Review of Recent Updates in Civilization 7: The Latest Addition to the 4X Strategy Game Genre
Recently, the game Civilization 7 has been making headlines as it strives to enhance player experience. This latest installment in the beloved 4X strategy series has been struggling with a Mostly Negative rating on Steam over the past 30 days, marking a disappointing milestone in its development history at Firaxis.
Core Changes Focused on the Ages System
According to the developers, the new Ages system has been designed to address three key issues prevalent in the 4X genre: reducing late-game micromanagement, increasing flexibility in strategic decision-making, and introducing new mechanics to a series that has been around for over 30 years. Specifically, each time a player advances to a new Era, the gameplay will be reset to alleviate the burden of late-game operations. Additionally, the implementation of a few game rules for each new Era allows players to transition their strategies seamlessly without feeling constrained from the beginning to the end of the game.
However, in practice, this system has led to significant backlash from the community. Instead of feeling liberated from the burdens of the past, many players feel that they are being forced to adhere to a prescribed path that undermines the strategic freedom that has been a hallmark of the Civilization series. According to Steam statistics, just in the past 30 days, Civilization 7 has received 1,314 reviews from users, of which only 38% were positive. This marks the first time the game has dropped to a Mostly Negative rating since its launch, despite the overall score still being classified as Mixed. Current trends indicate that the recent updates and improvements from Firaxis have not convincingly addressed player concerns.
Data from SteamDB shows that the peak number of players for Civilization 7 in the past 24 hours was only 11,707 – a modest figure compared to Civilization 6 (47,484 players) or even Civilization 5 (19,157 players). This stark contrast strongly suggests that many fans are turning their backs on this new version. Furthermore, without considering smaller game expansions or DLCs that have yet to be rated, Civilization 7 currently holds the record for the lowest user rating of any Firaxis game on Steam.
