Ns to get a new map at the higher difficulty levels.A lot or reviews have extolled the AI, but I don't think that is fully justified. The AI has a huge advantage at all levels in that it knows where everything is initially, including player positions, and it can more accurately project ship movements. Taking full advantage of this at the high difficulty levels is so overwhelming that it is almost impossible to win. To avoid routine player wipeouts at lower difficulty levels the AI is simply dumbed down so that it doesn't take full advantage of its knowledge (e.g., at Normal and below it does not always colonize the best system in a sector first).
On the upside, the game reflects good simulation technique. There isn't anything especially innovative in the game system or UI, yet it is insidiously playable. That's because the abstraction of key game elements is remakably consistent, the game elements all have direct and intuitive effects, and they play together in a complimentary fashion.
One indication of this is that at all but the highest difficulty levels one does not have to resort to bizarre configurations (e.g., several turns of all ship building followed by several turns of all research) to win; it is quite possible to leave a reasonable guns-and-butter strategy unchanged for the entire game. Another indication is that it is difficult to point to anything specific that makes the game so playable; the playability stems from the overall synergy of the simulation.
Wretched in every way, regrettable waste of time & money
1
Rating: 1,
Useful: 33 / 44
Date: June 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User
If you see this game laying on the street, in a perfect, factory sealed box, with a yellow post-it note saying "Free game! Take me!" Just walk way. Even the act of bending over and picking up this game will be a waste of time.Perhaps I'm being a little facetious, but I do urge you to read all of the reviews here before considering this game. You'll find that this game's high rating has been artificially inflated by tons of glowing one and two sentence reviews, while the more in-depth reviews tend to give the game only one or two stars.
To put it simply, Galactic Civilizations is not a good game. Out of the box, the game feels much more like some sort of free-download beta than a fully produced and marketed product. The game is amateurish in almost every way and borrows heavily, yet unsuccessfully from previous games such as the Master of Orion series. For instance when you complete research on a new technology you are taken to summary screen with of all things, an animated science robot - a scene lifted directly from MOO.
Being a MOO knock-off would not be a bad thing in the least if Galactic Civilizations were not so seriously flawed in other areas. And flawed it is, in almost every aspect from government, to diplomacy, to ship building and combat - the game plays like nightmare version of MOO where everything looks good on the surface, but is summarily lacking any depth or even basic usability. A simple task like moving a ship from one area to another is needlessly complicated. Research is almost meaningless and offers more of just another pretty button to click than any sort of opportunity for strategy. Colonizing planets is equally maddening, where as the planets are simply reduced to a single number on the screen - higher the number, better. Perhaps most damning of all is the wretched ship combat system - of which there is none. Your ships meander around space, bump into an enemy ship and through tweets of the speaker are either dead or victorious. There is no opportunity to maneuver, upgrade, customize or really do anything with ships other than produce them with one click and watch helplessly as they are annihilated fifty turns later - long after you've already forgotten about them.
After you've taken a look at the option screen and automated the more boring tasks in the game, sit back, relax and get ready to click the TURN button for the next several days. That's all there is to this game... every aspect of it is completely mundane.
A bad game is one thing... and honestly, this wouldn't cause me to be so needlessly negative. After all, just because I've been playing MOO for years now and find myself jaded toward inferior products doesn't mean that some other smuck couldn't enjoy this game, right? Sure... However, a bad game that is also wracked with bugs and frequent crashes can safely be said to be enjoyable by no one using both hemispheres of their brain.
Personally, I'm always skeptical of reviewers who complain about crashes and glitches. I tend to think that ninety-percent of such crashes are due to user error. But trust me on this one - this game crashes through no fault of your own. I'm a former system administrator and I maintain my multiple computers to the highest standards. I am meticulous in keeping my software and drivers updated and using quality hardware. Further, in the past six months I've played perhaps twenty different games, most of which were much more demanding on my system than Galactic Civilizations, and while a few did suffer common glitches and occasional crashes, none came close to the sheer unreliability demonstrated by GC.
So the game crashes every now and then, what game doesn't, you ask. Usually when a game crashes, you just reload and resume from your most recent save. It's not that simple with Galactic Civilizations. The most frequent issue with this game is an abrupt "crash to desktop" failure - in fact, if you search the GC support forums you will find hundreds of posts regarding this issue. Confounding this problem is that your most recent "auto-save" will crash on you as well - making it impossible to resume your game!
