Sid Meier's Civilization VII released on Steam [Denuvo] [2K account required for online] [mixed reviews] [Linux/Mac] [SteamDeck verified]

Not touching anything with Denuvo, ever. No exceptions.

This. I have nearly 3k hours in Civ6, but as soon as I heard 7 had Denuvo I took it off my wishlist and ignored it instead. Can't believe they're still pulling this insulting bullshit when the indie game landscape is so plentiful currently

I'll pick up the Complete Edition for $20 in 5 years. That should give them time to remove Denuvo too.

Personally I played through the first era and then went back to civ 6. I'm sure I'll give it more chances, but any Civ game I can put down is fatally flawed.

Civ games usually need a couple months/years to bake before they get as good as their predecessors.
It made six hours vanish for me last night. There are some rough edges, but it's still compelling.
- I really wish I found it as compelling.

Gonna be a pass until they get their act together...

70 dollar early access 🤡

Big fan so far, 11 hours in. Playing Linux native with no issues whatsoever, regarding bugs and the like. Regarding the UI, there are some places where the interface needs work. The diplomacy overview is inaccessible unless you're being prompted about it, naval commanders state they require land units (they work with naval units), and the game has a general "in testing" feeling to it. Despite these minor flaws, I'm a huge fan. The new mechanics are quite fun, easy to break the game as well, from an exploit perspective (pretty sure following the tutorial shouldn't net you hundreds of each resource per turn), whether this is intentional or not I'm not sure.

Regardless, I'm having a great time.

It certainly has launched in a poor state with missing features, especially baseline things like hotkeys, game settings, etc. But I can tell that even with what I've played so far it clearly has some brilliant gameplay changes under the hood that could propel it to being one of the most mechanically polished Civ games in the series after a year or two of updates and expansions.

I love the eras system for providing a clear chunking of gameplay time as you go through it instead of one massive and unwieldy playthrough. I love the addition of army commanders and the removal of builders. There's so many small tweaks to things that make them finally feel like the ideal version of each gameplay system to me; things function in the way that I think I imagined them functioning when I first played Civ IV all those years ago.

But again, they should be well criticized for the state of the launch, and 2K's greed with regards to the clear plans to sell more leaders and civs as DLC.

I'm enjoying it so far, I'm into my third game. It definitely is not without it's flaws but it definitely scratches the "one more turn" itch for me. I like the new mechanics but what remains to be seen for me is how the replayability will feel compared to 5 & 6