Civilization 7's new age system means that you're never out of the running, and creative director Ed Beach says that that means "you have a chance to win the game at any point."
In an interview with the Future Games Show, Beach explained that, thanks to Civilization 7's new Ages system, which splits each campaign into three distinct parts, "you have the chance to win the game at any point. You're never really out of it."
"When you get to a new Age," Beach explains, "you get new strategies, you can pivot and change things up." The main aim behind the, according to narrative designer and historian Rue Taylor, is to allow players to really zero in on a specific period in the history of their chosen faction, but Beach explains that the third and final age also provides a means of keeping the entire game in the balance.
Having outlined Ages during its Civilization 7 developer deep dive at Opening Night Live, Firaxis explained that they'd been introduced to help discourage players from abandoning campaigns because they were too far behind to be in contention in the late-game. That's because, according to Beach, "in the final age, you get a chance for that sudden death victory, to knock out the other players. Even if you were trailing previously, the chance to get that victory at the end is pretty much always there for you."
Beach doesn't expand on what he means by sudden death, unfortunately, but it does sound as though that third and final age - the Modern Age - has the capacity to throw each and every game on its head. If I had to guess, I'd say that you'll want to accrue as much advantage as possible to help cope with some really seismic events, but whatever Firaxis does to try and keep players truly engaged for the long haul sounds like it could be a big change-up for Civilization.
