Civilization 7 unit showcase hints at the game ending shortly after World War 2

Firaxis is making something very beautiful

Firaxis / 2K Games / Take-Two Interactive

Everything we’ve seen from Civilization 7 so far points towards this entry into the series being its most beautiful one yet. Its landscapes and cities are visual stunners – and likewise for the units. It’s not just the attention to detail and the elaborate animations that make Civ 7’s units stand out, though: It’s variety. Civilization 6 already made some admirable advancements in this regard on which its successor seems to be building, as a recent developer livestream from PAX Australia has shown.

A total of nine cultural variations for every unit shared between civilizations has been confirmed so far:

• Roman
• Egyptian
• Mediterranean
• European
• Middle Eastern
• African
• Asian
• North American
• South American

As two of the most iconic ancient civilizations in world history (and the Civilization series), Rome and Egypt seem to be getting the VIP treatment in the Antiquity Age with unique aesthetics for all units. The fact that all Asian civilizations seem to be sharing the same models isn’t the optimum, of course – Chinese, Indian, and Khmer swordsmen all looked very different, so there is room for improvement.

These are the confirmed visual styles for the Antiquity Age. / Firaxis / 2K Games / Take-Two Interactive

While most of the details on the models are great and authentic – like the “European” unit wearing pants, which were considered “barbaric” by the Romans and Greeks, or the different sword types on several of the examples – others certainly took some liberty. The Roman unit should not have fur on its helmet, for example, since that’s something only a legion’s standard bearers did in the depicted period, and the “European” unit not wearing a helmet despite the “Mediterranean” unit’s head protection being derived from a Gallic model is a bit silly as well. That may just be the ancient historian in me nitpicking, though.

Another unit-related reveal showed the division of Civilization 7’s Ages into sub-ages. What does that mean? Well, take the Age of Exploration – reading that name certainly evokes more of a connection with early colonizers like Spain and Portugal than the classic medieval civilizations. However, the examples for unit models from each sub-age very clearly shows that we will get our classic medieval experience as part of the Exploration Age.

On the shown image, we can see an early Italic swordsman, a classical Greek hoplite, and then the imperial Roman legionary we’ve already seen above. 

Each of Civ 7's grand Ages will be comprised of technological sub-ages, so you still get a sense of progression in all of them. / Firaxis / 2K Games / Take-Two Interactive

Likewise, the Exploration Age has three distinct phases: We have a Norman foot soldier, then a fully-plated man-at-arms, and finally the first gunpowder unit in the form of an Arquebusier. So, yes, even though the second phase of the game falls under the moniker of Exploration Age, we still get our classic progression from knights to gunpowder. In fact, there is a good chance that this transition will get more attention than previously with the way Civ 7 does its Ages. 

Napoleonic era infantry will kick off the Modern Age, which will then progress into World War 1 and World War 2 style units – and, interestingly, things don’t seem to be getting more modern than WW2. Given that we haven’t seen any screenshots that seem to be set after WW2 in any other video or blog so far, this is another strong indicator towards the game ending at that point – so we may be getting some early Cold War-era stuff and the space race, but probably nothing any more modern.

Finally, the developers showed off the kind of variety we can expect inside units. When you build, say, a men-at-arms unit, you won’t get a company full of the same copy-pasted model, but one consisting of several different model types to add some visual flavor.

These men-at-arms units are functionally the same, but differ visually. / Firaxis / 2K Games / Take-Two Interactive

Civilization 7 will bring back a neat visual feature from Civ 3 and launch with 31 civilizations. Find all confirmed leaders and civs in Civilization 7 in our overview and read our interview with Civ 7’s Dennis Shirk to learn more about the game.