This game is awful. (I've played since 1st civ)

[Tolgarn]

Ok, I'm an old man, played civ since the beginning. I was excited to sit down and enjoy the latest installment. The Civilization series has always brought me great joy and entertainment. That being said, there is my honest review.

Currently I'm asking for a refund, the game is utterly incomplete and an embarrassment to the franchise.

Graphics: 8/10 - Decent graphics, however the terrain feels like a board game and not alive and vibrant.

Gameplay: 2/10 - Here is the nail in the coffin. The game attempted to adopted Humankind's era strategy with their own flare. It failed miserably, and it was a hindrance to enjoying an era. Civilization's strength had always been the smooth transition from era to era. Feeling like a story, yet making you realize that you had to have a balanced approach to your opponents (AI or player). I happened to notice they ripped off Ara: History untold with their "expert" placement in cities. Civilization was once the benchmark for other grand strategy games, now they just copy their competitors. It's rather disappointing.

Sound/Voice-overs: 9/10 - Music is decent, voice-overs good. This aspect I'm not going to criticize .

Overall recommendation: 4/10 As I stated previously, I'm asking for a refund. In its current its by far and away the worst installment to the franchise. The product feels unfinished and rushed and a collection of other games in the genre. It's heartbreaking, but being a lifelong fan I will follow its progress and hope that the game makes a turn-around. Both for the future of the game and its fans, and the future of grand strategy games as a whole.

[dicemanrick]

Hope you didn't play for more than 2 hours. Steam will not refund. 2K will not , either---they punt it to the retailer.

[Fatbill]

PC players are almost an afterthought these days.

There are 100x more people that game on console, Switch, Steamdeck or tablet.

And you can't tell me that CIv7 (and Civ6 before that) were not aimed at the console/tablet/phone crowd. That is where the money is.

We OG PC gamers are a small minority these day and the games that are put out reflect that.

[Beermachine]

Originalmente postado por Fatbill:

PC players are almost an afterthought these days.

There are 100x more people that game on console, Switch, Steamdeck or tablet.

And you can't tell me that CIv7 (and Civ6 before that) were not aimed at the console/tablet/phone crowd. That is where the money is.

We OG PC gamers are a small minority these day and the games that are put out reflect that.

While this trend was true from the early PS / XBOX days, it has been turning around dramatically in the last decade.

Rockstar estimates that 40% of the sales of GTA6 will be on PC, with 60% on all other platforms. For strategy games, this percentage will be MUCH higher.

Once a gamer invests in their first PC, they very rarely go back to consoles as their primary gaming setup.

[Shahadem]

Could not agree more.

[Amethyst_Cat]

I too have played Civ since the first version. Civ VII is not 'awful'. It is vastly different from the previous versions. Anyone here play BG3 when it was first available? It was awful in it's own way, but the devs listened and responded to player requests. I'm expecting there'll be regular QOL updates. Condemning a game for not being great from the start is unrealistic.

[Monkey]

I am really enjoying the succesor to humankind i hope firaxis is going to give us a new civilization next

[Mr Eos]

Originalmente postado por Fatbill:

PC players are almost an afterthought these days.

There are 100x more people that game on console, Switch, Steamdeck or tablet.

And you can't tell me that CIv7 (and Civ6 before that) were not aimed at the console/tablet/phone crowd. That is where the money is.

We OG PC gamers are a small minority these day and the games that are put out reflect that.

It's so much worse than that even.

I'm into VR. Non-HMD supported games don't really interest me anymore.

PSVR2 Currently IMO, even with the wire, is the highest quality, least hassle, pick up and play for a AAA experience in VR that is available. Not the most robust library though.

And what do these guys do?

Make a VR ONLY, Mobile MR Populous wannabe for a Quest 3 exclusive. Instead of making a Real Civilization game with an upgraded camera perspective that plays nice with the 6dof of HMD tracking. ALL HMD's.


Like, I want the god perspective camera where I see the whole world when I look around, where I see the sun rising and setting, the empty vastness of an infinite number of stars twinkling at my back. Not the edges of a table.

........

IF you really wanted to embrace the "VR Supported" upgrade, or upgrade in general, you'd learn to make an actual GLOBE to play on, instead of a toroid. This might involve ditching the Hex's, and going to something more akin to what Total War is using for campaign movement.

That's what I want. Total War: Civilization. On a Globe. With HMD support.

