Civilization 7 (Steam) has introduced its first 7 civilizations: One of the civilizations, the Shawnee, will only be playable if you purchase a special and more expensive edition of the game. The Shawnee are not included in the standard edition.
This is changing with Civilization 7: There will be a change in Civilization 7 compared to earlier games in the series:
In earlier games, players could choose civilizations at the beginning that were historically nonsensical at the time the game started, such as the USA in 4000 BC.
In Civilization 7, players will only be able to choose civilizations that fit into the “Ancient” era. In later eras, players will be able to switch to “more modern civilizations”.
With this, Civilization 7 is aligning itself with ideas from the competitor Humankind.
Which civilizations will be playable in the 1st era of Civilization 7?
- The Aksum, an African civilization that focuses on culture and economy. They place an emphasis on gold and trade.
- The Egyptians, an African civilization that also focuses on culture and economy – with a focus on maximizing the use of rivers.
- The Greeks. They focus on culture and diplomacy. Their play style will revolve mostly around influence.
- The Maya – The civilization in Central America values diplomacy and science, benefiting especially from “Vegetated Tiles”, areas with tropical forests.
- The Maurya from India focus on military and science. Military and science buildings will make this civilization happy.
- The Romans – They focus on a mix of culture and military. In Rome itself, military units are supposed to be built especially quickly. Generally, Rome as a capital will benefit more from the growth of the empire than the capitals of other civilizations.
One civilization will already be behind a paywall from day 1
Which civilization is causing trouble? As the only advanced civilization for the Age of Exploration, Firaxis is already introducing the Shawnee, who live in the eastern part of today’s USA, so they are Native Americans. The Shawnee focus on economy and politics and will benefit significantly from settlements along rivers.
There is nothing wrong with the civilization itself, but the manner in which they are introduced into the game is problematic. Because the Shawnee will be part of a DLC that comes with the Deluxe edition. However, this civilization will be missing from the standard edition.
Those who want to play the Shawnee have to spend €100 on Steam
What does it cost if you want to play all civilizations? A day-1-DLC is planned, and one civilization is already behind a paywall at release.
Those who want to play the Shawnee will have to spend around €100 on the Steam platform for the Deluxe edition or €130 for the Founder’s edition. On PlayStation and Xbox, the price difference is just as large – on the Nintendo Switch, the Deluxe version costs “only” €90 and the Founder’s edition “only” €120.
This is being critically discussed on Reddit – some users are already saying they want to wait for the purchase of Civilization 7 until the “whole game” is later released in a bundle.
We all have to wait a few months until we can play Civilization 7, as it is only set to be released on February 11, 2025, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC. However, there might be an exception: A son requests that his father be allowed to play Civilization VII before anyone else and receives a response from the team
