Sid Meier’s Civilization VII on Xbox Reignites That ‘Just One More Turn’ Feeling
I can’t remember the last time I was able to get started in a grand strategy game this quickly, but that’s what Sid Meier’s Civilization VII on Xbox Series X|S has managed to pull off. Sure, my experience with the franchise doesn’t hurt, but the ease at which the game now carries me into the strategic world of trade, diplomacy, and war is both equally impressive and terrifying — because it’s so dang hard to put the controller down.
Part of what helps this streamlined approach is how everything is tightly designed to work with your Xbox Wireless controller. The in-game radial wheel (RB button) gives quick access to the Leaders you’ve encountered and to your research branches like Technology and Civics. Navigating between all these menus is also very crisp, which is important as you’ll be back and forth between these areas of the game quite often.
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Traversing the world map is equally impressive. A smooth glide across the map from one corner to the next, revealing its many hidden locations, performed very well on my console, as well as how effortlessly you could zoom in and out of the map to pore over the detail of the units and structures. Speaking of the game world, it has moved away from the cartoon-like approach of the previous entry, giving everything a bit more of a modern polish with structures and units resembling painted miniatures, which is fitting as how much of this feels like playing a board game on your console.
Turns (mapped to the Y button on your controller, which will be getting a workout) also loaded incredibly fast. That goes even in the latter stages of the game when you have dozens of units all moving in tandem across the screen. If you’ve played some form of Civilization games in the past, you know how taxying it can be waiting for every civilization to finish their turn. Thankfully, that’s not the case here as the AI players are much more efficient, and the game’s engine seems more refined here for Xbox Series X|S.
Beyond these improvements, there are a few cool new things that are making Civilization VII stand apart from its predecessors. One of those is breaking up Leaders and Civilizations, allowing you to mix and match various traits with one another, giving you a tremendous number of ways to play (and replay), allowing you to customize and formulate your own strategy of conquering the world.
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For example, in one playthrough I selected Harriet Tubman because I wanted to utilize her Espionage ability, paired with Egypt for its powerful Medjay units. And if I could get Tubman into the Modern age, the third phase of the game, it would unlock the American civilization for me to use in another playthrough. This new feature is a winner for me, giving me some added flexibility for how I’d like to approach a gaming session for Civilization VII, encouraging me to try something different and rewarding that performance by unlocking additional civilizations to play with later. I’ve only just started to scratch the surface here on how deep this goes, but it’s clear the replay factor here will be very high.
Another of the groundbreaking features that I touched on earlier is the Age system. Instead of picking one Civilization and playing them all the way through to the end of the game, you can now change that civilization once you start the Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern Age. Again, this allows you to experience more of what the game can offer in a single game session, rather than having to start all over again, a big departure from how previous Civilizations played.
And it’s not like you’re doing a full reset once you pick your next Age civilization. You’re allowed to choose a series of Legacies that can carry over with you. How many of these Legacy bonuses you get to pick from are determined by the number of Milestones you completed during the previous Age, like building Wonders or seizing land from hostile nations.
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These accomplishments grant you attribution points that you can put into your next Age’s civilization. This is a great feature because, in the same way a lot of Civilization VII is designed, it’s driven to get you to focus on accomplishing a dedicated goal; the right way to play the game through a series of quests. It’s almost like this could be called Civilization: RPG, but instead of asking you to gather 12 boar hides you’re asked to build seven Wonders.
Embarking on your next Age also lets you change your Legacy path by following the guidance of your preferred advisor: Economic, Military, Cultural, or Science. So, you could play through the Antiquity Age driven by science, then as a war-mongering nation during the Exploration Age, and finally as a cultural genius in the Modern Age. Again, this all feeds into what I’ve mentioned before in that it’s giving you these achievable, focused goals while encouraging you to keep trying new things.
Speaking from past-play experience, staying focused on any Civilization game can be a daunting task. Now with Civilization VII, it seems like Firaxis Games may have found a solution, giving us clearer guidance on how to stick to one of these Legacy paths to cut down on multiple ambitions with a better shot at how to achieve victory.
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Every new Civilization game is a statement, ushering in a new era for the grand strategy genre while finding new and innovative ways to expand upon its already well-established formula. Now, with its blend of Legacy bonuses, the dynamic Age system, and the flexibility to mix Leaders and Civilizations as you like, Firaxis Games has brought an unbelievable amount of depth to explore in Sid Meier’s Civilization VII that should keep you engrossed for hours upon hours on Xbox Series X|S, reigniting that ‘Just One More Turn’ feeling.
Sid Meier's Civilization® VII Founders Edition
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Sid Meier's Civilization® VII Deluxe Edition
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Sid Meier's Civilization® VII
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