Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is the most recent Sid Meier game to be released. The game came out Feb. 11, 2025 and it was available for early access a few days earlier. It is a top down strategy game with civilizations from throughout the ages, including Rome, Egypt, France, Mongolia and many more along with leaders and important people from history like Harriet Tubman, Augustus Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Graphics: 9/10

The game looks absolutely beautiful and full of life. Sid Meier did a great job at making the game look like a diorama with beautiful detail on all tiles. The detail put into making each biome and landscape look unique with different trees for each part of the world is impressive. It is a major step up in detail from Civilization VI. The only reason that it is not a 10/10 is because some of the leaders look so uncanny. 

Age transitions: 8/10

The new major aspect that Sid Meier and Firaxis wanted to implement was the thought that civilization is built of layers of time. This caused them to come up with age transitions where instead of staying as the civilization you move on to a new one that is built upon the old one. An example of this is Greece turning into Spain and Spain turning into America. The players have had mixed feelings about this with some wanting the old aspect of Civilization VI back where you stick to the same civilization throughout the age. But I think it adds a lot to the game and makes it more fair for people who may have fallen a little behind during the last age that was played.

Leaders and civilizations: 7/10

In Civ VII, because you switch civilizations throughout the ages, you only play one world leader; but you don’t always play as those leaders’ respective civilizations. An example of this would be Benjamin Franklin of Rome. I think the game has a great selection of civilizations and leaders for you to play, but my main issue is why I didn’t rate it higher: they did not add Ghandi. Every single Civilization game has Ghandi in it, but Civ VII hasn’t added him yet.

Game play: 8/10

The game play is fun and entertaining with the ages and turns lasting long enough to keep me entertained and playing. But one thing I do have a problem with is how absolutely BAD the UI is. If you don’t know what UI is, it is the user interface. The user interface is hard to navigate and control causing me to have to search up videos on certain parts of the game because it doesn’t tell me how it works or what stuff does. 

Connection to history: 10/10 

I love how much Civ VII follows real world civilizations and leaders, giving them respective bonuses and units. An example is how the Romans got the specialty unit the legion and the unique distinct forum and how leaders act and get abilities related to how they led people in real life, through military and science or culture and diplomacy. 

Single player: 9/10

Playing single players allows for a faster pace game or a slower game so you can take time and enjoy it. I find myself having lots of fun playing new games every day and trying out new games and strategies against the AI that can also vary in difficulties.  

Multiplayer: 6/10 

Multiplayer is hard in terms of playing mostly because online servers crash a lot and sometimes it can be multiple times a game. It can be jarring waiting for other players to take their turns. I do have the most fun playing online though just because it poses a challenge with other players and even possibly going to war with them. If they fix the crashing problem with online play, then I would rate multiplayer way higher. 

Final thoughts and final score: 57/70 

The game is a beautiful piece of garbage. Many, including me, have this opinion with the game just releasing and still finding bugs and problems. The game needs work and fine tuning in order for it to match the beauty and fame that its counterpart Civilization VI has. I think after a few months to a year of updates, the game can have so much potential and beauty. So if you do wish to play this game, it might be best to wait a little bit for the game to fix up and fine tune; but if you don’t care for those minute flaws that don’t really stop the game from being fun, then I suggest playing.  I have over 60 hours of gameplay already and am still not bored of playing.