Civilization 7 had a rougher-than-expected launch, thanks largely to changes that made it, as we said in our 76% review, "the most streamlined and pared-back the series has been in a long time"—and not always in a good way. The backlash was strong enough that developer Firaxis committed to fixes and improvements before Civ 7 was even in full release, and in a "check-in" posted today it shared details on what players can look forward to over the next couple months.
The 1.1.0 update is set to go live on March 4 and will make further adjustments and fixes to Civilization 7's UI, which Firaxis said in February was the studio's "top priority." A number of gameplay changes will also be made, including "significant changes to the Modern Age's Cultural Legacy Path and Victory," and AI leaders will be better able to complete Cultural Victories.
The update will also see the first half of the Crossroads of the World Collection go live, adding the new leader Ada Lovelace, the new civs Great Britain (Modern Age) and Carthage (Antiquity Age), and the Natural Wonder Pack including four new Natural Wonders: Machapuchare, Mount Fuji, Vihren, and Vinicunca to the game.
All of this unfortunately means that the first in-game event, "Natural Wonder Battle," which was set to go live with the update on March 4, has been postponed "to allow us more time to prioritize quality-of-life improvements for players worldwide." A new date for the event hasn't been set but Firaxis said it will share more information when it can.
The 1.1.1 update is scheduled to follow on March 25, and will include further UI updates and other changes. "Ongoing improvements to the User Interface continues to be a top priority for the development team," Firaxis wrote. "The updates being introduced on March 25 are just one part of a much larger plan that aims to improve the UI over the next several months."
Bigger changes are also in the works: New map sizes, resource types, support for teams in multiplayer, a "One More Turn" button that will let players continue past the end of the Modern Age, mod tools and Steam Workshop support, and—you guessed it—still more UI improvements. Firaxis said it's currently "scoping the work" required to get it all done, and while some could arrive as early as April, other promised features and changes will take longer: "As always in development, plans can change and we'll have more details to share here in the weeks and months ahead as plans solidify."
To be clear, Civilization 7 isn't a bad game, but it is something of a letdown, at least at this stage. As PC Gamer's Tyler Wilde pointed out, our 76% review score marks it as a good and recommended game, but it's a far cry from the 93% scores we bestowed on Civilization 5 and Civ 6, marking them both as among the best of the best.
A more pronounced ambivalence is visible on Steam: Civilization 7's user rating remains stubbornly "mixed" and has actually been in a very slight decline through most of February, and there are still more people playing Civilization 6 on Steam than Civ 7. So there's no cause for panic at this point, but there's definitely work to be done.
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