Sid Meier's Civilization VII is out now with Linux support and Steam Deck Verified

Firaxis Games / 2K have today fully launched Sid Meier's Civilization VII, along with full Native Linux support and it's Steam Deck Verified.

It's really great to see continued Linux support here. Previous versions of the game were external ports by Aspyr Media, that often ended up quite outdated with broken cross-play for Linux but this time around it appears Firaxis did it directly.

Since I personally purchased it to play and cover it here, you'll have to keep in mind I've had basically no time with it so far, as 2K did not reply to my email about a key. At least on a very cursory look the Linux version appears to run quite nicely, coming in with Vulkan as the default rendering API. The game does have Denuvo Anti-tamper on Windows, but as far as I'm aware as usual that does not apply to the Linux version.

Civilization VII on Linux, Max Settings

There's been a lot of complaints about the game as a whole, with it only just hitting above 50% positive user reviews on Steam to a Mixed overall score. Lots of complaints about the UI, to bigger issues with gameplay changes, so it's clear Firaxis have work to do, and it's coming in hot with patches already out during the previous Advanced Access period.

In a way, I get the complaints, it feels less personal than older Civilization games with the changes to progression. When you go through Ages, you pick an entirely new Civilization, which then changes how you'll continue to progress through it. However, it also makes it feel quite fresh compared with previous iterations. I'm already not a fan of some of the forced diplomacy choices though, as you have to respond in some situations and depending on how much Influence you have accumulated you may be locked into a specific choice you really don't want to do.

At least in terms of performance, so far I can't see any issue with the Linux version, it's incredibly smooth on my system (Ryzen 5800X, Radeon RX 6800 XT, Kubuntu 24.10). The game is absolutely gorgeous too, it really does look incredible. Performance, naturally, does degrade as the game goes on though. But on max settings it's looking really good.

Firaxis did already give a small roadmap of what they're doing about all the feedback as a reminder:

Prioritizing UI Improvements: Our top priority is improving the UI. We need some time to digest all of your feedback, but some areas that we're already looking into include making UI interactions more intuitive, improving map readability, fixing areas of polish like formatting, and more. We're committed to getting this right, and will share more details as soon as we can.

Implementing Community-Requested Features: Several key features that we've seen you ask for will be included in upcoming patches as free updates, and we'll continue to work with the community to improve and add to the game. We're still working on exact timing, but can share the following items are being prioritized:

• Adding Teams to multiplayer games so you can play cooperatively
• Allowing full player counts in multiplayer in all three Ages through refinements to our Distant Lands system.
• Allowing you to pick your starting and ending Age to allow for single or double Age games
• Providing a wider variety of map types
• Enabling city and religion names to be customized
• Adding in hotseat multiplayer

Rolling Out Quality-of-Life Updates in Patch 1.1.0 (Deploying in March): Work is already well underway on Patch 1.1.0, which includes fixes and adjustments that were already on our radar. This list includes quality-of-life UI adjustments, ongoing AI balance and improvement, adjustments to diplomacy and crises, plus additional bug fixes.

Given that it's Steam Deck Verified, I was definitely curious to see for myself what the experience was like there too. Testing on an LCD 512GB Steam Deck and it actually surprisingly does feel really good there. Although, it took an age to reserve the space before even downloading it.

Pictured - Civilization VII on Steam Deck, Medium Settings, Zoomed Out

The save system is not using the Steam Cloud though. If you want saves across devices, you have to login to the 2K account system (which worked fine), and then specifically save it in the cross play menu. Once you've sorted your 2K account, loading a game on Steam Deck from another device is not an issue at all.

Thankfully, the game does include some text scaling and it all looks pretty good, nice and readable. Nice to see Firaxis remember that not everyone has perfect vision and play on a huge monitor. There's even a "viewing experience" setting to change it between handheld, TV and desktop.

As for performance on Steam Deck: on the Medium preset at least in the early game, it's holding 60FPS when moving around the map when zoomed out. But when you zoom right in, the performance is all over the place when scrolling. Changing down to Low didn't help, so you probably want to just lock it to 30FPS to make it smoother overall. Plus, it looks absolutely fine on Low on Steam Deck.

Pictured - Civilization VII on Steam Deck, Low Settings, Zoomed In

I also found an odd controller bug here, as I was completely unable to change the graphics preset on Steam Deck while in a game. The drop-down doesn't correctly grab controller input and even touchscreen was no help. It worked from the main menu though. Other than that, they've done some great work to make it accessible on the controls overall.

Nice to see Sid Meier's Civilization VII running very nicely on Linux Desktop / Steam Deck at release.