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Sid Meier's Civilization VII
- bryukh 2y agoI'm biased about this game as the first Civilization was the first game I saw on PC beyond ZX Spectrum. So now there are a lot of discussions in the game dev community about whether it is ok to publish such a raw game or not. Yes, not all of Sid's games were perfect at the start, but for me, Sid Meier was always the " quality stamp, " so I think they should be more careful about this release.
- GEBBL 2y agoVery excited for this - think the age transitions is a great way to spice up the middle game, which often turned into a slog.
- esskay 2y agoAny real non paid reviews people recommend? Seeing the usual suspects with overly positive reviews that clearly arent representative.
- skibz 2y agoI found this one to be quite impartial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B67vadCC1gg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B67vadCC1gg
- robertlagrant 2y agoIGN gives Civilisation 7 a 7/10 7 days ago! The most IGN thing ever.
- boleaux83 2y agoCheck the Steam page for reviews. Seems like the consensus is that a lot of the game mechanics were stripped out so they could be sold as DLCs.
- HDThoreaun 2y agoThe consensus is that the UI sucks and a few features have been stripped but overall I think the core gameplay has done quite well in reviews.
- supernes 2y agoVerdict is that core gameplay is a big improvement and a lot of fun, but the UI gets in the way too much. High price and questionable DRM make this a "wait for sale", maybe after some expansions/DLCs land or at least after the first patch next month.
- esskay 2y agoYeah saw a few shots of it on Steam Deck, looks like they forgot the resolution there as theres more UI than map!
- Bairfhionn 2y agoEurogamer gave it a 2/5. They basically said "it looks good and sounds good but it is just dull"
- leprechaun1066 2y agoThese days it's usually better to try and find players on youtube or twitch than to read text based reviews.
- emptyfile 2y ago[dead]
- orwin 2y agoNegative: Civ7 is right now a bit too simplistic, i didn't find hidden gameplay, some theorycrafting will be needed but so far, playing diplomatic and getting city-states seems really overpowered imho (especially against AI, i would guess that MP make the game more interesting), and the IA is still shit at military (Civ5 VP really put the bar high, but this is worse than 6). Map generation is as broken as it was for civ6, perhaps worse. The "realism" make its hard to differentiate buildings, and the town/city mechanic are really weird (civpedia is here though) Positive: The new way units and general work is great, i like the sim possibilities with the way building and specialists work (even though the UI is really getting in the way imho). The "souvenirs" (sorry don't have the translation) mechanic is a really good idea for solo play, the game is really, really stable (more than Civ6 and half of paradox games), i want to try a MP game with someone from South Africa or australia to see if the MP stability issues are still present in 7 (maybe MPH won't be necessary now). Civpedia is as usual, great. Overall: if you really like civ-like 4X (humankind, endless space, or even millenia), especially solo, you should try it now. If you don't, wait a bit. If you like those, but like competitive multi, wait a bit (it's not as unbalanced as Civ6 was on launch, but close i would say). I'd say that for a new 4X player, it's better to play civ7 than civ6
- JKolios 2y agoThe release day of Civilization n is always the best time to buy and play Civilization n-1.
- EduardoBautista 2y agoAlso when all DLC have been released, bundled into one package, and on sale for at least 50% off.
- morepork 2y agoLike now, where Civ VI Anthology which I think includes all the DLC is currently on sale for $9 on Fanatical (activates on Steam). It's always much cheaper to game a generation behind. https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/sid-meier-s-civilization-vi-anthology-aspyr https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/sid-meier-s-civilization-v...
- mcv 2y agoCiv 6 was free on Epic a couple of years ago. And free for keeps, I mean. That was the best time to get it.
- robertlagrant 2y agoBut you had to install the Epic installer!
- mcv 2y agoThat was the cost, of course. Nothing is ever entirely free.
- foogazi 2y agoGot a good deal on Civ6 a month ago, and it's free on Netflix too with all DLC
- _Algernon_ 2y agoHonestly, they should just remaster Civ 4. It's still the version that I return to when I want to play Civ. One unit per tile ruined the game.
- incrudible 2y agoStacks of doom are worse than 1UPT, but not every player experiences it that way. Joining units is a decent middle ground. The new mechanic (commanders) does not get this right in my opinion.
