I had quite a few issues with Civilization VII upon release, but the most pressing was simply the fact that the game wasn't done. Thanks to some internal upheaval and an inflexible release schedule, the Civilization VII we all started playing earlier this month felt more like a playtest than a finished product.
The user interface, for example, had been completely overhauled relatively close to release, and just wasn't ready! And loads of other quality of life features that you expect from Civ, and that have shipped with previous games at launch, were also missing.
To give you an idea of just how incomplete Civilization VII was upon release, take a look at this roadmap for future updates Firaxis released today:
The fact "additional UI updates & polish" is listed four times, one of them simply in the "more to come" timeframe, should give you an idea of how underbaked the game's menus and information screens are at the moment, and how much more time this game needed in the oven before being released.
Other coming additions, like auto-exploring, "quick move functionality" and the ability to rename your cities, are also Civ stalwarts that have featured in previous games at launch, and were extremely notable by their absence in Civ VII.
I want to be clear, like I tried to with my impressions of the game, that a lot of these problems aren't the fault of the team. Games change and evolve and throw out ideas all the time, that's game development. What stings here is that Civ VII was rushed out onto the market before some major changes were actually finished, which for the price 2K were asking--$70 in the US, an incredible AUD$120 here--is some bullshit.
Maybe by April enough of those updates will have been polished to make the game worth a revisit? That said, given how much work lies ahead, those holding out for a drastically-improved experience might be better served waiting for "beyond".