When Eye Tracking becomes more standard across HMD's, You're going to use that Eye-tracking to emulate a mouse cursor. In the Meantime, Face-aiming. But do not go into making a VR Civ game with the intention of making pointing lasers with motion controllers as the ONLY input option. Nor some crazy notion of trying to make people pick pieces up with their hand like some virtual chess board.

VR needs accessibility.
You know how to determine what is Accessible?
Imagine being lazy or a quadriplegic.

I don't know about you, but looking at something and pressing A, sounds extremely lazy compared to moving a mouse around to click on things. Let alone waving your hand around to point a laser.

Because with the mouse/laser, I still have to look at the thing. Getting rid of pressing A would be great but interactions needs a safeguard against unintended activation. and looking at something until a shaded circle fills up is dumb. So until my PC/Console can read my thoughts. Pressing A has to stay.

[Darth Zannah]

Originalmente postado por dicemanrick:

Hope you didn't play for more than 2 hours. Steam will not refund. 2K will not , either---they punt it to the retailer.

I was curious what Epic Games' policy was, since they are selling the game - sadly, same rule. They should make exceptions for people who are trying to test out a Civ-style game that does require more playtime than a mere 2 hours.

[gromenawer]

Originalmente postado por Fatbill:

PC players are almost an afterthought these days.

There are 100x more people that game on console, Switch, Steamdeck or tablet.

And you can't tell me that CIv7 (and Civ6 before that) were not aimed at the console/tablet/phone crowd. That is where the money is.

We OG PC gamers are a small minority these day and the games that are put out reflect that.

The problem is that the CEO see the line of consoles going up and think that he can take a piece of that line by releasing a PC game on console.

Consoles plays mostly sport and action games. Mobile is mostly casual puzzle games. Civ has nothing to do with it. So porting a civ to run on console is not going to sell well there, and is going to make it sell worse on PC.

On top of that, the game mechanics are the worse of the series.

But here we are anyway. The CEO and game directors will get their bonuses, no accountability, the devs will be sack as usual, and the company and it shills will blame it on the lifelong fans.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Originalmente postado por gromenawer:

...
But here we are anyway. The CEO and game directors will get their bonuses, no accountability, the devs will be sack as usual, and the company and it shills will blame it on the lifelong fans.

It's been the big thing the last few years.
Dumb down the engine so it's console friendly, ignore the initial premise that made the game great, go for the broadest market.
It's worked so well for Torchlight, Age of Empires, Company of Heroes, Dragon Age...
I know I'm forgetting a bunch, feel free to add to the list.

[Blue Steel]

This game is designed for casual console players and woke fans. The game is a mess. I've been around since civ 1 also and this game is so broken I think the only real way foward is to skip to civ 8. Get a new team in and start at civ 6 features and go from there.

[HIVEmind]

i got the game since civ 1 too, i played with 7 a little bit but i dont like the civ player selection of race and faction. but do like the pace. only complain the ai is incredibly hard. i set it to the lowest and its ridiculously hard.

[Spacemutiny]

I agree with you although as a long time Civ player how did the utter lack of an AI not turn you off to Civ 6?

I can’t be sure but I’d bet no one involved in the epic creation of Civ 4 and 5 are at Firaxis anymore. The talent is just not there. Instead they’re worried about running it on Switch.

[Spacemutiny]

Originalmente postado por Blue Steel:

This game is designed for casual console players and woke fans. The game is a mess. I've been around since civ 1 also and this game is so broken I think the only real way foward is to skip to civ 8. Get a new team in and start at civ 6 features and go from there.

The talent is clearly not there at Firaxis anymore. It’s like all these other companies that tout their legacy but all the people involved are gone now.

[Spacemutiny]

Originalmente postado por Gumpo:

I too have played the whole franchise from the begining... and this is the first of the games I havn't bought on day one since Civ 2.

I might have risked it, because I liked Humankind... but the combination of the questionable list of leaders and the choice to use Denuvo on top of the Era mechanic feeling off to me for the franchise, added up to make my choice "wait and see". It feels odd, but I'll be watching to see if they drop Denuvo and tidy up the gameplay via Expansions. Hopefully they can fix it up. (Both 5 and 6 felt a bit incomplete on launch, and needed the expansions before the games felt as complete as 4 was, so, I can always hold out hope, right?)

I like Humankind a lot. I wouldn’t even mind the Civ changes so much, but mixing and matching leaders with civs is just too much.