Due to this problem, I was unable to complete a singe campaign - despite trying dozens of times over the course of several weeks. The only work around I can see for this problem is manually saving your game every few minutes - an act which further degrades the already low quality of the game play experience.
Often when a game experiences such a common problem the manufacturer will debug the problem and release a patch. Not so with the makers of Galactic Civilizations. Over the course of several emails with their tech support, the only solution presented was to install some spy-ware encumbered software (GC's so called "Stardock") that would some how generate an error log which I would then be required to email to them. This was unacceptable course for me and I gave up. (Indeed, to install and use this second application you have to fill out an invasive form requiring information like your age, address and other info which no one should have to give out in order to fix a broken game.)
If I could get my money back for this game, I would in a heartbeat. However, I wouldn't stop there, if I could also exact some sort of humiliating revenge upon it's creators without running astray of the law I would do that also. This game is just that bad...
Addictive
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 18 / 19
Date: May 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User
Galactic Civilizations is Civilization in space, and just as addicting. Gorget your social relationships, ignore your career, and stop buying new clothes because you aren't going to be leaving the house much after you start playing!Galactic Civilizations is a turned base 4x space game set in the late 22nd century. You command the human race as you begin inching outwards into the galaxy. You are aware that there are many other species out there but you're not sure where they're located. You must develop your societies technology and military muscle, balance your budget, and decide on a foreign policy for your government.
The really great thing about this game is the sheer variety, every game is different. Some have complained that you can't play every species but so far I don't think it's a problem. Each game is different, different map, different quirks, different sizes of galaxy, etc. And you can scale it to whatever you want, want a massive map with hundreds and hundreds of systems? Ok. Want a tiny map with a few systems each? Ok. Want habitable planets (the sites of your future colonies) almost everywhere, extremely rare? Ok. Want to change some of your advantages? Want your society to be really proficient warriors or diplomats or terraformers or just really happy and quiet citizens? Ok. It's all there to customize from the get go. You can also rename the other alien species, adjust their intelligence as well as their general hostility level.
Another cool thing is that these 4x games place a lot of emphasis on warfare. Really the way to win is to simply exterminate your opponents. Galactic Civilizations truly gives you multiple paths to galactic domination. You can win by being a member of the strongest alliance. You can win by dominating economically. You can win by cultural osmosis. Or you can win by vaporizing the fleets of your enemies and sending in the planet breakers. It's your choice. The AI will watch you and will respond to you according to your aims. It has shown itself to be a smart opponent and a shrewd negotiator, even when I have a high diplomatic rating I still can't screw the AI player like can be done in other games.
The AI is also smart in that, if at war and losing badly, it will attempt to cut a deal with you rather than fight to the last starfighter. And the other AI players will remember if you ignored some minor races' pleas and wiped them out anyways. In fact, this is the first game in awhile that I'm willing to say has "AI", the computer makes a good opponent.
Finally, the company is great. The designer is responsive and on the boards a lot, discussing issues. Several patches have come out (although they're more like updates, this game never crashed on my system) and the word is that they're planning a FREE update this summer! I think it's a small company but they obviously enjoy what they're doing and it shows in the product and the way they respond to the customer.
Negatives? I suppose nothing is truly perfect but the only things I ahve trouble with are figuring out the tech tree (and the path to get to some far off tech). However, that's something they apparently working on for their summer expansion so that sounds good to me. Another thing I wish I could do is name my own ships. The first ship you get comes with a name but after that the computer automatically assigns one (ala Frigate 1504). The program lets you rename star systems and even alien races, it should let you rename your ships. It's a minor quibble and doesn't distract from my enjoyment, but it'd be nice to see.
I will mention that there's no multiplayer (and would probably be hard to do with the game structure as it is) and some may be disappointed but I'm not since I don't play multiplayer anyhow.
This is a great game and will likely continue to be so as the company seems more than willing to keep supporting it.
Unbelievable replayability value!
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 17 / 19
Date: April 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User
Galactic Civilizations is one of those rare gems of a game that keeps you playing long after you know you should go to bed. But what really makes it stand out is that each game truly feels like its own epic. In most strategy games, Civ, HOMM, etc. each game feels pretty similar. But in GalCiv, the computer AI, random events, and randomized galactic maps, help give the game a radically different feel each game.The game is turn based and it is designed for single player action. But this is the first strategy game I've played where the computer players really seem to play like real people. If you're looking for a thinking man's strategy game, this is it.
