Recent reviews by Yangzhoui

TLDR - PC update crashed VR versions FPS into the ground.

Have been enjoying the game in VR until the PC update. It has always been a less the optimal experience due to relativly low FPS but since the PC version released the VR version is suffered a 10 fold drop in fps. Use to play at about 50 to 60 which is doable but I am lucky if I get above 8 fps now in VR mode. PC mode works just fine at max with about 120 fps but I bought this for VR.

After looking through everything it could be I highly suspect the issue is ram related. I am no dev so no clue what but my memory clogs and the fps keeps dropping every 30 sec until it just freezes. Have already contacted the devs through Discrod and they say they are working on it but until this is fixed I can not recommend this. The contact with them was mediocre and I do think English ain't their first language as they almost dismised my issue when I explained the fps difference with the pc and vr version as if I fixed my vr fps myself.
If you purely go for PC experience this is still a fine, in development, game. Do not expect a finished product just yet but the game works as intended and mostly without encountering bugs.

Been playing Civ since Civ III and a lover of Civ & Civ likes as wel as the paradox grand strategy games.

TLDR: Civ 7 is a very enjoaby Civ that has undergone some major changes mainly on the following:
- Buildings, districts & tile improvements
- How leaders and civilizations function
- The game now goes through phases of history
- Army experience
Most of the changes feel inspired by other civ likes (think humankind, millenia) and are in my eyes an inprovment on the gameplay. In contrast to previous civ launches (wich needed expensions) the core gameplay feels good. It does however lack severely in options. I can also see where the UI conplaints in these other reviews come from but imo they are over exaggerated.
Don't go in expecting Civ 6 with minor improvments. It feel and is definitely a Civ game but the changes made are significant.

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Now for some more detail. Lets start with the bad.

-UI
The most hate I see in other reviews go to the UI and there are defenitly changes there.
The UI has been designed to accommodate both PC and Console and that shows. It is definitely less intuitive for PC then previous Civs. However it is far from as bad as people make it out to be. It is not Console focused not is it PC focused. They balanced it pretty wel even tho that means that for PC it feels like a step back. Fot instance there are not drop down menu's and most are lined up in a way that console can easily navigate but the buttons are kept at places that are focused on cursor placement.
Personally I think they did a great job with the UI on how they combined it but I think most people who have been playing previous civs will not like it.
There are a few thing that are really bothering tho. The overview tabs are to small for the amount of data displayed at some places as well as the lack of some info at all as for instance a trade overview.

Personnally I also do not like yhe dark tiles for undiscovered land. It makes early game feel very dark compared to the light clouds of previous games.

- Options and controls
To start with the controls. You are unable to deselect a unit easily. Clicking on empty ground does not work nor does escape. You have to click an city or similar to deselect something.
On the same note draging yhe screen to look around while selecting a tile to upgrade will upgrade the point at which you drag your screen resulting in building something you did not want. This combined with the fact that there is no undo button makes it a frustrating experience.

The options are my bigest complain right now. The map types are okay but the lack of customization on world gen is big. Only mapsizes available are tiny, small and standart. Colour of your civ is bound to your leader. No customization for barbarian/citystate (cause that is with the new mechanics a combined thing).
Victory conditions are also not customizable but I have yet to complete a full game and with the age changes I have no clue if it is a real issue that it is absent.
I might still have missed some but the lack of option is very much there.

-Scouts
Plain and simple the auto scout funtion is gone. I don't mind cause I am used to scout by hand through other games but for Civ only fans it is gonna be a big downside.

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Now on to the good.
The game went through some major changes. Most of them feel heavily inspired by othe civ like games but imo they took the enjoyable elements and with that it actually improved the game. I am not covering things that stays mostly or entirely the same but will focus on what is changed.

-The leaders and ages
The most important changes is the seperation fron leaders and civilizations. You now pick a leader with as in privious games bonuses but you pick a starting civilization for the age you start the game at. The game now has three ages and every age you keep your leader but change civilization. The choices posible on entering the next age are depending on your leader and your playstyle/achievements in game. For instance when you manage to get 8 resources on 1 city you unlock the Ming dynasty for the explorations age.
The technology and culture tree's are still very similar to previous games with the biggest difference that every one of the three ages you play have their own tree rather then it being 1 big tree like before.
At the start of the game when you select a leader you can also choose a minor bonus. You start with a small list of bonuses but can unlock a lot more by playing.
I like the system of having distinct ages with vastly different ways of rulling and playing. It feels fitting for a game that goes through many ages and the fact that you are bound to pick an age based on how you played makes it even more in line with an evolving civilization.

