Image: Firaxis Games
Civilization 7 has unveiled its release date and biggest new feature: Ages.
Firaxis Games brought a gameplay reveal for its long-awaited 4X strategy sequel Civilization 7, showing off the game’s new features and narrator: Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, The Sandman). Civilization 7 will launch on February 11, 2025 with a few new gameplay changes, including the ability to choose a leader separately from a civilization.
Watch the trailer below:
Breaking down Civilization 7’s new gameplay changes
Firaxis Games has shown off Civilization 7’s new visuals in its first gameplay trailer, which appear to be less visibly cartoonish than Civilization 6. The trailer also revealed this entry’s narrator: Gwendoline Christie, continuing a franchise trend of recruiting Game of Thrones actors for voicework after Sean Bean served as the narrator in Civilization 6.
The basics of a Civilization game remain intact with this sequel: players can shape an evolving empire by ruling as a legendary leader from the pages of human history. However, Civilization 7 is throwing a few new gameplay changes into the mix, starting with Ages. Players will no longer begin in the Ancient era and progress through different eras of history as just one civilization. Instead, they will now progress through three distinct Ages: Antiquity, Discovery, and Modern and play as different civilizations in each one.
Each Age will feature unique playable civilizations, resources, explorable land and entire gameplay systems for players to discover. When completing an Age, your civilization options for the next Age will depend on prior gameplay accomplishments - which means that you’ll be given the option to pick specific civilizations based on the resources you’ve amassed, and how you otherwise progressed in the last Age.
Civilization 7's new Age mechanic notably borrows heavily from Humankind, another Civilization-esque 4X strategy game by Amplitude Studios that was released back in 2021. Humankind also had its players choose to play as different civilizations as they progress through history.
Another big change is that players can now mix and match Civilization’s leaders with different civilizations, allowing you to take their unique abilities and attributes and apply them to a wide variety of other civilizations throughout the Ages. The game will also feature multiplayer matches in the form of multi-Age campaigns or single-Age campaigns, where players compete with other players online. Cross-play will be supported between PC and console platforms. Also, rivers are navigable now. Yay!
Civilization 7 launches on February 11, 2025 on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Firaxis Games also held a 25-minute gameplay showcase for the game, which you can watch below: