Is Civilization 7 Good For Beginners?

Is Civilization 7 good for beginners? I think the short answer is yes, a long as you are ok with a very slow learning curve with most lessons coming through the process of mistakes and losing.

I can speak from experience because I’ve always wanted to get into Civilization, but always felt that with each successive entry, this became even more difficult. Dating back to when Civilization first released in the 90’s, this was a time when my friends and I would gather in the computer labs and play games like, StarCraft, Age of Empires and Total Annihilation over LAN. We were always looking for the next RTS, but we never made it to Civilization, which was a 4X game, which stands for explore, expand, exploit, exterminate.

After hearing that Civilization 7 had streamlined a lot of elements, it seemed like the opportune time to test my theory on whether Civilization 7 had lowered the barrier to entry for the series. Before giving my opinion, I should preface it by saying that I’m not likely doing myself any favors by playing on Steam Deck. Despite it working quite well and mostly maintaining 60 fps, games like Civilization are best suited for mouse and keyboard. Yes, even though games like Age of Empires, Gears Tactics and Civilization are also available on consoles with controller support, there is no denying the precision lost playing that way. Civilization 7 is a great experience on Steam Deck, it would just be a little bit easier to point and click.

After spending about ten hours, I feel confident to determine whether Civilization 7 is good for beginners. In terms of gameplay, there is a lot of information thrown at you even before getting into the game. You need to select a lot of different things, which you will immediately be unsure if you are making the right decision such as a leader, a civilization and the age to begin. In addition to this you will be able to select difficulty, speed, map type and map size. I don’t think any of these options are new to the series, but offering this many decisions immediately is just one way the bar to entry is high.

Once into the game itself, the mechanics will try to explain some of the more core elements, but it’s hard to digest immediately. Luckily, it emphasizes that you need to create your first settlement, which will become the core of your city. From here you will begin research, scout out the surrounding areas and expand your city. It doesn’t help that the UI is very busy. At times this can create more confusion than clarity. Most importantly, there is an action wheel in the bottom right of the screen that you will have to clear the actions before moving to the next turn. This ensures, for the most part, that you will at least do the core mechanics whether that be enacting a new civic, managing troops, or making an alliance with one of your neighbours.

From there, you will just be learning what works and what doesn’t in trial by fire. There are also plenty of variables including upgrades, what civics to pursue and what avenue you are going to try and achieve victory. You could try to build seven wonders first or you could try for a military win and wipe the competition off the board. This means that there will still be a lot of learning well into multiple games as you can’t always be sure what decision led to failure and what led to success.

A lot of the knowledge that you need is going to be learned from making the wrong decisions. Unfortunately, the price to pay for being wrong can be hours, but

After all is said and done, Civilization 7 is still a very complex game with a high bar for entry and a UI that isn’t making the series more welcoming. The good news is that Civilization 7 is likely the easiest it has ever been to jump into the series. You will experience a lot of losses and bumps on the way, but the reward is a solid gameplay with deep systems that you will eventually understand in full, a solid score, and great narration.