- _Algernon_ 2y agoDisagree. Stacks can easily be moved as if they are a single unit. 1UPT requires micromanaging each unit individually. Also it is fun to scorch an enemy tank with 100 kamikaze warriors.
- lisnake 2y agoAnd I've seen videos from Ukraine war where tanks get destroyed by single drone, so it's not that far-fetched.
- NoboruWataya 2y agoWhat I prefer about 1UPT is that it forces you to think more deeply about the location of your battles and the terrain you're fighting in. Moving a large army though a narrow mountain pass, for example, is a lot more difficult, as it should be. I also find it aesthetically better to see big, sprawling battlefields. Looks very epic. I agree the trade-off is that it can be quite tedious to move large armies a long distance.
- Jensson 2y agoProblem with 1UPT is that the AI doesn't do any of that, making wars trivial. That detracts from the rest of the civ experience since wars are no longer about power but unit movement.
- 2y ago
- haunter 2y agoSteam reviews https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295660/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_VII/#app_reviews_hash https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295660/Sid_Meiers_Civili...
- MortyWaves 2y agoI've seen the map generation looks dreadful compared to previous versions, here's some examples: https://www.ign.com/wikis/civilization-7/Civ_7_Map_Settings https://www.ign.com/wikis/civilization-7/Civ_7_Map_Settings
- NoboruWataya 2y agoThat's bizarre, they look so unnatural with all the straight coastlines. That would have been so easy to avoid I assume it must be an intentional design decision?
- lupusreal 2y agoProbably some novice playtester felt shafted by the terrain disfavoring them so the designers took an axe to it trying to assure some kind of "balance".
- ogig 2y agoI've played most Civs, enjoyed most of them, but quality has been in a downward trend since Civ IV. This one, at that price range, 70€-130€ for early access, and mixed reviews on steam, marks where I'm not a loyal franchise customer anymore.
- sixothree 2y agoYeah. I’m going to balk at the price too. For me civ is a “solitaire” time waster and not an epic journey. And the real problem is Major Lords still exists. And that’s where I waste time.
- Aeolun 2y agoCiv 5 was fantastic though? Certainly a whole lot more approachable than 4 ever was.
- NoboruWataya 2y agoSome people get really worked up about the lack of unit stacking in Civ 5+. (Not sure if that's the case for the person you're replying to, but it's why a lot of people see Civ 4 as the pinnacle.) It's the 3.5mm headphone jack of Civilization games. I can see how, if you played and loved Civs 1-4, changing such a fundamental game mechanic would be jarring. But I don't think anyone who came later to the series would miss it.
- lupusreal 2y agoEven if disabling unit stacking for combat was the right choice, disabling it for workers too just made the game far more tedious. Workers constantly cancelling the routes they're building because other workers were in the way means much more micromanaging. (Not to mention, workers under automatic orders are far less inclined to build roads on their own in 5 than in 2, so that's even more micro.)
- maayank 2y agoapproachable != better
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- emptyfile 2y ago[dead]
- Pannoniae 2y ago(Almost) everything wrong with modern gaming in a neat little package. >unfinished base game >81% on metacritic, 52% user reviews on Steam >Misuse of the term "early access" to indicate advanced access 5 days early >5 content packs on release already >oh wait not all of them are included in the Founders Edition, some are just promises for later content packs >mobile game UI, a huge mess (maybe because Luigi wasn't there to fix 25% of the UI bugs like in 6....[0]) >mobile game artstyle, Civ4 looked better than this in *2004* >they switched from Lua to JavaScript since civ6 >horrible performance, crashes, stuttering and ridiculous system requirements >skin-focused, leader-focused pseudo-RPG "gameplay" >who needs engineers or auto-explore in a Civilization game anyway? >empire switching straight stolen from Humankind but worse >obligatory quests included >Denuvo, gimped modding "support" (just the usual) >Atomic Age stripped from the release deliberately, to be sold back to you as DLC later >AI? that doesn't sell DLCs.... >storefront disguised as a game yeah this game is a disgrace to Sid (apologies for the formatting, I'm not good at this) [0] https://preview.redd.it/thanks-for-your-contribution-to-civilization-luigi-v0-w00dkvvzyv5e1.png?auto=webp&s=7824d2068aa28485b5ccfe1ad12d0e2f9cbf7c7c https://preview.redd.it/thanks-for-your-contribution-to-civi...