-The Buildings, Districts and Tile Improvements
Previous games had builders that worked vastly different depending on which civ game you picked. This games has no basic builders anymore. Instead as a town grows in population you can assign the new pop to a tile (or as a specialist). When done so the tile becomes improved.
Buildings now also need to be assigned to tiles and need to grow from ghe city center essentially growing the city. Two buildings can share 1 tile and many buildings gain bonuses depending on surrounding tiles. You can always buid over an exciting building or an improved tile (resources excluded). When expending the town over an tile improvement gives you back the pop to reassign it to a tile.

Before entering a new age you every player will go into a crisis getting debuffs right before the rnd of the age similar to the choosen policies but then negativs.
When enetering a new age your cities become towns again aside from your capital (which you can relocate at that point). All wars wil stop as well as any trading route or active alliance. City states will disappear and other more advanced city states will appear making a lot of free space on the map. Units will upgrade to corrosponding units of the new age (posible special units tied to your chosen civ) and generals will remain. Its feels like a soft reset and preventing players or cpu's from snowballing too hard. You definitely start the new age better of you played well.

The system is very different from previous civ games and is very enjoyable.

-Towns and City's
Simply put City's are direct controlled and towns are limited controled. Your settlment max includes both and any settler starts a town. Towns can be upgraded to cities with gold. There is a settelemt limit but its a soft limit which you can cross at a cost of happiness.
Happiness now contributes to festivals rather then it being a requirement for the city.
Resources are now distributed by hand to cities and towns and every city and town has a limit on how many it can have at once which can changed/incrased by pretty much everything including buildings, policies, culture, resources themself.

Bulldings can become absolete after an age and those who won't become absolete will state agesless clearly on the building.

-Army
As in previous games units take up 1 tile and civilian untis can share a tile with military units. Military units do not earn exp anymore but instead generals can gather exp. Generals have the abilty to cordinate attacks of units in its command range and can pack up a certainamount of untis to more conveniently move armies arround. when packed they are considerably more vunrable but do not take up tiles. The general himself is a support units making it posible to let him share a tile wil a military unit.
This system gives more convenience and posibilties for tactics. I am a big fan of it.

Scouts have gained the ability to increase their vision range for 1 round and the ability to set up a watchtower to increases its vision by 1 until goven other others. Both are great.

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There are serveral more small changes that I am not going to cover but these are the most important changes made to the core gamplay of the game. May this help you decide!

As a casul to rts type of games the new bifrost update brings a lot of fun. I have always liked rts but it has never been my forte so the pvpve kind of rts was a welcome addition when northgard released. The conquest already gave some co-op but the bifrost gives a real way to co-op with my other non hardcore rts friends. It gives a good challange to us and some clans feel better then others for the mode but patches probably will get balance that a bit better.

People how are really good at rts games will probably have less to get from it and northgard in general but for the casual rts people I highly reccomend the game!

I do think 28 euro is a fair price but if you are unsure I would suggest wait for a sale. The game is pretty often in sale and more often then not with 40% or more. Same goes for the DLC's. I suggest also waiting with buying dlc until you played the base game. The viking bundle scales with what you already have so there is no rush.

Positively surprised by how well balanced and skill based the game is. Was sceptical about the 3v3 way of playing but it adds a lot of skill ceiling to the game which is very important for the long run of a online pvp game.

Not affected by the scum move of sony myself but i do not support this. Willing to change my review if there is gonna be change. Sad cause the game itself is amazing.

Edit 1: Sony has backed down. Lets hope it stays that way cause this game is amazing.

Love it. Currently still very much a skeleton of the final game but in the 20 hours I've played only encountered minor bugs and some missing text. Can't wait to pick this up again after a few updates!

Simple but executed perfectly. As a player who likes to use chaos to hide behind or in the middle of enemy lines even with my block body it is defenitly possible and very satisfying to have enemies practly walking over you in bluk.
If you are like me take a mid range scope, they dont have glint even tho the zoom is far less.

A real battlefield

10/10

Pretty short but fun game. Wish there was a toggle for the futa's tho. No fan of futa's and half the cast are futanari's.
Non the less nice art.

Dont get too competative or you will have a real kitchen who is screaming at each other and the waiters.
10/10 would insult my friends again over taking an order too early.

Combine Elements of classic modern rpgs like ff and dragon quest with elements of pokemon games in a monster hunter setting and the quiality of the monster hunter series and you got a general idea of this amazing game.