can't, not in Civ VII. It's the same reason I didn't jump in on Humankind. The idea that I have to keep starting over as a different group just holds no interest to me, and I feel like it's missed gameplay. It also feels random as hell, missing the cultures that form things like Mongols vs. Romans and other civilizations. It's not just "You have a lot of horses, so you can be Mongol". I also would've liked to see better cultural leadership. So basically, a system where each Civ can choose between different leaders from their respective histories, and have those tie in to how they play with differences in what particular bonuses they give. So you play as the Celts, for instance, and you can choose between leaders like Boudicca, William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, or Brian Boru just as an off the top of my head example, with each leader having different bonuses that contribute to a style of play. They were *sort* of doing something like this in Civ VI, but didn't really get there.

[@sound4117]

Of course you can “build a civilization that stands the test of time” just don’t be shit and lose to the ai. Seems pretty simple to me.

[@lordlubu3029]

Personal preference, I think changing civs is a fantastic idea. pretty much the only thing Humankind did right. It makes sense historically, it allows for more strategic gameplay, and it just feels better to play. It sucks picking a civ that is only good late game and then having no access to your UB or UU for 75% of the game. At least now every civ you play feels impactful and relevant for the entire duration of a playthrough.

[@groynin]

I guess the reverse of what they did would work better flavor-wise. You pick a single Civ, and change leaders as it goes through the eras. Then you could have a full game as China with only Chinese leaders after each reset if you wanted, but most likely you would still have some weird combinations popping up for civilizations that didn't 'exist' in antiquity times, like Brazil and so on.

[@fridgeking6014]

I'm not buying this game until forced civ swapping is removed from the game. A truly terrible mechanic.

[@dragonstryk7280]

@@sound4117 So they removed the forced cataclysms? Cause if they didn't, then no you can't. You literally become a different empire, so your first two don't even end up mattering. You're AT MOST snagging them for one particular ability, and after they're dead and gone, you stop caring about them.

[@GoodMenstruationAttitude]

I'm glad they at least left the clock! My absolute #1 civ vi feature

[@mockduckcompanion]

This is my favorite review so far. Still going to play on Day 1, but all of these props and slops are extremely fair and I'm sure I'll feel much the same as you

[@Savvysnek]

"told you about them stairs, bro" now that right there is a vintage reference I never thought I would hear again

[@valkyrie9864]

"BUT!!! and that's a big butt." took only 51 seconds to make me laugh

[@mm-yt8sf]

in the past i would have loved if there was an "advisor" adding side info when looking at choosing options/perks like "+1 X for every X hex" and there's advice "you currently have N such hexes" maybe even with a button that says "show me" and throws you into a hilight map

[@Wargasmo]

ALMOST TIME, BAYBEEE!!! Compared to 5 and 6's launches, I'll accept "good". 😄 Looks like a typical Civ launch, except instead of the game being a 5 or a 6/10 it's a 7 or 8/10.

[@AwkwrdPrtMskrt]

This looks less "one forward two back" and more of a step in a new direction. So in a now Civ tradition, I denounce you Boe.

[@PhilChappell]

Thanks Boes - I agree with about 90% of your opinions, even though I haven't even played it yet!

[@davioliva7088]

1:07:11 genuinely predict that one most downloaded mod for civ7 will be “rotate leaders”

[@harjeet-music]

Thanks for the detailed review! I hope the developers will listen to your feedback and fix many of the current issues in future patches; the UI in particular needs a lot of work. Still, I'm looking forward to playing the game myself as soon as it launches :)

[@Zeroyue622]

Tbh every civ game start bad and got improved overtime. I really hate this model.

[@OldEmbarrassingUsername]

I’m in agreement but want to point out it’s all over the game industry because it’s a profitable model. Once it stops being profitable it will stop being the model. I think it made sense for an indie dev that wants to make a minimal viable product, release that to an audience to secure funding, and gauge interest. Then continue to develop in early access and release fully later. Unfortunately many bad actors saw consumers willing to pay for unfinished games and took advantage of this to maximize profits and minimize effort. That’s capitalism for yah so vote with your dollar is the only advice I have.

[@noblezarkon]

Good review thanks. I suspect no restart button was deliberate, they really want us to play the map!

[@1gamerdad287]

You're review was fantastic. Great points and I would like to hope the devs watch and heed your criticisms because they are great and could make the game better.

[@SGProductions87]

🎶One step forwards, two steps backwards, down inna Babylon🎶

[@TornadoADV]

Non functional civilopedia? Ah, I see that Beyond Earth is alive and well!