Undocumented and buggy, but still good
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 15 / 16
Date: August 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User
Galactic Civ has a lot of depth--the technology tree is huge. The graphics are decent. The UI is livable if a bit quirky in places. The game has a unique feel to it, because its approach to economics, ship building, etc., are different from other turn-based strategy games that I've played (MOO, Civ2). Some people have complained about this, especially the different approach to ship building (which uses pre-defined ship classes that can't be customized), but there's nothing wrong with it. You just have to be prepared for a new way of doing things.One problem with the game is that it is very poorly documented. You often have to build improvements and ships in order to determine what they really give you. As an example, the first time I built a manufacturing center I was surprised to see my expenses go up by twice the monthly maintenance fee for the center. It took a lot of hunting around on the web and playing with the game before I figured out what was going on.
(Increasing your manufacturing output always costs you money and never makes you any money in GalCiv. This isn't entirely intuitive, but once you know this, you can factor it into your tactics. Don't expect the manual to give you this type of information. It doesn't even define the term "manufacturing" anywhere....)
Also, many aspects of the game work on a delayed reaction time. One example: I had a starbase providing a 65% bonus to the social and military production of planets in that sector. When I destroyed the starbase, it took about 3 game turns for the affected planets to show the change. This delayed reaction can be confusing and misleading, especially when you are trying to figure out what a particular improvement gets you.
This game has other issues, including crashes to desktop and uneven difficulty levels.
However, I am gradually getting to like the game better as I play it more. Although the GalCiv developers obviously don't believe in documentation, they are doing a good job of continuing to support and enhance the game. Overall, I like this game better than I did MOO2.
Chalk one up for the little guy
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 13 / 13
Date: July 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User
With the millennium trailing in our wake, and videogaming now into its fourth decade, the idea of boutique game designers inventing or revolutionizing entire game genres out of their basements seems as quaint and anachronistic as a five-inch floppy drive or a dot-matrix printer. Happily, StarDock has proven that there's still some life in the old David and Goliath story after all.GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS is distinguished by its tenacious, singleminded commitment to the hard-to-define but always- recognizable ideal of pure gameplay; everything in the package, from its streamlined user interface to the attractive-but- Spartan graphics, serves the cause of getting out of the player's way and allowing him to simply *play the game*.
The game's setup is nothing new: you're the leader of united humanity as the species takes its first steps into the stars. Five other major races share the galaxy with you, and you'll compete with them - economically, scientifically, politically, and militarily - with galactic mastery as your ultimate aim. What's revolutionary about GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS is the artificial intelligence system used to govern the computer players; not only is it shrewder than almost any strategy AI I've yet seen (and without cheating or receiving free ships or techs!), it also behaves differently for each race - the militaristic Drengin will act differently from the morally ambiguous Arceans, even if both are pursuing a similar overall strategy.
Speaking of overall strategies, that's another one of GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS' great innovations. There are four overall options: conquer every planet in the galaxy, establish alliances with all the powerful races, market your culture so effectively that every species in the galaxy is wearing your fashions and eating your food, or advance your science to the point that you can transcend reality. And these strategies can be combined in unusual and effective ways. Not only is it possible to win without firing a shot - oftentimes, it's more fun! My favorite game of GalCiv so far found me playing the role of galactic powerbroker - I had numerous lucrative trade links with every civilization (making them unable to attack me without crippling their economies) and I kept my chief rival, the genocidal Drengin, occupied by arming their numerous small enemies with battlecruisers and fusion bombs while my embassies and museums subverted the Drengin's culture from within.
As with all the great games, picking up the basics of GalCiv is simplicity itself but mastery is considerably harder to come by. Luckily, unlike so many modern games with considerably bigger budgets, it never feels like you're fighting the game's interface - everything is streamlined and readily-accessible. The game runs smoothly and bug-free on almost any machine, even without the numerous upgrades available on the website, and it consumes only a tiny 150 MB of your hard drive - almost unbelievable in this day and age. The tradeoff is that the graphics and sound are relatively simple, though not unattractive.