- BoorishBears 2y agoI don't envy anyone trying to make games for people like this. It must be demoralizing.
- Pannoniae 2y agoHey, it ain't too hard! There are many amazing games out there :) They are just usually not made by huge studios.
- BoorishBears 2y agoMaybe the fact you think making a game isn't too hard is part of the problem? Making a game that people like is hard. Making a game that has the kinds of fans who will even complain because you changed your internal scripting language will love is near impossible. (and of course you're not required to like it: I'm strictly commiserating with the developers who have to deal with this type of "fan")
- mrtksn 2y agomacOS system requirements are min: M1 8 Core 8GB RAM, recommended: M2 Pro 10 Core 16GB RAM. Does this mean that the game is Mac optimized? Previous versions also have Mac support but wasn't exactly optimized much IRRC.
- nikanj 2y agoDoes a game like this really need much per-os optimization? I would guess the graphics are not the bottleneck, and the AI/sim code is not really that platform dependant
- mrtksn 2y agoAfter you have plenty of units on the map the performance drops significantly. Also, when the devs don't make accomodations specifically for the OS some UX issues can appear like showing OS UI when you move your cursor up to the edges. On top of that, macOS has some interaction conventions and gestures that might not exist or work in a different way on Windows and when those are not implemented the macOS way it gets very annoying.
- rsynnott 2y agoI don't _think_ Civ 6 ever got an ARM build (or, well, not for MacOS; it did for iOS); it works okay on the Mx chips, but is certainly doing a lot of unnecessary work.
- loopdoend 2y agoIt runs on Metal!
- nc 2y agoProbably the best turn based strategy game out there. Spent a few hours on this latest edition over the weekend has all the same core mechanics as 6 with a new ages system. Feels pretty fun so far!
- supermatt 2y agoAside from the series become a DLC-fest, what has changed in terms of general gameplay since Civ 4?
- OskarS 2y agoI've put around 20 hours into this game at this point, and I think the criticisms are way overblown. The UI is a bit clunky in spots, but the game is very solid, and very fun. I've played every Civ since IV, and mechanics-wise, this is my favorite one (actually, Alpha Centauri... but this one is a close second). I have not found it particularly buggy (as opposed to clunky). It feels like with every game release there's this army of perpetually pissed of gamers just waiting to pounce on anything, and when you play it it's like "this is what people were so mad about?". Same thing with Dragon Age a few months ago: everyone talked about it like it was some disaster, but I played it, and it's... fine? I mean, it's not the greatest game ever, but it's not terrible. It's not as good as Inquisition, but better than Dragon Age 2. It's certainly nowhere near as bad as Mass Effect: Andromeda.
- Semaphor 2y ago> and mechanics-wise, this is my favorite one * Did you ever play V with Vox Populi (fka Community Balance Patch fka Communitas)? * How did you like VI compared to the earlier ones? I’m asking because V + VP is peak Civ for me, and because Civ VI was a complete disappointment for me (not helped by there being fewer modding possibilities).
- theshackleford 2y agoI was big into civ5 and a bunch of mods including Vox populi. I enjoy 6 equally after the expansions. Equally, I don’t enjoy five any less.
- Semaphor 2y agoBut that information doesn’t help much without you having played VII like OP ;)
- OskarS 2y agoI liked VI better than V (the districts were fun!) but never touched any mods. I think some of the ideas that were maybe a bit half-baked in VI comes together really nicely in VII.
- robbie-c 2y agoBoth 5 and 6 were quite weak titles on launch, and they improved massively over many years. It seems like the starting point for 7 matches this trajectory. There is some criticism that features have been removed to be re-added as DLC. I wonder if this is just that it is really really difficult to make a great strategy game, and putting out an imperfect title and iterating is the only way we know how.
- michaelt 2y agoGiven that the strategy game has 7 in the title, I think they've had a good few iterations at this point. More likely they've noticed that DLC prints money, and there's plenty of fools eager to pre-order without seeing a single review.
