izigame.me

UI is so bad I can't sleep anymore. Mommy, please help me.

Jeez. This is a tough one. I see a lot of negative reviews and to be honest most of them seem really fair in their critique, specially regarding the UI, the exorbitant price and how much of a step back when it comes to QoL this is from precursor games like Civilization 5 and 6. However, ignoring this giant, stinky pink elephant in the room, we can move on into what is a really great game. It is very fun so far.
Also shoutout to the talented compossers Geoff Knorr and Roland Rizz-O.
Just in case, let me be clear on this:
This is an amazing game but not all fans will be pleased with the changes.
The reason for this statement is because the game moves away from long standing formulae that have been around for a while. I'm sure there is a myriad things to consider but the changes that I've noticed the most on my current playthrough and limited playtime are as follows:

There is no workers.
You cannot make use of unworked tile yields, even if these are inside your borders. You need to improve the tile first.Improving tiles will cause culture bombs on tiles adjacent to the one which was just improved. Culture output no longer has an effect on increasing borders.
Game feels much slower, which may or may not be a good thing. A lot of people I know enjoy playing on marathon speed.
Combat is a lot different now that units are no longer promoted. Instead, the Army Commander unit gets all experience and promotions.
Settlements need to be upgraded to cities before you can have more control over their development. Before that, they start off as towns, which can only benefit from gold expenditure.
City States are not permanent. They change after every age, so you have to integrate them into your empire or make the most out of them and their bonuses, which come in several kinds before time runs out. They also don't expand as much as they used to so they very vulnerable.
No barbarians. Barbarian encampments are gone and now the whole mechanic is integrated into the city states, which all start out as hostile. You have to spend influence to ally yourself with them, similar to how barbarian clans mode worked in Civ6.
You can no longer capture settlers or get rid of opponent's civil units like missionaries somehow, which is a bummer. Sometimes you get a ton of missionaries coming to your cities with limited ways to defend your cities from the foreign religions.
AI is actually quite competent!
etc, etc, etc...

Basically, the game just plays a lot more different than Civ 5 and 6 put together. This may be a turn off for a lot of people, specially the fact that now you need to select a Civ Leader on top of the civilization itself, which changes as ages progress through the game. Changes like these are always very polarizing for the community; like the design choices made in Civilization 6 and the introduction of districts. Nevertheless, this is a great opportunity for the series as all these changes are a joy and a breath of fresh air.
What I've enjoyed the most so far is how much more dynamic each age feels. It's less about clicking next turn waiting for the cool stuff to happen or your buildings to finish being done. Instead, you are actively planning, working towards a goal or waging war/defending yourself. I feel much more involved in the game, as odd as it sounds. For example, the addition of influence as a resource you can spend in several actions gives diplomacy a turn for the better because it gives you a lot more flexibility on how you want to play around with your opponents or allies. Combat is a lot more interesting with the changes to terrain elevation and the addition of commanders. Also, speaking of armies, thanks to the addition of ages and how these work there is no longer the issue where you could have an army of swordsmen fighting a tank crew, which was something I absolutely hated on the previous entries before Rise & Fall kind of addressed this in a lowkey manner.
Another aspect I have enjoyed a lot is how the challenges for every age feel quite distinct and rewarding, not only because they push you towards a victory condition but your efforts are rewarded in other ways, like the attribute points you can use to customize your leader. Your Leader keeps on evolving, just like your civilization. It's no longer boring once you are past the age where your Civ unique unit is relevant. No. You are ALWAYS relevant in a direct and fun way.

This isn't to say the game's mechanics don't have any shortcomings.
I'll start off by writing this: There is many QoL aspects that should be added at some point...

No strategic, bird's-eye view map. Very often I find myself scrolling the mouse wheel more, wishing I could zoom out further.
Religion feels quite barebones compared to Civ6. The bonuses you get out of it jsut aren't too amazing.
The most awful of things I've encountered so far is how you will never get a notification when any of your soldiers or units is attacked in the map, lol. You only get a notification when they are dead. Which is hilariously bad.
Getting into the diplomacy screen, specially for city-states/independent people is a chore and sometimes impossible. Good luck locating those independent states on the map.
Which brings me to the next point: The visibility in the game is a mess... It takes so much more effort to get the information you need in the game. Where is this army from? Where are they? Can I talk to them? Etcétera.
The icons of units are incredibly small so you often will see enemy missionaries and other units easily sneaking into your territory because, again, there is no notification whatsoever or visual aid to help you locate the threats.
Quotes are quite bad and not impactful at all... plus volume is low and the same quotes are recycled whenever you research a mastery of a tech... lol. Basically the amazing voice actress for the narrator is wasted potential.
The old diplomacy screens with other leaders have been replaced and while they look better, they are less immersive because the leaders only do body gestures and barely talk at times which is definitely a downgrade compared to previous games...

Despite all this, the game itself is amazing and I'd ask people to give it a chance... when it's ready. Right now it's "okay", but not great at all in it's current state. It has a ton of potential because the inner workings of it are fun and interesting. So much that it could be my new favorite Civilization game (I've been playing since Civ3) but all that potential is buried under a lot of annoyances that are difficult to ignore if anything, because they are constantly shoved into your face.
If you are like me and can tolerate the shortcomings because you find the game as fun as I do, I applaud your bravery and patience (and wallet). If not, it's totally fair and we should hope that these issues are ironed out soon, specially considering the price tag and the fact that we are having a DLC drop in like a month if my memory serves me right.
EDIT:
Another thing to take into account is performance. Most of the time the game runs really well but FPS gets all over the place in certain moments and some menus, which might need some fixing or reviewing. For example, when reviewing the city details for yiels and buildings, FPS drop massively, for some reason, to single digits at times when scrolling the list...

TLDR:
Game is good. Mechanics are fun and definitely a step forward in the right direction. UI needs rework. Need more QoL stuff. Some features are somewhat barebones, but that's just classic Civ at launch. MUSIC IS AMAZING.
I have as much faith in this game as a Lavra district surrounded by mountain. :v
Narrator is cool and all but Civ5 had best narrator and quotes. Fight me.