Sid Meier’s Civilization VII: Next Level Empire Building

Calling all bedroom empire builders: Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is coming to steal what little free time you have left this February. The Civilization series made its debut in ancient times—specifically 1991—and has since established itself among the most beloved strategy game franchises of all time. As its name suggests, the series invites players to pilot great human civilizations through the twisting passage of time via the medium of 4X strategy games. In this latest chapter, your strategic decisions shape the unique culture of your evolving empire. Intel Gaming Access cosplayed as a Roman legionary and sidled up to Centurion John Kloetzli, lead graphics programmer at Firaxis games, to soak up a few Civ VII tactical insights.

More than thirty years ago, the first Civilization helped popularize the now-huge 4X genre of strategy games, which—confusingly for the uninitiated—comprises four key features beginning with the letter ‘E’: explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. In Civilization VII,  indulge your 4X desires by building a empire spanning across distinct and impressively-rendered historical Ages. “You rule as one of many legendary leaders throughout history and steer the course of your own story,” Kloetzli says. “Civilization VII is for anyone who is interested in history, wants a great strategy experience, and is looking for a visually stunning game that shows off the beauty of the world!”

No new Civ game would be complete without a few new tricks to keep players satisfied. “Perhaps the biggest new feature in Civilization VII is ‘Ages’, which essentially divide history into distinct playable chapters,” says Kloetzli. In previous iterations of the series, you played as the same civilization and leader across the whole of history, whereas in Civilization VII each civilization you create is tied to a specific Age. “As you go from one Age to the next, you’ll select a new civilization to play as in that new Age—one that has a fresh new set of bonuses and abilities, and also retains elements of your past empire in the form of traditions, the world wonders you created, unique quarters, and more,” Kloetzli continues.

Civilization VII adds new depth in other ways, too, for example by bringing the humanities into the spotlight alongside the series’ traditional political leaders for the first time. “One other notable callout is that in Civilization VII, leaders and civilizations are chosen independent from each other,” Kloetzli adds. “By doing so, we can now expand the roster of leaders to not only comprise heads-of-state, but other leaders of philosophy, literature, civics, and more.”

Visually, Civilization VII ramps things up significantly, while staying true to the core presentation style that has so endeared it to generations of players. “The graphics in Civilization VII are brimming with detail. Each building, unit, and leader is stuffed full of historically inspired minutiae waiting to be discovered,” says Kloetzli. “It’s a huge increase in visual fidelity from the previous game, and I think players are going to be delighted.” Early screenshots of the game have already provoked lots of discussion as fans pore over them, trying to identify each building and character—a response which has delighted the team. “It has been tons of fun to watch, and I can’t wait for players to experience the full game!” Kloetzli says.

Civilization VII introduces a new feature called navigable rivers, which now take up an entire tile and enable certain naval units to traverse them. While greatly anticipated by fans, this feature wasn’t without its challenges from a development point of view. In previous games, rivers were placed randomly, but making those rivers navigable required a different approach. “Each tile in the map now has elevation and rainfall parameters—including rain shadows from mountains—that allow us to simulate water flow all the way to the sea,” explains Kloetzli. “By measuring the amount of water flowing through each tile, we can then place rivers in a realistic way and even have navigable rivers connecting multiple bodies of water. Our internal testers loved being able to sail up a river and discover inland lakes and seas, and we are excited to see players’ reactions!”

The Civilization series has always had a strong presence in PC gaming, and Civilization VII will undoubtedly be no different. As such, and given the Civilization franchise’s rich history, it’s in the interests of the team at Firaxis to make its experiences run great on whatever rig players are playing on. “While we love enthusiast gamers with the latest-and-greatest desktop PC hardware, we also care a lot about less powerful devices such as laptops and tablets,” Kloetzli assures. “We have spent significant effort optimizing the game for PC and are aiming to deliver exceptional performance for a wide range of hardware. However, for the best experience we recommend having a recent 6-core CPU such as the Intel® Core™ i5-10400 or better.”

On the subject of optimization, Firaxis has worked with Intel to ensure the best experience for players of its games, and Civilization VII was no exception. “When we had the opportunity to work with Intel on integrating X^eSS into the game, we knew we couldn’t let the opportunity pass,” Kloetzli says. “Over the years we have collaborated with Intel on technical innovations that have elevated the playing experience for our previous games, so we were confident working with Intel again was going to provide great results.”

“Intel XSS is a perfect fit for Civilization VII, providing significant performance improvements without sacrificing image quality,” continues Kloetzli. “Seeing what can be achieved with this technology when accelerated by newer hardware features is very impressive, and will result in tangible benefits for players, including improved frame rates and battery life.”

And with that promise, Kloetzli heads back to the front lines to make final preparations, leaving us with one final aside on what lies ahead. “The launch of Civilization VII is coming up on February 11, 2025, but that’s just the beginning,” teases Kloetzli “We have some really robust post-launch plans for Civ fans and can’t wait to share more in the near future!”

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