Never before has a Civilization dared so much new - the leap from part 6 to 7 will be huge

After the big opening event for the gamescom 2024, there was also an official gameplay showcase for Civilization 7. For more than 25 minutes, the developers from Firaxis explained what they want to do differently and better with the new installment of the venerable global strategy series.

What’s new in Civilization 7? While the new trailer for Civ 7 at the Opening Night Live was nostalgic and superficial, the subsequent gameplay showcase went much deeper (via YouTube). What stands out: The experienced developers from Firaxis are not afraid to adopt ideas from younger global strategy competitors and do many things differently with the seventh installment.

At the beginning of a game, you choose leader and starting civilization separately. Additionally, not only heads of state will be available as leaders, but also other famous personalities, such as Confucius or Benjamin Franklin.
A change of civilization for each age is planned, similar to Humankind from 2021 (the initially chosen leader remains). Three eras are planned: Ancient, Age of Exploration, and Modern.
The leader levels up over a game and unlocks new advantages along the way.
There will no longer be builders, and you won’t have to move citizens between tiles.
The districts from the predecessor will be replaced by a completely new system. In Civ 7, there are rural and urban districts. The neighborhoods provide you with two building slots each. You can freely choose which buildings go there, but by certain combinations, you can activate additional bonuses.
It will no longer be possible to win through a religious victory. The four possible victory paths are: Economic, Culture, Military, and Science.
Each victory path brings a goal per era. For military focus, for example, you should own a certain number of cities. You can also pursue goals from multiple victory paths simultaneously. Mastering the goals grants legacy points, bonuses for the next eras, or they represent the victory conditions in the final era.
Walls can now be built not only around the city center but around every district of a city.
When transitioning to a new era, buildings from previous eras lose effectiveness. Therefore, there are good reasons to rebuild cities with each new phase and utilize current facilities.
Diplomacy receives new options as well as the resource Influence. Through influence, you can support proposals from other parties, impose effects like war weariness on them, or sanction them.
Instead of barbarian villages, you will now find neutral settlements in the world that you can either defeat militarily or support with influence. The latter will cause the settlements to grow into city-states, of which you will become the suzerain.

Here is the new trailer for Civilization 7 from gamescom 2024:

Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 shows gameplay in the trailer

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Uns-Maurice is thrilled

How does the new Civilization 7 play? Colleague Maurice Weber, notably a big strategy fan, was allowed to play the new Civ for three hours and expresses his surprise in his new video on YouTube because so much is different, yet the global strategy is still a lot of fun.

Specifically, Maurice praises:

The content creator praises the graphics of Civilization 7, saying it is more of a painting than a comic. Not as colorful. Much prettier. Design and atmosphere are significantly better than the predecessor.
The improved visuals are also noticeable in the details. You can now see which buildings you have constructed in the individual city areas and which district is already protected by a wall.
Additionally, the armies are accompanied by visible commanders if desired. They can call reinforcements from the home city to the front and coordinate attacks from multiple units on a target. Commanders level up and provide more learnable talents than the troops from Civilization 6.
Since there are numerous civilizations, each bringing its own research, every game should feel significantly more varied due to the three civilization changes than in Civ 6. However, Maurice also acknowledges that Civilization deviates even further from depicting realistic eras than it already did in the past.
The four victory paths provide players with clear goals starting from the first era, which is a noticeable improvement compared to the previous victory conditions that often only become relevant at the end.
In the new district system, Maurice likes that it feels more like organic city growth than before, and that it plays fluidly and elegantly from the start because multiple previous systems are sensibly combined.
Maurice is already looking forward to pulling the strings more or less secretly in multiplayer games with the new diplomacy system and backstabbing opponents.

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Is there nothing to criticize? In the area of satisfaction, the developers are changing too much from Maurice’s point of view. Cities generate satisfaction points in the new Civ through buildings and bonuses. However, satisfaction can also decrease through buildings or if you own more cities than you can currently maintain.

If you build up a surplus of satisfaction, you regularly trigger a celebration that activates additional bonuses for a certain period. The bonuses depend on your form of government. Additionally, there is an extra policy slot (which is no longer categorized into different areas). Maurice finds this new system “too banal, impersonal, and reduced.”

Is there another hands-on opinion? By the way, colleague Martin Deppe was also at the playtest event at Firaxis. You can read his extensive preview on gamestar.de (Paywall). His equally very positive conclusion: “Civilization 7 will be nothing less than a revolution.” More Civilization 7 awaits you, of course, at our livestream program for gamescom 2024: