A little background: I've been playing Civ games for over 30 years. I have 1600 hours in Civ6, 500+ in Civ 5, perhaps 3k+ in Civ4 (I really REALLY love Civ4), and 1-2k in Civ3 (played that one all through high school). If I would have taken up a sport or instrument or field of study instead of playing Civ games, I'd be considered an expert in that field.

I just can't even force myself to play Civ7 more than a couple of hours. I want so badly to enjoy it, but every time I start a new game I get going for an hour or so and then get bored or frustrated and quit. I come back a few weeks later... same thing. Bottom line: Civ7 is just not fun for a civ player.

I can't say that this game is terrible through the lens of game development in general, but it is definitely not anywhere in the same ballpark as the past games in the Civ series. Let me be frank... Civ7 does not deserve to be called a Civ game. It should be something else. It's almost as if the developers threw out every idea that made the franchise great and just tried a bunch of brand new concepts with no idea how they would turn out. And failed miserably.

I can't recommend this to anyone who has played a civ game in the past and enjoyed it. I probably won't play it again and will instead go back to my tried and true Civ4. Oh how I wish that Civ7 could have instead been an upgraded version of Civ4. Maybe the devs can get back to their roots in Civ8 (if that even happens at this point).

It's just boring. What once felt like an incredibly open ended experience in previous games somehow now feels so narrow.

I am at a loss. Let me start with this: I have played every Civ games since 1, and have never had any issues loving it on release. I have over 2k hours a piece in both 5 and 6. This time I paid the premium, thinking - "this is something I love; I hardly play other games". WRONG! I FEEL RIPPED OFF. NEVER AGAIN. I don't care if they make Civ 8, I'll never buy Civ again, they took me this time. They took me bad. Expansion packs? NO WAY, YOU ALREADY GOT $129 OF MY MONEY!

I can't understand the game reviews, or individual user reviews saying "I like it" or "needs improvement but I love it!" This is a completely unfinished game. Incomplete game systems, lack of actual strategy, I could go on and on. Don't start me on the UI - everyone already knows it is bad, what else is there to say. Oh, I know - YOU DIDN'T EVEN PUT IN MOUSE EDGE SCROLLING FOR THE MAP!

I want to be specific, but overall I am so disgusted I don't know what to say. I played one play through and asked for a refund. 27 hours in, 1 play through (I know 27 sounds like a lot for one game - life is busy, sometimes I walk away for 10 or 15 mins before I hit next turn) - refund denied. Fine, never again Firaxis.

Items that are flat out unacceptable:
1. UI
2. Map Generation / game options
3. Obvious unfinished game systems
A. Religion is a "spam as many units as you can" with no real tangible advantage.
B. Modern era? Buildings are marked for modern era upgrades - so for $129 where the heck is it?
C. Who decided on this task completion era timeline? It's rampant with issues, I can only assume it is unfinished.
4. There was so much more to talk about as I did my one play through, but that was 2 months ago. I haven't even made a review because of my complete disgust! I don't care about your updates, they are worthless compared to the main issues with the game.
5. Do I even list bugs, glitches, bad graphics rendering? Nah - small fish comparatively, but there are plenty!

I haven't played since that one game. I can't see it getting much better. Don't give them your money for this monstrosity.

I think this game has spyware. I play a single game, and my biggest gripe was that I can't go 10 turns without "barbarians" that are somehow more advanced than me (coming in on ships and with overwhelming units so early in the game) attacking everything I have. It made it unplayable and frustrating. So I turned on WeMods to neutralize this game breaking nonsense. Guess what? Firaxis crashes my game and sends me to a website telling me I "violated the code of conduct" for using mods that give me an advantage over other players. I bought this game. I'm not playing online with anyone. I am not gaining an advantage over any other human player. Even offline it crashes. I do not need anyone to police a game that I own and play by myself. This is idiotic, and I'm not the only one upset by this:

curious_prefix12 has Sid Meier's Civilization VII Feb 17 @ 10:25pm
"I didnt have a problem with this game until i tried wemod with it then it decides to crash and open the code of conduct page. That makes no sense considering im not even playing multiplayer wemod doesnt even let you "cheat" at multiplayer games and warns that you could get banned. I use wemod cause its fun to see what you can do with cheats and makes stressful situations relaxing. If they really are doing this because they dont want players to play a game the way the player wants then im never buying another game from them again. They will be lucky if no one takes them to court over this."


Osiris has Sid Meier's Civilization VII Feb 12 @ 11:09pm
"Civilization has long been a single player game. It continues to be a primarily single player game. Stop looking into my PC and programs for a single player game, Firaxis. Mind your own business and make this product better before you get the Concord treatment."

I will be posting negative reviews as often as possible until Firaxis relents on the solitary gamer who has a right to enjoy the product they purchased. I encourage anyone else outraged at the price they paid for this product who can not enjoy it to do the same.

Absolutely appalling experience in comparison to previous versions. It made me try Humankind and, guess what, THAT is the real thing. Good bye Sid Meier's Civilization. Humankind rocks!

A dumbed down Civ - not for Civ fans,

1) City limit? Really?
2) Strategic resource now useless? Really?
3) Each era u lose units or transform them? Really?
4) All game is just about making city happy? Really?
5) No science tree? So each state are with same units and updates? Really?
6) No religion, no resources, no loyalty, no great people, no trade with states? Where is the other 99% of the game?

Personal opinion, even civ3 was better, now it is not about the game but only graphics (not so much better then civ6)
The only good improvement are the generals. But it is not worth it.

I really wanted to like this game, I have had it since release but its still a headache, you can't get any where with the aggressive AI.

The UI is still a mess.

Save yourself the money and just keep playing Civ6.

I'll be going back to Civ 6

i've put thousands of hours into the civ games starting with civ 1 and i've never been so disappointed. i know they'll make it right eventually but this "finished" product is really a betrayal. lost a lot of respect for this company with this game, I uninstalled and won't pre-purchase again. I can only imagine how absolutely terrible civ 8 will be on release. this feels like it was made by a knock off competitor.. i guess they figure the loyal fans will all buy it anyway so why cater to them if they can focus on a new, trigger-happy audience. I don't mind that there are new approaches to things, but it feels it's Civ mobile lite free version with ads and ways to pay and feign enough dopamine that you think you're enjoying yourself. I have to kill a lot of time sometimes and even still, playing this feels like an absolute waste.

Civ VII looks amazing.
But it lacks immersion.
I feel nothing for mit cities, and I can't see the improvements that I'm making (And the UI doesn't even confirm what I've just finished building nor, can I see in the UI what improvements I have made).
I feel nothing for civilization or my adversaries.
Everything changes from era to era and what I've build up suddenly means nothing.
I've played them all from Civ I to VI and even Alpha Centauri, but this just feels meh.
I don't see how they can improve on it, did they even playtest it before release?