The latest game in the long-running Civilization series introduces some significant changes to the established formula of its predecessors. Veteran Civ players might feel that this new approach weakens the game somewhat, although others argue that it’s a good way to make the game more accessible to new players.
As with all previous Civ games, Civilization 7 lets you choose a leader and a civilization that you control and develop through the ages, with the goal of either conquering rival civilizations or using “soft” power through economic, scientific, or cultural dominance to emerge as the world leader. However, in Civilization 7, your leader is completely detached from your society, thereby allowing for historically inaccurate pairings.
Having recently finished watching The Great, I began my very first game as Catherine the Great of Russia-; in actuality leading an ancient Roman army instead of 18th-century Russia. It’s not a bad combination, as the game explains that Catherine’s strength lies in cultural matters, which overlap with the Roman society’s cultural achievements, making her a good strategic choice for that civilization.
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Once you choose your leader and civilization, the game allows you to start in one of three different eras: Ancient, Exploration, or Modern. Each era represents a different historical period. As you progress through each era, you can follow four different paths to success—economic, cultural, scientific, or military. You can focus on one specific path, or diversify and explore the benefits of each path, with each offering different goals to achieve in order to be victorious.
Another interesting development in Civilization 7 is that your leader remains the same as you progress through the three eras, but you are given the chance to choose a new civilization to lead at the beginning of each new era. In my case, Catherine the Great was able to choose Russia in the Modern Era, which gave her her rightful place in history.
Dividing the game into eras makes it more accessible, as it feels like the game is broken into manageable chunks instead of dumping all of human history on you and just leaving you to play through it. However, some players might miss the depth of military and political intrigue available in previous games. This is largely a matter of personal preference, but one criticism that has been widely voiced is that the game’s user interface is poorly designed, with clunky menus and tooltips that make it difficult to find the information you need.
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Some players have even reported bugs with text and font display, although we didn’t experience these issues while running the Mac version of the game. However, it was annoying that the game constantly prompted me to create an online account with the publisher, 2K Games, to use the online multiplayer mode or unlock other bonuses. Fortunately, the developers have already announced that they are listening to players and working on improving the interface in future updates.
As for the Mac, Civilization 7 runs natively on Apple Silicon—though unfortunately, it does not support Intel Macs. It lists Sequoia as the minimum required macOS version, although my MacBook Pro is still on Sonoma, and I had no issues running the game. Despite the game’s detailed 3D graphics and large areas to cover, the performance is still good. The game includes a built-in benchmarking tool, and my MacBook’s M2 Pro chip was able to comfortably cruise at 55 fps using high graphics settings at 2560×1440 resolution, so if you don’t mind lowering the resolution or graphics settings slightly, you should be able to play it even on a simple M1 processor.
Should You Buy Civilization 7?
Personally, I tend to lean towards more action-oriented strategy games like the Total War: Warhammer series, so I appreciate the fresh approach that Civilization 7 takes, breaking the game into smaller Ages to make it less overwhelming. Experienced Civ players might feel like “things aren’t the way they used to be,” but new players will find that Civilization is a rich and challenging strategy game that will keep them engaged for months.