[@gustavvigolo4480]

I like the civ swithing it makes more sense from history and it helps getting unique things every age

[@Edax_Royeaux]

36:54 I notice the total yield figures for the city's food and production are overlapping each other, making the numbers hard to read. That's pretty bad.

[@MLokPrive]

I love the critiques, all these small things definitely add up. It should be fixed to go from good to great. I hope you send your whole list to the devs.

[@nopadon302]

1 rule don't buy thia game day one

[@sound4117]

Why not? The game works and runs smoothly from everything we’ve seen so far. Barely anybody plays multiplayer so it’s not like the servers are going to be overloaded.

[@lordlubu3029]

Nah I prefer to buy it day 1, flaws and all, that way I get to enjoy the improvements even more.

[@donaldpetersen2382]

That UI makes Space Engineer's UI look inspired. Yeeesh

[@nate1004]

Civ 7 looks interesting but I think I will wait for updates. The game feels incomplete to me without information and future era technologies.

[@Shyningfade]

Nah, the people in the comments who haven't even played this game clearly know better than you and your 200+ hours.

[@kaue2382]

So glad to hear this is yet another game being released in a nearly unplayable state because we've accepted optimization being done after the game comes out and that players are supposed to do QA testing for free after paying for the game!

[@mm-yt8sf]

we can't name cities?!? whaaaat?

[@Cerbyo]

u can't raze anything either, not even buildings.

[@Khaim.m]

​@@Cerbyo You can raze cities. It gives you a permanent war support penalty, but you can do it.

[@yokothespacewhale]

“Why can’t we name cities.” Apparently you don’t have that one friend who is forever 12.

[@gm_turtle2355]

I certainly was interested in the game, but the performance issues and lag has convinced me to wait. I have a gaming laptop (which is bound to be worse than a normal PC), and if I have to run funny tile game at low settings when I can run elden ring with max settings and 60 fps, this is definitely something to pick up in future months. Thank you Boesthius for this review

[@erikhendrickson59]

I love the overall art design in 7, but many UI elements look like alpha-phase placeholders

[@RayHikes]

Really hope they'll add a strategic view like 6 had, that would go a long way to fixing performance issues for those of us with less than great computers. Always played 6 on strategic mode since the performance gains were huge.

[@Cruor34]

It's like 1 step forward, 10 steps back. Commanders are really cool. The graphics are nice. Thats about it. 8 players max is pathetic. Bowing to consoles I guess? Small maps, no option for Pangea, and from what I can tell, we can NEVER have a True Earth/Europe map based on how the game works (exploration age) and the AI is too dumb to naval invade so contents maps suck. ZERO noticeable improvement in the AI since Civ 6. It's 2025, the AI still sucks, unacceptable. Super simplistic diplomacy. Simplistic religion. No slavery. Governments are ultra over simplified. It's garbage. Lets just call it what it is. None of the people who got a review copy will call it garbage because they want an early copy of Civ 8, but its garbage. I WANTED it to be good but let's face reality. I could overlook a LOT of things if only the AI was decent. But it isn't. It's still dumb as an insect. I Could over look the AI and hope for mods and patches if the diplomacy was good and we had huge 24 player maps for Real Earth/Europe but nope, we don't even have that. It's just too much bad to let them get away with it. Oh well.... maybe the people who made Old World will step up and try to make a full history Civ game. Not sure who the 11:27 meme is for. Civ 2 was better than Civ 1 in every single way. Great on release. Civ 3 was a step back from Civ 2, over simplified combat. Civ 4 was a MASSIVE improvement day one over Civ 3 and only got better. Civ 5 one unit per tile was a good idea on paper but the crap AI can't handle it. It got better over time with xpacs but Civ 4 still played better. Civ 5 has the best graphics even today. Civ 6 sucked on release and still does. AI just is awful. If the AI is bad, then nothing else matters. Unstacked Cities was nice but if the AI can't take a city from me, who cares? Lastly - and this is to the majority of reviewers, Civ 3 isn't old, lol. 2001 is 24 years ago. So, a 34-year-old could have played it at 10-years-old, and would be 34 now. 34 is FAR from old. It's crazy to me how many people started with Civ 5 or 6.

