History is built in layers. This was the key concept Firaxis kept in mind as it planned Civilization VII, the next entry in its long-running 4X strategy series. Civilizations are not static; they rise and fall, and new cultures take over and build on top of them. With Civ VII, Firaxis is aiming to make its playable journey through history more dynamic than ever, capturing how civilizations themselves change and adapt over time.
One of the keys to this new approach is a trisected campaign, splitting the historical drama into three distinct “Ages:” Antiquity, Exploration, and Modernity. Each of these roughly tracks to moments and advancements that are familiar for longtime Civ fans, but introducing these eras is aimed at providing better pacing and a sense of culmination for each era, as securing objectives will help determine your options as you move from one Age into the next.
“Players love to play the Antiquity phase of Civ VI,” executive producer Dennis Shirk told GameSpot. “They might play until things get a little difficult or crowded, and they’re like, ‘Okay, I’m done. I’m going to start over and play this way.’ There are other players that like to play the whole way through. There are other players that like to try to play the whole way through, but by the time they realize what they want to do or how they want to play or how the world is unfolding, it might be too late for them to grab victory. What [we] wanted to do with the Age system is to break this up into chapters. Not to break up the whole experience in terms of Stone Age to Space Age, but a way for a new player to set their own little milestones. You notice that you get to choose the direction, the flavor, that you want to play.”