I’m happy, I was asked to test the new Civilization VII of Sid Meierwho was, I think I much awaited by fans and amateurs of what is called I believe, the 4x genre to explore, expand, exploit, exterminate.
Released in 1991 at Microprose, Civilization was the founding pillar of this kind and despite the challengers who came to play in the courtyard of the turn -based strategy games, Civilization was able to renew itself and stay at the top all these years. In short, the bar is high, the expectations of many fans and there were even who have posed days off to get back to it.
Personally, I tested it all weekend, and even if it is not the game on which I manage the best, I will still give you my little analysis of Casual Gamer. On the other hand, if you do not know your Roman numerals well “Louis Croix Vé Baton” (do you have the ref?), I advise you to go revise them, because there it will chain & mldr; lol.
But before, a little historical reminder anyway to see by what Civ has gone over the centuries (yes, I abuse & mldr;). In 1991, the bases were laid, namely to build a civilization of antiquity in the space era, explore a map, build cities, manage new technologies and diplomacy, and all of this on turn. Then, in 1996, CIV II improved the interface and the strategic depth of the game. Then in 2001, CIV III was born by integrating borders and cultural concepts, but also all that is strategic resources. 4 years later, in 2005 released Civ IV with the addition of religion and the great historical figures that we still find today. Ah and crazy newness too, the arrival of a 3D engine!
Then in 2010, Civilization V to which you have also probably played. There is a big change, with the arrival of a hexagonal grid and the formal ban on superimposing military units. This had the effect of making the fights more tactical. This opus also made it possible to introduce the concept of completely autonomous cities-states. Then, released in 2016, Civilization VI revised all the management of cities with the introduction of districts (from the neighborhoods what) that we can place where we want on the map. It forced us to plan regional planning and to anticipate scientific or other research to develop according to the territory on which we land.
With each evolution, civilization, it is 1/3 of stuff that does not change, 1/3 of stuff that is improved and 1/3 of completely new novelties. This is surely that the secret of CIV’s success, because it allows the game to evolve to cross the years without ever betraying fans of the first hour.
Civilization VI was also the biggest success in the series. Its port on the switch and its graphic style, more nice, more colorful, attracted even more people & mldr; Not easy for Civ VII to succeed him!
I had played Civ V, but not at all at Civ VI so I still had to read some specialist articles to sort the new things already implemented in the previous opus and here level of the main innovations of this version 7.
First of all, we now have 3 distinct ages of play: antiquity, age of exploration and modern age. Antiquity is the establishment of your empire on the starting continent and the local competition. The age of exploration is when you cross the seas to conquer new continents, that you open commercial roads and spread your all Nazes religions. Then modern age is focused on industrialization and technology, with the appearance of railways, aerodromes and other more contemporary political issues than building walls or developing agriculture. Each age thus has its own goals and it gives the feeling of playing 3 parts in 1 single. With each age change, the card evolves and all players go back to an equal footing. I found it pretty cool, because it avoids this weariness that we can feel when you have a part that drags a little too much.
We can now also choose a leader separately from a civilization. If you want Napoleon to direct the Mayan Empire, it is possible! And you can even in each era, change your civilization by keeping your favorite leader. It’s a bit like starting a democracy with a republican government and changing its civilization towards fascism while retaining the same president ^^. Well what?
In short, this game mechanic allows you to constantly adapt your empire to the situation: we can thus fill a scientific delay by adopting a civilization focused on science in the next era, or on the contrary choose a people compensating for military weakness, etc. So yes, historically, it can make it tick, but I find it good, because it really allows you to renew the strategy that can be implemented in the game. Since when a video game must be realistic elsewhere ? We are not in Flight or Simulator Truck, huh.
Other small mechanics of the game have also been revised as the era crises which as their name suggests, arrive at the end of the era and generate conflicts, wars of religion, epidemics & mldr; etc. To bring a little challenge to the player and strengthen his interest in the game. The goal is once again to avoid boredom when it rolls too well. There are also small scripted events which arrive randomly and which offer choices to the player. For example, during a part oriented towards a cultural victory, This journalist who tested the game explained that by replacing an old building from the previous era with a Opera Bloth new, an event started. The demolition revealed an ancient artifact buried, which left him the choice either to keep this artifact (and bring it closer to the cultural victory based on artefacts collection), or to draw another bonus. Well done right?
There is also a whole new system of territorial expansion which means that before being a city, a colony can start as a municipality which can be specialized in a type of resource and feed all the surrounding cities by sending its overproduction . The barbarians have also “missing”, replaced by independent cities-states from Antiquity which can be friends or hostile. Building workers have also disappeared, replaced by a system where land improvement is integrated into the growth system. Basically, every time your city has a +1, you can choose a box to improve. Like that, we no longer get pissed off to microfait each improvement. It’s better I think.
And it is the same side of military management where micro -functioning has been well reduced. We can now create an army with a commander and thus move 10 units at once. It is really better, it is less the brothel on the grid and there is a small RPG side which allows the commanders to evolve independently and to go up in skills according to their experience in combat. It’s really nice too. In terms of diplomatic resources, CIV VII also sees the influence which is slowly regenerating in the form of points, which can then be spent to manage diplomatic interactions such as negotiating a treaty, opening borders, bringing together a city cited & mldr; etc.
And icing on the cake, the game is endowed with a system of “memories” which allows you to unlock bonuses in your following parts according to the progression of your leader. It gives like that a feeling of general progression in the game, through your games.
So much for the new features that I was able to note. It’s already not bad, knowing that there are also more classic improvements have said, especially on the visual rendering which is more detailed than the previous opus without being crazy either. What is clean and light enough to turn on medium configs. Me, I played on my iMac M3 and it was still a little righteous level fluidity. After that it is not a gamer machine either and I think that by lowering some settings, I could have had better.
After I haven’t tested the multiplayer yet, but I know that as the game is released simultaneously on all platforms, everyone can normally play together, but there were little galleys at launch, so to see if C ‘is resolved now.
Me, now I did a few games, so I am law to have gone around the game, but I found that the gameplay of the previous ones was respected so you will not be disoriented. And for the new ones, there is always the start -up tutorial. After that it remains a very dense game in terms of knowledge, so to be comfortable on it, you will still have to go through time to discover everything. But I find that they still made efforts on this compared to the previous ones & mldr; It is less elitist, more welcoming with a more progressive grip.
And the pace is I think, more dynamic. It is thanks in particular to this age system which allows you to reassess all its priorities during the game. It is less linear and therefore the parts are more interesting I think. For that it’s very successful I think.
Here, now it costs between 50 and 70 euros depending on the platforms on which you buy the game and as usual, the lifespan is endless. As long as you like, you can play it like that until your death. A game is still quite long and can last from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. so plan a little time anyway. Then a lot of DLC are also planned, so if you have a budget, it can allow you to have a little freshness from time to time.
Civ VII is available on Windows PC, Linux / Steamos (soon) and MacOS, but also PS5, Xbox Series X / S and Switch. Personally, I play the mouse keyboard and I have no idea what it can give with a gamepad, but it should not be too different from Civ VI.
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