Blackbeard (Edward Teach) is one of the new leaders in the game.

Barry Collins/Firaxis

Civilization VII had a bumpy start to life: an unfinished feel, no mod support, mixed reviews. Almost a year on from its February launch, and all the signs are that the game’s gathering momentum.

This week saw the release of update 1.3.1, the latest in a series of significant updates the developers have made to Civilization VII. It also saw the release of the second half of the Tides of Power DLC, a freebie the company has offered as a goodwill gesture to the early players, which includes a couple of new leaders (including ‘Blackbeard’ Edward Teach) and civilizations that has gone down well with Steam players.

The past few months have also seen tons of bug fixes, new map types and gameplay tweaks that make it feel a much more rounded game. Certainly, the Steam player reviews have been more positive in recent weeks. Although only half of the players who’ve ever left a Steam review recorded a positive view of the game, that has increased to 61% for reviews posted in the past 30 days at the time of writing. Not a complete turnaround, then, but signs that things are definitely moving in the right direction, and with some big changes to come.

What’s It Like To Play Civilization VII Now?

I’ve dipped back into Civilization VII this week following the new update, after not playing the game for several months.

Immediately the game feels much smoother, more polished than it did when I last played in early summer. Lots of little presentation issues have been sorted, there are fewer irritating bugs, the UI feels more willing to divulge information that can help you make informed decisions about where to place buildings. Overall, you spend less time diving into sub-menus for information and more time focusing on strategy.

The new additions have added some much-needed variety to the game too. I’m playing as Blackbeard, who has interesting unique abilities to match his pirating background. For example, all naval units can attack ships of non-allied civilizations without declaring war. What’s more, they can plunder gold from these ships and capture them, meaning it’s possible to rapidly expand your fleet without producing units in your own cities or buying them.

It’s actually something of a cheat code with one of the new maps that have been added to the game this week, Shattered Seas. That splits the globe into large islands, with some smaller islands around the edges. With every civilization pretty much forced to build their towns and cities on or near the coast, having the most powerful navy is a huge advantage. Blackbeard is arguably overpowered in this scenario, although much less so in more conventional maps, where he’s more vulnerable to land attack.

Another big change since my last visit in early summer is official mod support. The Steam workshop is now teaming with different mods that add extra (arguably missing) features to the UI, alternative leaders, different maps and more. Alas, one or two of the mods I’ve tried to install have been broken by the recent 1.3.1 update, but that’s often the case with game mods and such issues are normally resolved pretty quickly if the mod developer is still engaged.

More New Civilization VII Features To Come

The major feature that’s still to arrive from Firaxis is the ability to play the entire game as a single civilization. One of the big changes to Civilization VII was splitting the game into three different ages and forcing the player to adopt a new civilization for each. Opinions on this change have been mixed, with some players finding the enforced change jarring, so Firaxis is making it an option to continue with your initial choice, as was the case in Civilization VI.

In the video to accompany the release of update 1.3.1. the developer team acknowledged that the update was smaller than they have been in recent months while they work to implement this feature, so it sounds like we can expect to see it early in the new year.

If you’ve not played Civilization VII since those troubled early months of release, it’s definitely worth giving the game another shot. It’s a shame that the modus operandi for modern gaming means you often have to wait for months or even years for games to reach an optimum state. Note how No Man’s Sky won Best Ongoing Game at The Game Awards this week, ten years after its initial, underwhelming release. Hopefully it won’t take as long for Civilization VII to reach its full potential.