Combining any leader with any culture and then changing to another one mid-game doesn't sound like it'd work but it does.
CIVILIZATION VII feels like a solid update and refresh of the core elements, that takes the series classic gameplay moments and approaches them from another angle.
Everyone loves taking the Egyptians to outer space or have the Roman empire conquer the entire face of the world, but by forcing you to turn your back on the previous civilization it allows for some fun roleplay as you play just one more turn.
Seriously, I played like five hours straight one night before I realised the time, that might be the exactly the sort of indication you need.
One of the biggest changes to series is the ability to uncouple the leaders of each nation from their countries, I started my game playing as the revolutionary hero Lafayette, the Roman consul and emperor in his later years.
Each leader has a pair of traits and so does each nation, so if you like to focus on armies but building statues are also your thing, you can pick a combination that suits the sort of game you'd like to play.
There is a really robust tutorial that actually gives you choices, one that didn't feel like it was holding my hand too tightly especially for a long-time player.
Each of the ages in the game are marked by a cultural shift, where the specific things you've done in the game actually determine which cultures become available at the end of the cultural turmoil.
For example, if you collect a lot of the jade resource you unlock the ability to shift towards one of the east Asian cultures, if you don't that option is locked out for you.
You can otherwise pick cultures that were historically geographically adjacent or a variety of different options.
My Romans became the Spanish with my legionnaires transforming into unique units appropriate to the age.
Not every unit comes with you, it's a cultural and gameplay reset of a sort when you transition between ages, but it means that you aren't missing out on the unique features of each culture, because they got their cool units back in the BCE era.
It really feels like you're roleplaying the development of society and culture, it's not history, but it's a sandbox with historically themed pieces.
Roleplaying really comes to mind as you level up your leader and pick different civics some of which carry across as a cultural legacy when moving into the new age.
Your leader can level up based on your actions too unlocking new traits from a skill tree.
You'll generate a resource called influence as you travel the world and interact with other leaders, a process that is super quick and easy with plenty of options to choose from that benefit both if you spend nothing, but much more if you pay out some influence earned.
There are a few systems I'd like to get a bit more time with, city states still exist in this version of the game but interactive with them positively seemed a little bit tricky in my playthrough. Maybe it was because I killed a few of their mates who could tell.
There is a benefit to becoming the suzerain of an independent city state, but I wasn't able to beat my AI competitors to that beloved position.
There is plenty more to dig into, but rest assured this new version of the beloved franchise feels like something longtime players won't find too jarring when jumping in and might even find mixes up some of the older elements.
Check out our interview with developers of Civilization VII at Melbourne International Games Week on the Lightmap podcast if you're keen to learn more.
A copy of CIVILIZATION VII on PC was provided to SIFTER for the purposes of this preview.
