Summary
When it comes to grand strategy franchises, there are few quite so beloved or renowned asCivilization. Debuting all the way back in 1991,theCivilizationfranchisewas an almost immediate success when it initially launched for the PC, and the franchise has only continued to grow from there, with new entries popping up pretty consistently every few years since. The franchise gained substantial traction with the release ofCivilization 5, remaining a must-have PC game throughout the early 2010s. ThenCivilization 6brought a whole new audience to the franchise thanks to its console ports. Now, the stage has been set perfectly forCivilization 7.
Announced earlier this year,Civilization 7is set to gain even more traction than any entry that’s come before it, with past games laying the foundations gradually seemingly for a moment exactly like this. But whileCivilization 7is very likely to be another big success, it isn’t guaranteed. TheCivilizationformula has been getting increasingly repetitive over the years, and ifCivilization 7follows the mold too closely, then it could be detrimental to the franchise in the long run, which makes a good case forCivilization 7being a complete reboot for the whole series.
It Might Be Time to Reboot the Civilization Franchise
Civilization 6 Was Just More of a Good Thing
TheCivilizationgameplay formulais incredibly addictive and engaging, but it is admittedly largely the same formula that’s been used by the franchise for over three decades now. Though the victory conditions have changed, the unit types have been expanded, the buildings and Wonders have been updated, and the Civilizations themselves have been continuously upgraded and increased over the years, the coreCivilizationgameplay loop has been pretty much the same since the very beginning, with players having to build up their empire from scratch, manage towns, create units, and choose one of the victory conditions to strive for, most of which end in practically the same way in each and every entry.
This coreCivilizationgameplay formula is far from bad, however, and there’s a reason why it’s stuck around unchanged for so long.Civilization 7could easily skate by just delivering more of the same, as it’s exactly what fans have come to expect. But while this would probably still result in some decent sales numbers forCivilization 7, it might not go far enough to convince newer fans tomove over fromCivilization 6. For that, a full franchise reboot might be in order.
Civilization 7 Could Usher in a New Age for the Franchise
For the last few years, reboots have been all the rage in the video game landscape. Whilevideo game rebootshave varied pretty wildly in quality, the best of the best show that they can not only bring in long-time fans of the franchise but also entice newcomers, acting as the perfect starting point.Mortal Kombat 1is probably the most recent example of this, and while it andCivilizationshare very little,Civilization 7could learn a few big things fromMortal Kombat 1.
Rather than restart the franchise from scratch with totally new characters and stories,Mortal Kombat 1instead decided to just restart the universe’s timeline, taking beloved characters and plot beats and turning them on their head to produce intriguing new twists on the franchise’s established lore. In this way,Mortal Kombat 1was able to retain the franchise’s core essence while still giving fans something completely new to experience.Civilization 7could learn from this, taking the core gameplay loop ofCivand twisting it in some unique ways to subvert expectations. ACivilization 7reboot couldpair back the number of playable Civsin the game, but really build on what makes each one special, along with expanding the victory conditions, unit types, and city management features.