[@alexandervarga8090]

Perfectly put. Long time civ player here and civ 4 was the best game overall, because it treated you like a competent person, not a 6 year old playing a clash of clans sim. 5 was beautiful and fun but jesus christ the AI militarily is useless. CIv 6 was just terrible and too easy. Civ 7 so far looks like a game made by a rush hired dev team outsourced from some other country and given a 6 month time limit to put together some bullshit they can slap DLCs on for the next 5 years until by year 5 the game is okay to play. F*ck you firaxis, and the gaming industry practices as a whole these days. Im not buying this dumpster fire.

[@Cruor34]

@@alexandervarga8090 Yup. It's really sad, because SOME of it looks good. Like having to take every city tile sounds awesome to me. Like a brutal fight for Berlin or Stalingrad piece by piece. Commanders are a cool idea, commander gets the points so I don't have to feel dead inside when I lose a 5 times promoted unit that had a 99% chance to win. The rest though, is just trash. They made it for the TikTok generation who get mad when someone types more than 2 sentences. Everything has to be fast, short and easy to figure out. Civ 4 with a mod like Realism Invictus is just better. I actually lost a few cities to the AI. I REALLY want to play a fresh new game but every new release, be it action MMO or 4X just sucks now. Looks like 2025 is going to be another year of playing 10-20 year old games with mods.

[@Hyziant]

I definitely am puzzled at some of the weird design decisions mentioned in the bad section, but I am beyond glad to hear the core gameplay/big ideas of Civ VII work really well. Most of the stuff in the bad section can be fixed quickly. If the core gameplay was bad, there would be no fixing that except for like a major expansion. It's extra reassuring because the big ideas are what people have been dooming over (civ swapping and such), so to hear that it works in practice is nice.

[@freyamiles3718]

52:21 even the dumb as bricks grievance system cared about the direction of disagreement

[@dl5272]

All the UI complaints are making me realize how many useful features I didn't know about in my over 2000 plus hours on Civ 5 and 6

[@jonathanfiore]

7:20 That's the idea that has me most interested, @boesthius. I've always preferred to play the game open ended from the beginning: playing with the victory condition in mind always pulled me out of the game. I've always played more with the idea of making a great civilization, typically surrounding a theme: Spanish: set up a colonial empire, Rome: create an epic city and conquer, China: create a great wall and build a sophisticated government, Egypt: build wonders. You get the idea. But for this reason I often stopped playing around the Modern Era. Most of what I had wanted to do had already been done. I'm interested to see how they keep our attention late game.

[@rhystaylor851]

Great review. I wouldn't mind an extended 4hr directors cut :) I appreciate the laundry list of features you believe should be auto-includes in a Civ game, these kind of things might not be apparent while watching highly edited gameplay but heavily influence game-feel.

[@silentscepterrs368]

I guess some of the UI things have to do with that the game is being released for all platforms at the same time. The button menus, lack of hotkeys or big lists of yields i/o hold shift is to make it in line with controller.

[@NvrGoATM]

Honestly once I saw the game play I kinda was off put by the game. It doesnt look as fun as I had with Civ Rev

[@sambmackenzie]

Civ Rev is a far different game. It’s not meant to play like the rest of the civ series.

[@sirduncan2163]

Great review, game looks good cant wait to play!

[@JKINGALBS]

After watching the whole video, I’m still incredibly excited for CIV7 and feel that my main complaints with 6 are being addressed. That said, there are a couple of big concerns that I have based on what you put here: 1. Lag. This could truly ruin the entire game experience for me. 2. Visual clutter/lack of clarity on tiles & units on the map. 3. Lack of clarity in the UI like you mentioned on being able to select Writing before you realized it. Clarity > appearance imo. Great review!!

[@AnonSeacat]

In regards to "New Deal", my understanding is that it affects the game-ending projects like Spaceflight and Operation Ivy, so... there is that. It may only affect one or two builds, but those might be the builds that win the game. I dunno if that mitigates your complaint about it specifically, but I thought it was worth pointing out.

[@PaxKishania]

Are industrial emissions and climate change in the game? Are there costs and benefits of using coal like in Civ6? Nobody has said anything about this so I assume not - which is a HUGE negative for me.

[@timno19]

I am pretty sure we are currently missing an entire era. The game currently ends before the current modern day and future. I would suspect climate impacts could be a thing there, perhaps with more climate related updates or not. In civ 6 it also only came with the major expansion gathering storm so it might be something they add in the future with expansions and major updates

[@jogledeleon4654]

Is weird that we come to accept civ will get better after the dlcs and form an opinion based on that. Yeah this game is mid but wait for the expansions! If we treated all games like that, a lot of them would have better reviews.

