Civilization VII is out now!

The grandmaster strategy game Civilization releases its seventh installment in Civilization VII today, February 11. Civilization is arguably what popularized the 4x turn-based genre in gaming. 4x means Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate in case you’re wondering. Anyway players will lead their Civilization through the ancient, classic, and futuristic eras to create their utopia or settle unto the next star. Your civilization must strive, survive, and thrive against rival nations, by creating alliances for global peace, become culturally dominant, finish first on the space race, or become the last nation standing.

Civilization VII is the next generation

Civilization VII is supposedly the next generation of Civ game. Boasting impressive graphics and a much more streamlined gameplay, Civ VII adds more details on your settlements where the sprawling map displays a sense of achievement to players each turn. It appears to add another layer of a beautiful complexity toward building and managing your civilization on the tile level.

Some of the simpler changes to Civilization VII would be that the first unit you will have will not be a settler, but will be the Founder; which will establish your Capital; then subsequent settlers produced will establish your new towns. There are no more barbarians, but a new entity called Independent Powers. Disasters and railroads will be in the base game. But perhaps its biggest selling point is how it’s graphically impressive where your structures and units are much more detailed.

I hear that there may be a Civ VII VR; not sure if there is a tablet version like Civ VI. You will sigh in awe on the ground saying, Yes, I built this empire. Additionally, seeing your civilization through VR sounds like isekai to me: I’m suddenly transported to another world where I’ve been the emperor king since time immemorial.

Civilization’s recent and perhaps closest rival now Humankind is also a viable choice if you’re interested in this genre.

Civilization VII and Independent Powers

There are no city-states, or mini civilizations, that will spawn at the start of the game. Instead, they’ve merged Barbarian entities with city-states. So another set of factions beside rival civilizations will be thrown into the midst of the game. These civilized barbarians will wander and settle now. And these new independent powers would evolve into functioning city states which you can ally. That is, it is always a good idea to befriend city states; or independent powers in this case.

Civilization VII and The Settlements

There are no more worker or builder units. Worker units improve the tiles such as building roads, irrigation, or forts. These were introduced in Civ II by the way, and Settlers functioned as workers in Civ I. On the other hand, tile improvements can be created by your settlement. As your population grows, your settlements can create roads and you can grow your territory as well. Unlike in the previous game where random culture and influence can creep outward.

Civilization VII System Requirements

MINIMUM:

• Graphics Preset: Low
• Resolution: 1080p
• FPS: 30 FPS
• Requires a 64-Bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows® 10 / 11 64-bit
• Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4690 / Intel® Core™ i3-10100 / AMD Ryzen 3™ 1200
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon™ RX 460 / Intel® Arc™ A380
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 20 GB available space

RECOMMENDED:

• Graphics Preset: High
• Resolution: 1080p
• FPS: 60 FPS
• Requires a 64-Bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows® 10 / 11 64-bit
• Processor: Intel® i5-10400 / AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon™ RX 6600 / Intel® Arc™ A750
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 20 GB available space

ULTRA:

• Graphics Preset: High
• Resolution: 4K
• FPS: 60 FPS
• Requires a 64-Bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows® 10 / 11 64-bit
• Processor: Intel® i7-14700F / AMD Ryzen™ 9 5950X
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4070 / AMD Radeon™ RX 7800 XT
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: 20 GB available space

The problem with Civilization though

I have no problem at all with the Civilization VII. It looks fun. But my problem with Civilization VII is its current business model. It will have tons of DLCs again; not a bad thing but I mean it will make my game seem incomplete again if I don’t buy the DLCs. Will it have a Season Pass? I don’t know. But if it did, it’s also likely that it will have multiple Leader Season Passes.

They will milk the game through DLCs and add more leaders until the base leaders won’t look fun. That’s another problem. When will the DLCs end? When will Civ VII become complete? Are we going to wait and buy Civ VII until Civ VIII releases?

Add to that, Civ VII will release with three editions: a standard, deluxe, and founder’s edition. Can you just sell me the Complete Edition?

The Jose Rizal persona is a pleasant surprise though. I’m planning to purchase it in the future, but I’ll stick to the standard edition and will wait for it to be on sale. Honestly, once you get a taste of the base edition and it works for you, that should be it. Unless there’s a leader persona out there that will help you fulfill your destiny.