If you’re a long-time Civilization fan who pre-ordered the latest entry with high hopes, you’re far from alone in feeling let down. I’ve put over 1,200 hours into Civilization 6, played every entry since Civ 3 back in 2001, and I walked away from my first 15-hour Civ 7 playthrough completely underwhelmed. It doesn’t matter if you play on easy or deity difficulty, there are so many rough edges and unaddressed flaws that it’s no surprise so many players are saying civilization 7 sucks right now. This post breaks down the most common complaints, what’s causing them, and what you can do to make the game more playable if you already bought it.
Core Broken Mechanics That Are A Big Reason Civilization 7 Sucks
The biggest issue with the latest Civ entry is how many core gameplay mechanics feel completely untested, like they were rushed out the door to hit a launch deadline. Production scaling bugs that disproportionately hit wide empire players make playing anything other than a tall 3-4 city playthrough almost impossible, which cuts out a huge part of the strategic diversity the series is known for. Tech tree progression that breaks historical and logical consistency also pulls you out of the immersion constantly – I once unlocked nuclear fission 12 turns before I unlocked basic public bus transit, which makes zero sense for a series that prides itself on historical accuracy. The worst broken mechanics are so consistent that most players have run into at least one in their first few playthroughs:
- Production costs jump 300% after you hit 10 cities, with zero warning or in-game explanation for the penalty
- Diplomacy penalties apply even for actions AI civs take against you first, like declaring war or stealing your territory
- Religion victory conditions are so bugged you can complete them accidentally without spreading your faith to a single foreign city
Lazy Civ And Leader Design That Kills Long-Term Replay Value
Another huge complaint from long-time fans is how little effort went into designing the new civs and leaders added in Civ 7. Of the 24 base game civs, 11 have abilities that are almost exact copies of other civs, just renamed to fit their theme. Copy-pasted civ abilities that offer zero unique strategic value mean you can play 10 different civs and have almost the exact same playthrough experience, which is a huge step down from Civ 6 where every civ felt completely distinct. The leader animations and dialogue are also incredibly generic now – there’s no more unique snark from Gandhi when you declare war on him, or playful banter from Teddy Roosevelt when you trade luxury goods. Half the leaders don’t even have unique dialogue for specific events, just generic pre-written lines that feel completely disconnected from the context of your game. I played three back-to-back playthroughs with different civs last week, and I barely noticed a difference in how each one played, which made me want to put the game down entirely after just a few hours.
Game-Breaking Performance Issues That Waste Your Time
Even if you can look past the broken mechanics and lazy design, the performance issues in Civ 7 are bad enough to make even the most patient player walk away. Consistent crash issues that have gone unaddressed three months post-launch mean you can lose hours of progress if you don’t manually save every 2-3 turns, which is a tedious extra step that no one should have to do for a full-priced AAA game. Late game save load times are even worse – once you hit 200 turns and have 10+ cities, you can expect to wait 2-3 minutes for a save to load, even on a high-end gaming PC with an SSD. Most regular players I know have gotten into the habit of stepping away from their desk or pulling out their phone when they hit a late game save load, rather than sitting and staring at a frozen progress bar for 2+ minutes. If you’re looking for a quick, low-stakes activity to fill that dead time, you can play INR Rummy, as its short round times mean you can wrap up a full game right as your save file finishes loading. Console players have it even worse, with frame drops down to 10 fps in late game, and no hotfix has been announced to address these performance issues as of this writing.
Unfair Monetization That Disrespects Long-Time Fans
The final straw for a lot of players is the extremely greedy monetization Firaxis has rolled out for Civ 7, which locks core gameplay features behind paid DLC that was originally advertised as part of the base game. Core gameplay features locked behind paid DLC that was advertised as part of the base game include the world editor, eight additional civs, and even the advanced difficulty tuning options that let you customize your game settings to fit your playstyle. Pre-order customers were promised all of these features would be included in the base game, but they’re now only available if you buy the $29.99 season pass on top of the $69.99 base game price. Even worse, the cosmetic DLC packs that only add leader skins cost $9.99 each, which is wildly overpriced for content that adds zero gameplay value. It’s clear Firaxis is prioritizing extracting extra cash from fans over delivering a polished, complete game at launch, which has left a lot of long-time players feeling betrayed.
At the end of the day, you don’t have to be a diehard Civ fan to see where all the frustration comes from. There are small fixes you can make right now to improve your experience, like sticking to tall empires, turning off victory conditions you don’t care about, and manually saving every few turns to avoid losing progress. Modders are already rolling out unofficial patches to fix a lot of the broken mechanics too, so the game will likely get better over time. But right now, it’s completely valid to agree that civilization 7 sucks, and to wait for more patches or a sale before you spend your money on it. If you already bought it, the workarounds we covered can help you get more enjoyment out of your play sessions until Firaxis releases official fixes for these issues.