Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 launched: 10 things you need to know

Civilization 7 is out now

Turn-based strategy game Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 has taken more than 7 years to arrive and it has finally launched on PC and consoles. Here are 10 things you need to know about Civilization 7 (Civilization VII).

1. Genre Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 (Sid Meier’s Civilization VII) is a 4X turn-based strategy video game. It is the seventh entry in the Civilization game franchise.
2. Developer Civilization 7 is developed by US-based Firaxis Games.
3. Publisher Civilization 7 is published by California-based 2K Games, owned by Take-Two Interactive.
4. A new Ages system Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 introduces a new Ages system which “splits human history into three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern.” Each Age will have age-exclusive resources, units, civilizations, and “Ageless elements that endure throughout entire campaigns.”
5. Leaders and civilizations are separate now In previous Civilization games, you chose one civilization and its leader for the entire game. That has changed with Civilization VII. Now, you can mix and match leaders and civilizations.
6. Builder Units removed from the game In Civilization 7, “Builder Units have been removed entirely, and creating Improvements is tied to population growth instead,” note the developers in a website post. Collect enough Food to earn Population points, which, then are “allocated to directly add Improvements or Specialists to tiles”.
7. The Emergent Narrative The new Emergent Narrative system “tracks your in-game choices, real historical events, and those classic "what-if" scenarios unique to Civ." As players build their empire, they’ll frequently come across “text-based decision points containing two to three choices”.
8. Commander Units In Civilization 7, Commander Units “can stack nearby troops onto itself”, which makes for faster movement across the map. They are now also the only Unit that can “gain experience and earn promotions, selected across multiple discipline trees”.
9. Influence: The main diplomatic currency Sid Meier’s Civilization VII adds a new resource for the series called Influence. “Influence is accumulated on a per-turn basis like Gold, then spent to perform diplomacy actions with other empires”, said the developers.
10. Platforms Sid Meier’s Civilization VII has launched on PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.