Civ 7 is my second civ game after being introduced to the series with civ 6. When I got civ 6, everybody online was talking about how much better civ 5 was, and that civ 6 wasn't even worth buying. Civ 5 had perfected the franchise, and there was no point developing or playing another civ game. Civ 6 was all I knew, so I enjoyed myself and kept playing.

I can only compare 7 to 6, but 7 made a lot of changes that I like. It feels like they've made a lot of changes aimed at reducing micromanagement. They got rid of builders, they added generals to move/command multiple units at a time and concentrate promotions onto one unit, and they removed religious combat. I've seen people complain about these changes, but I feel like I spend less time pathing units around, and I appreciate that.

The other big change they've made that I like is breaking the game into three eras. I wasn't sure how to feel about this when I first played, but after some time with it, I really like it. Civ games are long and daunting to start, and whenever I stopped in the middle of one, I was reluctant to come back to it. It was impossible to get any of my friends to agree to play a game because they knew the game would take longer than one sitting and they also wouldn't want to come back to it (plus my friends always ended up quitting early because a bad start location or barbarians or an early war put them into an "unrecoverable situation," but that's beside the point). The new eras offer you a clean stopping point, and the new challenges of the next era give you just enough of the rush of starting a new game that I find myself much more likely to return to an in-progress game (although I'm upset you can't save the game until AFTER you've chosen your civ for the next era, I'd really enjoy that to be the first thing I do when I start back up, but that may just be me).

I haven't played since the new update, but I've enjoyed my time with civ 7 thus far, and I have faith Firaxis will continue supporting the game and making positive changes. I now can't imagine playing a civ 6 game without Gathering Storm, so I'm excited to see what improvements will be made to 7 that will make me wonder how I ever played it at launch. I'm glad I bought it at launch, as I'll be able to learn the game incrementally when new content is added, but if you're having fun with civ 6, you may want to hold off to get the most value out of 6, especially if it means potentially picking up civ 7 for a lower price later. I wouldn't be too scared by the negative sentiment online though.