Civilization 7 Fans Hate The Age System’s Hard Resets

Civilization 7 is now in the hands of fans, and to try and shake things up this time around, Firaxis decided to do away with long-running games in favor of an Ages system. Each game is divided into three different Ages, those being the Antiquity Age, the Exploration Age, and the Modern Age, and transitioning into each will reset all of your ongoing wars and alliances.

The idea behind Ages is to shake up longer matches that can sometimes become a procession for some players, but Firaxis, unfortunately, doesn’t appear to have stuck the landing very well. One the Civilization subreddit earlier today, the Ages system was a topic of heavy discussion among fans, the vast majority of whom are not enjoying themselves.

Civilization 7 Fans Hate The Age System’s Hard Resets

A Reddit user called rW0HgFyxoJhYka was the first to bring up the discussion, explaining that they believe the Ages system is going to confuse and disorient players a lot, calling it a “total whiplash” that people will have to get used to. That then spurred many players to talk about their frustrations with the system.

One of the biggest complaints appears to be about how jarring the transitions between Ages are, with very little explanation as to why the world changes and certain empires rise and fall. A lot of players are calling it immersion-breaking, with a user called Forrestpen claiming it “doesn’t feel too good thematically or narratively”. Even those that think the system has potential have issues with it, such as a user called 20-Minutes-Adventure, who thinks the transitions are “abrupt and not streamlined”.

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An excellent art style, fantastic sound track, and great leaps forwards for replayability, Civilization 7 is a great game. But it will prove divisive.

Then there are the much angrier opinions among the bunch, with many irritated with the system and how it “feels like I’m starting over with zero transition”. The loss of cities and units is also another massive sticking point that a lot of people don’t like, as a user called Lhobbes6 explains they were left irritated after building up a huge navy to deal with an enemy, only for it to be reduced to a single ship when the next Age started.

All of this has contributed to the overall feeling that Civilization 7 is a major miss for the franchise, as it launched on Steam to Mostly Negative reviews earlier this week for a myriad of reasons. Firaxis has outlined some of the changes it’s planning to make in a recent blog post, and you’d hope that these will get more players back on board. If you really despise the Ages system though, you may be better of sticking with Civ 6.

Grand Strategy

Turn-Based Strategy

4X

Released

February 11, 2025

ESRB

t

Developer(s)

Firaxis Games