[@dempseybirminghamfilm]

I’m shocked with the title being white marble with gold that the UI is grey. You would’ve thought they would’ve wanted cohesiveness across the game for the stylistic approach they wanted to go in. But it seems like teams had two different ideas

[@Hyacinthe_]

by the time I changed my mind to wait a bit before buying, my pre-order had already downloaded (switch... dont have a pc :( ) so.. well guess i'm playing it on release but I am still excited and feeling positive. As someone who's only played civ 6 (and not on release) i'm very new to this game franchise in terms of things. Very aware of all the negatives people are mentioning (enough that I was gonna change my mind and wait a week or a month) but I genuinely think the game will be fun, whether it takes a few improvements to get there or not. I'm also kinda grateful of not having the experience of other civ games besides 6 to affect my opinion (even tho clearly some of the older games are considered much better by a lot of people).

[@feralouca3869]

Just giving a tumbs up, for the minimalist grey-on-grey UI comment. I also cant understand why, in the age of fast memory, huge GPU, interfaces look like windows mobile OS (squared and boring)!

[@TylerAndToast]

It does seem dumbed down and overly simplified, missing key components, but i feel the exact same way with 6 without dlc.

[@bhess1212]

Great lists. It will get better for sure. It will hard for me to judge until I play it a while. I have a suspicion from what I've seen so far that I will be going back to civ6 for a little while waiting for it to improve.

[@OrleansOrkestar]

Speaking on maximalism, despite the game being on the subdued end of the spectrum, Civ V's UI art deco aesthetics were amazing. Every single unit, building, and leader in the game got a stylized portrait alongside their 3D model. I was genuinely gutted in Civ VI when everything was a blue menu with white icons or weird looking 3D renders. When VII was first revealed I was hoping the game would take inspiration from the Rococo style because of how the title looked. Bummer. And agreed on leaders; I should be the one talking to them, so they should face me. I also wish leaders would have response lines for everything like in V, but I kind of understand that from a replayability standpoint hearing the same lines over and over is grating.

[@lowtechredneck6704]

Bottom line: I want to roleplay as the god-king of a specific civilization, on marathon mode, on the largest map possible (and that better be very large, indeed). Every decision made by the designers of Civ 7 is willfully in direct conflict with everything I've always enjoyed about the series, and no amount of gaslighting is going to change that reality; why can't people just admit that a large segment of longtime fans are just not going to enjoy this game, for the exact same reasons that others may be excited about it? We know what our preferences are, and this simply isn't it.

[@abramdodge2183]

It’s honestly nice to have a big list of nitpicks. While a lot of it sounds tedious it also sounds like the developers are aware of these little issues and working on them. Also, since I’ve only actually played vanilla civ, it’s hard to justify not getting a game that’s apparently just objectively better. Might be an overly optimistic take, but if this is easily the best game at launch it makes some sense that after dlc it’d be the best game overall

[@LiLKK713PB]

Anyone feel like they almost clashed classic civ with some crusader kings together and made this? That’s what I’m feeling and love it!!

[@gugimagon2183]

General mechanics look cool for single-player to destroy AI (because AI would never know how to use them), and create and absolute mess in multiplayer. This creates literally too many things to do during the war, and now the reaction is valued even more in multiplayer. So we are getting RTS with a bad hotkey system as a turn-base strategy. I don't know have any developer really played some multiplayer games at CPL for example, because on stream they were making stupid turns to make AI look smarter.

[@nogohoho]

After all the news about this game prior to it's launch, and most people coming away thinking that it needs so real work or an expansion before it really shines- I think I'm actually going to skip out on a Civ launch for once. I'll see if it's better in a year or so and is more solid.

[@Dougerro]

Dont be afraid. Endless Legend 2 is coming

[@doublerelease8997]

good job on not talking about leader, unit and building skins for your monetization bit 😆 this is a really important topic cause im lowkey worried there is going to be an in game store to buy skins in the future💀

[@alibobdagreat2834]

1:03:15 Fireaxis should list DLCs in larger chunks, It prevents burnout and it also is much better than getting drip-fed content

[@kalaak]

It would be great to have a halt age transition option if I'm the one leading it to finish

[@KyleHead]

I've been playing Civ since towards the end of Civ 4's lifespan. I bought and enjoyed Civ5 and Civ6 on release, though I don't think I really loved either of them until at least their first expansion (Gods & Kings for 5 and Gathering Storm for 6). I'm still interested in 7, but I think I'm going to wait a bit before I jump in and buy it. After all, I'm still playing BG3 1400 hours later.