- rsynnott 2y ago> Given that the strategy game has 7 in the title, I think they've had a good few iterations at this point. Of late (at least for 5 and 6; I haven't looked at this one yet) they've been using the new versions to make _major_ changes which would clearly break the old game, and then iterating via expansions. Possibly in a parallel universe there's a Civ game that's just Civ 2 after 29 years of iteration (Civ 2 being the first one that really received universal acclaim), but that's not they way they've chosen to go (though arguably that's kinda what Freeciv is).
- jauntywundrkind 2y agoAnyone else living in the parallel universe where we are on Linux 2.6.137 (or whatever)? Going the other way, I think Battlefield 2042 has a lot of the maps from other Battlefield games. It'd be interesting to imagine a rolling release game, with both change but continuity. In some ways... That's Destiny 2! Just... A different form factor game.
- ivan_gammel 2y ago> they've had a good few iterations at this point. They probably have some learnings about the previous iterations, but it’s not a reusable code or even a reusable requirement. This game isn’t as polished as late Civ 6, but the core is good and it’s ok to have UX and few other things catching up later. Just one example: in Civ 7 the selection of the map is just a switch with the names of the options. In Civ 6 it evolved into a more visual component and they added more types of maps eventually. Could they work on a better release? Maybe. Should they have done it? Absolutely unnecessary. > there's plenty of fools eager to pre-order without seeing a single review There are people who discover and people who follow the crowd. I often come to an empty restaurant, sit there and then people start coming. I have seen people avoiding empty restaurants as if they were plagued. Isn’t it foolish to entrust your life to reviews or others? If those who go first are fools, why their review would be important?
- numinix 2y agoI fell for the €30 upsell so I could play it this weekend and get the extra maps and civs. Unfortunately, Steam errored the transaction, so now I'm out my money with no game, waiting for support to resolve it. I was glad for the macos release and wanted to support (and play!), but I've learnt my lesson on handing over control before the product is delivered. I'll wait for the UX/UI updates and a price drop, still plenty of fun to be had in civ5.
- makerofthings 2y agoIt's alright. I played a couple of games. It's very pretty. I don't like the age system, just seems like throwing away your progress each time it resets. 4>5>6>7
- EduardoBautista 2y agoNo comments about the VR version? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lavuwKvZki8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lavuwKvZki8 Curious to see how well this will run seeing that it will launch on the Quest store only, so no PC VR?
- esskay 2y agoThat feels like a massive misstep. Who on earth thought putting a chunk of development time into VR was a good idea for a Civ title.
- robertlagrant 2y agoIt might've got sponsored by Meta.
- ethbr1 2y agoI think it's a great idea. God games (back to Populous) were always intended to be viewed through a window from the sky. Civ shorned off some of the more direct interactions, but is still essentially in the genre. I think it'd be really cool to look down on ones civilization in VR.
- lores 2y agoSomeone receiving a large chunk of cash from Meta, no doubt.
- HDThoreaun 2y agoCompletely disagree. Civ seems like a great VR game. Controls easy to use on vr, top down makes sense in VR. Imo the biggest advantage to VR gaming is that its easy to play in bed or on a couch where a monitor would be tough to set up which works well with civ.
- esskay 2y agoIt's more that its a lot of developer focus to take away on a very, very niche market. It may be fun, it may work really well, but hardly something to focus on for the games initial release, especially a Civ game where they've got a history of launch problems.
- snickerer 2y agoWhat is wrong with me? I tried several modern Civilizations but I keep coming back to Freeciv. Freeciv from 1996 with its Civ II ruleset is more fun for me than Civ 5 or 6. I never thought of myself as conservative or sticking-to-the-old just because I am used to it. Or am I?
- faltad 2y agoIs it objectively more fun? If you actually ask yourself if you're used to it, you could list the positives and negatives of both games and compare, maybe it could open your eyes (or confirm your suspicion)
- dragonwriter 2y ago> Is it objectively more fun? Fun is subjective, nothing is objectively (more, less, or unmodified) fun.
