Civilization 7 doesn't fully launch until next Tuesday, February 11, but it's playable now for people who sprung for the Founders Edition, and so far the response isn't what Firaxis or 2K Games had to be hoping for. There's a range of complaints, as there always is, but most widespread is criticism of the UI, which has grown to the point that developers have now said they're "looking into" it.
As we noted earlier today, Civ 7 is off to a rocky start, with a "mixed" rating on Steam: Currently, only 44% of the game's user reviews are positive, a far cry from what you'd expect from one of the most storied and reliable series in videogame history. PC Gamer's Tyler Wilde warned last week that the game would likely be "contentious" among critics and fans, mainly because of significant changes made to the game's ages system, which is now essentially a series of "soft resets" between the Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern ages that requires players to choose a new civilization for each new age, and the streamlining of some game systems.
But it's the interface that seems to be the big sticking point, at least at this early stage of things. There are plenty of complaints in the Steam user reviews but the UI is the most common thread, and even some positive reviews cite the interface as an issue: One positive review calls Civilization 7 "an amazing game," but warns that the "UI is so bad I can't sleep anymore." Another, also positive, describes the UI as "abysmal," and a third—still a positive verdict overall, remember—calls it "absolute trash."
It's not often that you see both positive and negative reviews complaining about the same thing, and it's reached the point where Firaxis has taken notice. "We are aware of and looking into feedback on the game's UI," the studio said in a developer response to at least three Steam user reviews. "We're continuing to make improvements to Civilization 7, and appreciate you taking the time to drop your feedback."
It's a stock response, yes, but at least it's an acknowledgement that things aren't right, and some adjustments to the UI have already been made, as part of the 1.01 patch that went live yesterday:
- Updated minimap to show tile ownership by player
- Added new information to the City Details screen that shows where a Town is sending its food and what Town a City is receiving food from
- Added Auto Unit Cycle option to toggle on/off when a Unit has remaining movement
- Added custom Religion naming
- Policy screen now shows how many free slots are available
Firaxis provided more in-depth commentary on its long-term plans in a statement released today.
"Over the last few days, the team has been poring over your feedback, including our most recent Steam Reviews during the Early Access period," the studio wrote. "As stewards of the Civilization franchise, we hold ourselves to a high standard and always strive to create the best game possible. Civ would not have come this far without you, and your opinions matter greatly to us."
Firaxis said it's identified "three key areas" to focus on, based on early feedback, and yes, the UI is top of the list:
- Prioritizing UI Improvements: Our top priority is improving the UI. We need some time to digest all of your feedback, but some areas that we're already looking into include making UI interactions more intuitive, improving map readability, fixing areas of polish like formatting, and more. We're committed to getting this right, and will share more details as soon as we can.
- Implementing Community-Requested Features: Several key features that we've seen you ask for will be included in upcoming patches as free updates, and we'll continue to work with the community to improve and add to the game. We're still working on exact timing, but can share the following items are being prioritized:
- Adding Teams to multiplayer games so you can play cooperatively
- Allowing full player counts in multiplayer in all three Ages through refinements to our Distant Lands system.
- Allowing you to pick your starting and ending Age to allow for single or double Age games
- Providing a wider variety of map types
- Enabling city and religion names to be customized
- Adding in hotseat multiplayer
- Rolling Out Quality-of-Life Updates in Patch 1.1.0 (Deploying in March): Work is already well underway on Patch 1.1.0, which includes fixes and adjustments that were already on our radar. This list includes quality-of-life UI adjustments, ongoing AI balance and improvement, adjustments to diplomacy and crises, plus additional bug fixes.
There's no time frame for any of this, but I don't imagine we'll see wholesale changes anytime soon—updating the UI alone is a much bigger job than, say, tweaking some stats here and there. Firaxis said a development roadmap will be shared as soon as possible.
"We will support Civilization 7 for years to come, and your feedback remains critical in helping us grow and build the future of Civ," Firaxis wrote in today's update. "If you have feedback you’d like to share, please do so in the Steam Discussion forums or drop a thread in our official Civilization Discord Server. Thank you for being the best fans in the world. We're excited to be on this journey with you—see you in the game!"
