Civilization VII Early Access opens to Mostly Negative Steam reviews

Civilization VII’s official release date might not arrive until the 11th of February, but already players who bought the Deluxe or Founders editions are getting to know the latest iteration of the 4X strategy titan.

However, many players have found the game to be less than what they’d hoped for, with the game sitting at just 39% positive reviews on Steam at the time of writing. Players largely cite the UI as a major reason for their negative reception, with other reasons including the new approach to civilisations and leaders, the Ages mechanic, limited map sizes, customisation options, and more.

Despite the negativity, there are plenty of hopeful players, even among those who can’t recommend the game right now. Civilization VI also launched in a pretty controversial state, and so we know that Firaxis can make a game better with time. We enjoyed Civilization VII in our review, and a lot of press shared positive opinions on the game. But, Civilization is one of those series where its players are the ones who’ll be staying with the game for years and hundreds if not thousands of hours, so they do have a knowledge that will run very deep.

The developers are already beginning to respond to users as well, and under one review regarding the UI they wrote: “We are aware of and looking into feedback on the game’s UI. We’re continuing to make improvements to Civilization VII, and appreciate you taking the time to drop your feedback and review!”