Civilization 7 doesn’t let you customize anything. You can’t rename your cities, you can’t fiddle with the options for game speed, map generation, leader AI, or pretty much anything else in the barebones settings menu. While I know mods will eventually fix this sort of thing – they always have in the past – it’s shocking that a game that’s been in development for so long would launch without these series-staple features.
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I remember loading up the Advanced settings for my first Civilization 7 game and just thinking “Is that it?” I even had to go back and reinstall Civ 6 to check what the previous game had for options, and the difference is shocking. There are so many more specific things you can tweak in the menus, from game speed, unique map generation, different start biases, resource allocation, the list goes on. Even Civilization 5 had more options at launch, and that game is 14 years old. In a game with the breadth of Civilization 7, and with just how many people love to get stuck into the complexity of it all, this lack of options is disappointing.
Indicative Of A Wider Problem
The lack of customization in Civ 7 is indicative of a much wider problem, one that I touched on in my review: the game isn’t finished yet. While I’ve still managed to get almost 200 hours out of it by now, that’s largely down to the fact that Civilization is the type of game that is designed (brilliantly, I’ve got to say) to devour your time. Its lackluster menu options, poorly-designed UI, and half-finished final age, suggest to me that the game was quickly pushed out the door by 2K, while it really should’ve had another half a year, at least, in development.
I’m not one of these Civilization 7 doomers, though. I think the game is the best Civilization launch we’ve ever had, and the new Ages system brings so much more depth to strategy and gameplay variety compared to the state both Civ 5 and Civ 6 were at launch. Thankfully, most of these problems are pretty simple to address.
Let’s Fix It
The UI needs an overhaul, and there should be more options for customization here – like custom pins and the ability to change how detailed the tooltips are. Basic tooltips with decent information would be a good start, Firaxis. The ability to rename cities should be as easy a fix as allowing you to change the name of your religion – which was added in the day one patch for the game.
The map generation options and AI options might be a bit tricky. You might’ve already seen a bit of news about how bad the maps are in Civ 7, with their blocky straight edges and bizarre thin strips of islands between continents. This is mostly down to the forced Distant Land mechanics: the other half of the world has special resources and new civilizations you meet during the Exploration Age. While this is a fundamental part of how the game has been designed, why is there no option to play without Distant Lands as a mechanic? Or, even better, a Distant Lands map that has an unexplored continent rather than one inhabited with previously unmet civs.
I’m not sure how Firaxis will go about fixing this one, or even if they will. So far they’ve stuck to their guns with a positive commitment to Civilization 7’s more divisive features, and I’d rather they figure out a way of letting players customize Distant Lands and the resulting gameplay mechanics rather than just having an option of on/off.
- Released
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February 11, 2025
- ESRB
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