As Civilization 7 languishes with a ‘mixed’ rating on Steam, developers say they’re ‘looking into feedback’ about its wildly unpopular UI

Civilization 7 doesn’t fully launch until next Tuesday, February 11, but it’s playable now for people who sprung for the Founders Edition, and so far the response isn’t what Firaxis or 2K Games had to be hoping for. There’s a range of complaints, as there always is, but most widespread is criticism of the UI, which has grown to the point that developers have now said they’re “looking into” it.

As we noted earlier today, Civ 7 is off to a rocky start, with a “mixed” rating on Steam: Currently, only 44% of the game’s user reviews are positive, a far cry from what you’d expect from one of the most storied and reliable series in videogame history. PC Gamer’s Tyler Wilde warned last week that the game would likely be “contentious” among critics and fans, mainly because of significant changes made to the game’s ages system, which is now essentially a series of “soft resets” between the Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern ages that requires players to choose a new civilization for each new age, and the streamlining of some game systems.

But it’s the interface that seems to be the big sticking point, at least at this early stage of things. There are plenty of complaints in the Steam user reviews but the UI is the most common thread, and even some positive reviews cite the interface as an issue: One positive review calls Civilization 7 “an amazing game,” but warns that the “UI is so bad I can’t sleep anymore.” Another, also positive, describes the UI as “abysmal,” and a third—still a positive verdict overall, remember—calls it “absolute trash.”

It’s not often that you see both positive and negative reviews complaining about the same thing, and it’s reached the point where Firaxis has taken notice. “We are aware of and looking into feedback on the game’s UI,” the studio said in a developer response to at least three Steam user reviews. “We’re continuing to make improvements to Civilization 7, and appreciate you taking the time to drop your feedback.”

It’s a stock response, yes, but at least it’s an acknowledgement of the issue. I’ve never been convinced that knowing is half the battle, but in this case it’s a start. I don’t imagine we’ll see wholesale changes to the UI anytime soon—that’s a much bigger job than, say, tweaking some stats here and there—but Firaxis has made some adjustments already, as part of the 1.01 patch that went live yesterday:

• Updated minimap to show tile ownership by player
• Added new information to the City Details screen that shows where a Town is sending its food and what Town a City is receiving food from
• Added Auto Unit Cycle option to toggle on/off when a Unit has remaining movement
• Added custom Religion naming
• Policy screen now shows how many free slots are available

What more can or will be done remains to be seen, and Firaxis may be holding off until Civilization 7 is in full release before it commits to really ripping the guts out of it. I’ve reached out to 2K to see if anyone wants to say anything more about it now, and will update if I receive a reply.