[@YormanGina]

Me waiting for the .00001% chance they start working on a modern Civ Revolution. I'd love to watch my pikemen roundhouse kick fighters out of the air with updated graphics lol

[@tom_shrimplin]

Ngl when they announced the crises I thought it was going to be a bit more than picking the least worst policy cards, like say a new wave of extremely hostile independent powers suddenly pop up, or a plague strikes down your cities and reduces population leaving you to pick which tiles to work etc. - something more dynamic where you actually have to think a bit more

[@veritablyloquacious]

The homestuck reference took me aback 😂

[@gazelleguy]

Thank you for giving a more in depth critique about the game. I've been following you for a few years and I can tell that your critiques of the game are to be genuinely helpful and to communicate confusion about the game. More than anyone in the community that's why I trust you to keep it real!!

[@Flupperz]

Hearing pretty much every content/youtuber that is into Civ games say this is the best one has been on launch is honestly a good thing to hear. I've loved the previous on release so hearing this is enough to sell me. Sure, it'll get better over time, but the launch time is also a lot of fun.

[@Joenzinator]

Every Civ game feels incomplete until a few expansions are released.

[@zeldasquad8168]

"Give me some fucking life for gods sake" Both made me choke on my diet soda and does to some extent sum up my biggest issues with the UI. I struggle with these colors a lot and the smaller text, like im blind enough and its incredibly annoying that im gonna be struggling at times to see things on an otherwise lifeless UI. That aside. I am still excited for civ 7 Like all other civ releases it has issues and by god i wish that wasnt the standard. However that said, this game looks to be taking the best parts of humankind and civ 6 trying to apply them into a new system with some classic civ mecs. And im here for that. I think my biggest issue when im now seeing from boes review that things are just straight up missing from the civilopedia or not even bothered to explain. It feels like they did so much they missed the mark on allowing people to use the tools that help them learn or remember or hell even just rp and rename cities. Its hard not to see what boes means by 1 step forward and 2 back but im hopeful as these is by far the best looking civ game and has some of the most interesting takes on the classic style and a mix of more modern systems i love. My point bein after all this ramble, yea its rough but its still civ im still gonna play it to hell and back, all i want is improvements and things readded(LIKE FUCKING MAP TACS) before we get dlc(which tend to do this in some regards anyway so bit of a pipe dream) Anyway, thanks Boes for showing more of the game and thanks for saying what i wish i could but shorter(As if an hour is short )

[@nuxx_1383]

My problem with the lack of civs is, that there sould just be 8-20 per Age but closer to 40*. It wouldnt even be a problem for me if there are "Versions" of one civ (e.g. Franks, Bourbon France, French Empire) to allow some players to keep the line of playing "one" civ all game. It is REALLY immersion breaking to play rome as napoleon just to switch to i guess normandy and then finally France (why is there so much jumps in Nationality...). Another thing is that (sounds eurocentric) there are two to three civs of european heritage per age (greece, rome)/(Normany, Spain)/(then more with France, Prussia, Russia) with no damn cultural connection. Thats why i am waiting for at least a year of updates to get the game, because the roleplay is the main thing i love about civ (thats why i normally also play TSL world or europe). The Nation Switches will probably also be more enjoyful if there is more in the Future. *Adding Civs should also not be hard from a programming standpoint (if they have good infrastructure to mass produce those) and should definately be done fast. Being inferior to Civ6 of all Civ games is embarassing for the "modern" greyified "masterpiece" of civ7

[@KimmoKM]

I'll be approaching the game with a positive note, because the problems boesthius lists (and that I have suspected myself based on preview footage, heard from others, etc) tend to be "of sort likely to be fixed". For example, I hated the art style of Civ 6 on release, I still hate it, but it's the sort of thing that developers simply aren't going to redo from scratch, or that modders are likely to be able to fully address. And indeed it wasn't changed. In contrast, issues like the UI - well, we've all been using UI mods anyway, so in a sense it doesn't really even matter if devs address the issues themselves. My primary #1 concern was the age mechanic taking out the sense of "building a civilization to stand the test of time" (that is, the quality of the emergent storytelling, really), and while I do need to get hands-on experience to really make a judgement, I don't feel very concerned based on what I've seen. Which is good, because that likely would have been one of those unfixable issues.

[@fabrice143]

Foward settling without any form of retaliation or loyalty problem sounds pretty shit TBF.

[@alexanderpopov3587]

Cannot wait... to continue playing great Civ VI until Civ VII becomes finished and not ridiculously overpriced.