- ormax3 2y agoand here I am still playing Civ II MGE https://github.com/FoxAhead/Civ2-UI-Additions https://github.com/FoxAhead/Civ2-UI-Additions
- piyuv 2y agoWill this come for iPads? I really liked playing VI on iPad
- foogazi 2y agoIt's my go to platform for Civ6 too - don't know how long it will take to port 7 to it Will be playing on steam for now
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ltbarcly3 2y agoThe main issue I have with Civ games is the atrocious AI. (Ive played every release since Civ1) On higher levels the computer civs get basically unlimited free resources, free unit spawns, start with half a dozen settlers, etc etc and still barely put up any resistance. I heard on Youtube reviews this is improved in VII, but no details? Does anyone know whst the situation is there?
- Pannoniae 2y agoit's even worse than 6's AI
- ltbarcly3 2y agoThat is incredible. If you watch the computer with fog of war off it will make it hard to ever play the game again, honestly.
- sixothree 2y agoMy complaint for precious versions was similar. Instead of making the Ai more lifelike they just give it unfair advantages. It creates impossible situations that just feel unfair. I think given the price, the reviews, and the alternatives, I’ll be skipping this one. I’m still enjoying manor lords as my spare time game.
- p0w3n3d 2y agoFrom Sid Meier's I played only Colonization and I'm still crazy about it. An the music! Kiss pinky ring / Hold SmellyTown fur party Not a penny for those heretic swines Very well, we shall withdraw our forces! And trading with Aztecs!
- Andrew_nenakhov 2y agoLoved Civ1 & 2, suffered one playthrough in 3 & 5 and then I discovered paradox games like EU4 and CK2 and just couldn't get back to Civs.
- haunter 2y ago7 - 6 - 5 UI https://i.imgur.com/23AopFf.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/23AopFf.jpeg Feels like they wanted the modern flat design in 7 but it just doesn't work in a game like this
- Semaphor 2y agoWhat's the complaint? I prefer V for familiarity, but VII looks better than VI to me.
- pikelet 2y agoIt's boring, grey, and flat. It takes up too much space on the screen for very little reason (and I'm a fan of whitespace used well). It's generally unpolished with various elements misaligned, squashed together, lacking padding, or in other cases randomly too much padding/margin. It's just a big mess... IMO. I think the actual game underneath the UI looks great at least. I really like VI, and V has plenty of character too.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- robertlagrant 2y agoExcellent Civ YouTuber PotatoMcWhiskey (yes, really) did this duo of reviews with the good and the bad parts: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLm8D6tN6GA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLm8D6tN6GA (good) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFIIt8b_jsA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFIIt8b_jsA (bad)
- oliwarner 2y agoSurely we know the rules by now! Only play a Civ game when its successor is launching. Gives them time to re-release with all the DRM and you get to play a relatively complete, relatively bug-free and balanced game. Much, much, much cheaper this way too.
- srid 2y agoAs someone who has always enjoyed the likes of Age of Empires / Age of Mythology, is there a reason to play Civilization style games?
- Izkata 2y agoFrom an old fan of Starcraft: No. Civ 6 was on sale on the Switch for like $2 a few months ago, and I'd heard so much about the series in general I decided to see what the hype was about and if it could fill that RTS gap despite being turn based. Shockingly clunky controls for being 6 and I had to turn on auto-turn-advancement because otherwise I'd be sitting there most turns just hitting next... next... next... waiting for things to complete. Even then the bot players took a while so I couldn't do anything while waiting for them. After the tutorial I did one full game, won it with a religious victory (even after fooling around for 100 turns not sure what I should be going for), and haven't touched it again.
- seefer 2y agoThey've had decades and over 7 iterations of the game to learn UI lessons. How come such insights still result in UI/UX 101 fails? Do they kill of UI staff between instalments?
- waltercool 2y agoAre we using Hacker News for corporate advertisement now?
- pragmatic 2y agoBeen playing since Civ I on windows 3.1. I've played every version but it wasn't until I set a goal of beating diety that I really started loving it. Civ 5 was the first (hated on release) then Civ 6 (hated on release). Civ 6 on iPad is nothing short of amazing. It supports mods and retina resolution (stylus is better on high res) Civ 7 seems to be less hated. Usually the patches and DLC seborrheic everything out. Plus the mods for UI irritations. I think this one is very promising.
- foogazi 2y agoI've been playing Civ6 for a couple of years and vowed to keep playing it But caved last night and got the Civ7 founder's edition