(The other is NetHack.)
Its also important in my family.
Obviously, Im well disposed toward this long-running turn-based strategy series.
The most basic issue is: combat sucks.
Before we get to why, let’s first talk about some of Civilization 7’s big new ideas.
Its pretty clear that the main design concern this time is to address two criticisms of the earlier iterations.
In fact, the game is successful on that score.
One concern is the snowball effect.
In most previous versions of Civ, the tension tends to fall in the early to mid-game.
In other words, the end-game can get dull, and youre just playing to a fairly inevitable victory.
This is the motivation behind Civ 7s most sweeping changes to the formula.
Wars go away, along with negative policies, and relationships with AI opponents reset.
In other words, you retain much progress, but its almost like youre starting a new game.
You also get a choice of what your new civilization is at the era change.
At the end of the classic era, I was lagging greatly in technology (as the Greeks?
Does that make sense?)
So there are tasty strategic choices here, in terms of what next-gen civilization serves you best.
Towns can be improved too, but take only money to build things.
It does solve that problem, but with some downsides.
In other words, diverse combinations of leaders and civilizations creates more - and more interesting - choices.
Oh, build a farm here.
Oh, build a road to this city.
Particularly on large maps, this produced a fair bit of grind.
This is totally gone in Civ 7.
Roads and railroads are automagically completed between your settlements over time.
but it absolutely does reduce the amount of busy-work you face in the late game.
Its not just workers.
Another improvement is the use of military leaders.
Need to command workers?
Need to move a bunch of troops?
In other words: smart and commendable design decisions.
This makes it all the more baffling how boneheaded the combat interface is.
Did you tap the move button first?
No, so the attack doesnt happen.
Instead, you get a dialog telling you about the enemy unit.
It can get even worse.
Lets say the enemy unit is in a city with a city banner along the top of the hex.
You clicked on the banner?
The UI gives you no interaction as to why youre failing.
In my early user experience, I actually Googled how do I attack in Civ 7?.
Eventually I figured it out.
I cant select a unit to attack.
I cant choose a city to attack.
I have to… click anywhereelseto attack.
This is just braindead UI/UX design.
Fine, I might.
Or the game could give an attack!
button to make it absolutely clear what I want to do.
So there is no verb other than move into.
Except that now, that means… nothing.
Move into, but we dont let you attack unless you specifically select….
Anything else in the hex that you dont actually want to attack.
You could also maybe have a modal dialog saying oh are you sure you want to attack?
Which would still be kind of dumb, but at least better UX than the current experience.
There are other world-generation options at start-up, like the archipeligo-style distribution of other prior Civs.
And of course, some players prefer more aggressive strategies than I. desire to plow through history and see what happens next.
This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
