History is built in layers.
“Players love to play the Antiquity phase of Civ VI,” executive producer Dennis Shirk told GameSpot.
I’m going to start over and play this way.'
There are other players that like to play the whole way through.
What [we] wanted to do with the Age system is to break this up into chapters.
You notice that you get to choose the direction, the flavor, that you want to play."
The Religion path, for example, used to be an outright victory condition itself.
Completing objectives in each Age will grant you a boost going into the next one.
A series of mini-quests will yield rewards as you progress, giving you headwinds going into the next phase.
But crucially, you aren’t locked into just one path.
“It’s a way to play different civs at the height of their power,” Shirk said.
Each culture that erupts is a culture that you’re playing at the height of its power.
“Different ages certainly lean into certain areas.
Exploration is all about exploration.
It’s about crossing oceans.
It’s about making the world bigger,” Shirk said.
Each one has that new civ, each one has new gameplay systems."
That’s not to say that pursuing a cultural victory was a walk in the park.
As I doggedly pursued being the most-influential civilization, the surrounding cultures were a good deal more militaristic.
They earn XP and can level up, which grants them access to more-advanced commands.
Now you have this Commander that stacks up all the promotions and applies them to everybody else.
“That was one of the big drivers too.
“Those past games influence us a lot,” Shirk said.
That’s where [we were] like, ‘No, not this time.
And based on my time, Civilization VII really does demand that fresh-eyed approach.
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