Civilization 7has arguably broken the mold more so than any entry that’s come before it. While pastCivshave continued to add to the same formula and refine its core mechanics with each new entry,Civilization 7makes some significant changes to it, some for better and some for worse.
Along with dramatic changes to the core series formula, such asCivilization 7’s three-Age systemand the decoupling of leaders and Civs,Civilization 7has also made a wealth of smaller changes and additions. One of these is the introduction of new narrative elements that pop up regularly during the course of a match. These narrative moments are a really neat addition toCivilization’s gameplay loop, but they still could’ve used a little longer in the oven.
Civilization 7’s Dramatic Moments Fall Flat
Civilization 7’s New Narrative Elements Are a Step Forward for The Franchise
Celebrations have been a part ofCivilization’s gameplay loopsince the 1991 original and its “We Love the King Day,” which granted players a temporary population boost if they had no unhappy citizens. These Celebrations are fun, simple events that add a little bit of narrative spice to the game, and they’ve slowly been joined by similar events over the years.
Civilization 7goes all in on narrative events.Civilization 6: Gathering Storm’s natural disastersmake a return in the most recent entry, destroying players' town and city tiles in dramatic fashion at random intervals.Civilization 7also introduces new “Narrative Choices,” whereby players are prompted to make a decision between receiving one of two resources, a decision that’s wrapped in some light narrative context.
The most notable narrative-based addition inCivilization 7is the “Crisis Event” mechanic. At the end of each Age, players will be presented with some kind of crisis that gradually affects their entire empire, such as a plague that slowly reduces happiness and degrades the health of all nearby units. To battle this crisis, players are given a set of unique Crisis Policies that come with both a positive and negative effect.
In theory,Civilization 7’s Crisis Eventsare a great addition to the series' core gameplay loop, adding a sudden calamity that forces even the most seasonedCivplayers to think carefully about their next moves. Unfortunately, in practice, these events aren’t nearly as dramatic as they first seem.
Civilization 7’s New Narrative Elements Don’t Feel As Special As They Should Be
Civilization 7’s Crisis Events (and Narrative Choices) are an unfortunate case of “tell don’t show.” When players are presented with a Crisis Event, it takes the form of a simple text box in the center of the screen. Aside from the slight red hue behind the text, there’s nothing that immediately denotes the severity of the Crisis Event to the player.
While a natural disaster inCivilization 7results in a few-second dramatic camera-pan across the scene, and the completion of a Wonder results in a brief voice over fromnarrator Gwendoline Christie,Civilization 7’s Crisis Events are met with virtually no fanfare. There’s no change in music, no discernible difference in soundscape, and barely any visual indicators that a Crisis Event is happening (the aforementioned plague appears as a faint green cloud hovering around the player’s tiles). As such,Civilization 7’s Crisis Events don’t hit nearly as hard as they should, which is a shame given how engaging the new mechanic can be.
