Would happily buy this to have on iPad but don’t want to pay $7 every single month for an Apple Arcade. Was happy to try it for a couple months (one month was free) but will now cancel my subscription until the game is released standalone. Otherwise, very solid port, though 1) we need unit deselection (as someone else mentioned) and 2) the tech/civic trees need to be readable without a multi-second tap to pop open each node.

EDIT: They added multiplayer! My first match I played as Confucius against someone from China playing as Ben Franklin. Very cool! Huge shoutout to the developers and teams releasing this. Let’s start off by saying this is a deep game, so it might not be for everyone. I’ve played titles like this before and it still took me a while to get used to all the mechanics of this game. If you put in the time and learn it there is a beautiful complexity and balance of skill and chaos to a standard play-through You can also tweak the settings to be a sandbox, or more brutal. A flaw I found is that the controls can be downright frustrating at times, and in larger games that fact coupled with the scale can feel almost overwhelming (in particular, moving planes from a base onto a carrier can often require you to click again more precisely for no good reason, and a few other minor gripes maybe). That being said, the overall polish and depth here as a free offering for Apple Arcade subscribers rivals some of the best strategy games of all time. Graphics 5/5 Sound 5/5 Controls 3/5 Gameplay 5/5 Overall 7/7 (+2 adjacency bonus from history nerd)

First praise: The art, graphics, sound, and animation of this are expertly crafted. Now the real review: They made so many steps backward from Civilization VI. the forced civilization switch between eras is still one of the most baffling design choices. It breaks the sense of continuity and makes early decisions feel disposable, unlike in Civi VI where your civ defined your entire run. The game also increases micromanagement in routine city tasks while offering weaker automation, so you spend more time clicking through low impact decisions. At the same time, core systems like diplomacy and long term planning feel simplified, with fewer meaningful tradeoffs. The result is a frustrating mix of more busywork and less strategic depth.This would have been an amazing “remake” skin for Civ VI. In fact, a Civ V or Civ VI remake with Civ VII graphics and some stability and performance tweaks would be worth full price.

The game itself is so good! This is my favorite civ rev yet because there are real tradeoffs for making decisions! The only thing that needs work in my opinion is the UI because it just feels slower than past games. It feels like the game doesn’t respond as quickly in comparison to other civ games.