Civilization 7 live launch coverage: reviews, tips, and the latest news

Civilization 7 early access launches, first user reviews in

The Civ 7 early access period—the annoying FOMO-upselling-tactic kind, not a beta—has begun for those who pre-purchased the $100 Deluxe Edition or $130 Founders Edition.

That means that the first Steam user reviews are popping up. I don’t think we can draw too many conclusions about what the overall reception will look like from these hip-fired early impressions, but, as predicted, it’s contentious—the first 400 or so user reviews have averaged out to Steam’s “Mostly Negative” rating.

Our Civilization 7 performance testing

Our Civilization 7 performance analysis was done before the launch patch, and if things improve a ton in the retail version we’ll reassess it, but our initial verdict is that the frame rates aren’t as steady as we’d like. As is often the case with strategy games, expect things to slow down in the late game, especially if you have an older CPU—those AI turns can still make ’em chug.

Civ 7 will run on a variety of systems, though, and is Steam Deck Verified. Careful, though: The ability to take the ‘one more turn’ experience to bed with you sounds dangerous.

The graph below shows our AI benchmarking—see the full performance guide for more.

Learn the Civ 7 basics while you wait for it to unlock

Civilization 7 simplifies things in some ways, but I definitely wouldn’t say it’s simple, and if you’ve been playing Civ 5 and 6 for a long time, some of the changes might throw you at first. We’ve got more guides coming, but for starters, here are some introductions to Civ 7’s systems:

• Civilization 7 victory guide: Civ 7’s win conditions are similar to those of previous games, but the new ages and Legacy Paths add some wrinkles.
• Civilization 7 age transition guide: Not everything that happens in one of the new age transitions is explained in the game. This guide will help prepare you for your first historical long jump.
• Civilization 7 settlements guide: Along with cities, you can now control towns. The way you grow and build up these settlements has also changed (RIP Workers).

Civilization 7 launch times

Civilization 7 is launching in two phases:

• Early Access: February 5 at 9 pm Pacific (must pre-purchase Deluxe or Founders Edition)
• Full release: February 10 at 9 pm Pacific

The launches will happen simultaneously worldwide, so you just have to find out when 9 pm Pacific is in your time zone to determine when you can start playing. Firaxis put together the graphic below with launch times across the globe:

Civilization 7 review round-up

Civ 7 reviews dropped on Monday, and so far there’s a mix of high praise and cooler-but-still-optimistic takes (like you’ll find in our review), as well as a handful of mostly negative assessments.

I think the conversation’s going to get more heated once Civ 7 is available to the public and new and old fans start playing, but for now, here’s a sampling of what critics are saying:

Our Civilization 7 review: 76%

Reviewer Robert Zak had plenty of criticism in our Civilization 7 review, but ultimately enjoyed Firaxis’ latest 4X game, noting that its flaws exist in comparison to Civ 5 and Civ 6—two exceptionally good strategy games that have both had years of post-launch updates. In his conclusion, he wrote:

Civilization 7 feels like a reaction to the maximalism of its predecessor: sleeker and speedier, colder and less complex. Being the first game in the series to come out on consoles at the same time as PC, I can’t help but feel that some of the complexity cutbacks are made with gamepad players in mind. Some of these cuts are positive, and they help the game flow better (especially, I imagine, in multiplayer), but the simplification of systems like religion, diplomacy, city-states, and espionage means that the journey through history doesn’t feel quite as rich or rewarding.

It’s as if Civ’s gone through its own age transition—a few steps forward, a few steps back. While it’s addressed some longstanding issues, there’s a little too much that’s been stripped away for veterans like myself to call this meaningful progress on the legendary series’ Legacy Path.