All told, GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS is a more than worthy investment, one that will reward players in spades, especially given the developers' praiseworthy commitment to regularly providing free new upgrades and content for the next year. While its much bigger and more-hyped competitor, MASTER OF ORION 3, has become an infamous debacle, GalCiv has garnered more acclaim and sales than anyone had predicted - proving that the era of plucky developers succeeding purely on talent and luck is not so far behind us as we thought.
Decent game, but cheesy, sloppy feel
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 18 / 22
Date: January 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I like some of the ideas behind this game. The sliders for setting taxation and spending priorities throughout your empire, or good-neutral-evil empire alignments and the decision making to set your empire's alignment, for example.Unfortunately, the good ideas are wasted in a game that feels like it was slapped together by a group of programmers that were working on this during breaks from playing X-Box and drinking beer.
The graphics and sounds are cheesy, but as a 4X player it doesn't detract too much from the game (after all, I'm here for the strategy, not the pretty pictures). What does detract from the game is the crazy tech tree, the spelling errors, the cut scenes that often are simply a waste of time (even as entertainment), and the clumsy interface. The game is just too ugly.
My advice would be to wait until Galactic Civ II comes out to see if they at least spend the couple hours it would need to run the game texts through a spell check. Until then, I'd play SE IV, or even Master of Orion II (with the added bonus that MoO II can be had for $5).
Good, but MoO3 is better
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 15 / 17
Date: August 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User
Both Galactic Civilizations and Master of Orion 3 are turn-based space strategy games involving creating and managing an intergalactic empire -- and they both were released around the same time, so it is fair and appropriate to compare and contrast them. Both titles are good and entertaining, but there are significant differences between them that should determine which one you choose to focus on (if you, like me, have limited time to apply to your gaming "habit" :-)).Generally, MoO3 is more detailed and specific than GalCiv -- that is, in MoO3 one has a greater ability to micromanage and tweak on that level than one does in GalCiv, and some things are simply more detailed to reflect greater realism. The counterpoint to that is that GalCiv is somewhat more accessible initially, in terms of gameplay, and has a less steep learning curve than MoO3. I tend to prefer MoO3, for the specific reasons outlined below -- but that's just my preference. GalCiv is a good title as well, but it just depends on what the gamer prefers. Now on to those specifics ...
1. Planet management. In MoO3, the planets interface allows you to access every planet in a system you are aware of, and get a thumbnail description of it. You can also filter planets so that you can see all of your owned planets on one screen, for example, or all of your enemy's planets on one screen. This really facilitates planet management because you can easily review your planets and access them from one central location, rather than having to access the various systems first, as you have to do in GalCiv.
2. Planet Micromanagement. MoO3 does not force micromanagement, but permits it to the extent you feel the need to do it. This is handy when you have one or two planets that are suffering from local issues like morale or starvation -- in MoO3, you can set tax rates locally on the planet level, rearrange the build screens, replace mining activity with food activity, etc. The planetary viceroys will follow your orders for a time and then return to other priorities, but this is usually enough to solve the problem. In GalCiv, other than controlling what is being built at the planet level, your other tweaking all has to happen on the empire level, which is annoying if you are dealing with local issues on a few planets.
3. Trade. In MoO3, trade is viewed as coming from trade agreements -- you enter into them and trading begins. You do not have to have the state build freighters (realistically, it is considered that these will be built by private resources). This really facilitates this aspect of the economic situation. In GalCiv, you have to research and then build freighters in order to have trade take place. It's nmore statist and cumbersome, from my perspective, while MoO3 is more realistic in this area.
4. Graphics. I personally find the starmap graphics in GalCiv to be somewhat cartoon-like. MoO3 isn't going to win awards for graphics, either, but it seems less cartoonlike to me.
5. GalCiv has other elements. GalCiv has other elements that are not present in MoO3, such as political parties, elections, alignment (good vs. evil), whereas MoO3 plays these down somewhat, or at least doesn't emphasize them to the degree that GalCiv does.
6. Documentation. Both games suffer from documentation that is less than adequate, but GalCiv is really woefully inadequate here. The AI in each game is quite sophisticated and there are complicated elements that are not very obvious -- better documentation would be advised in each case.
7. Customization. If you like the ability to customize a lot of things, GalCiv lets you do that -- you can customize ship names, planet names, race names and abilities and the like. The patch even lets you customize the music. MoO3 is less customizable, although you can create your own races by customizing the racial parameters.
8. Backstory and Replayability. MoO3 has a fascinating backstory that adds to the experience of the game. In addition, with 16 races it's pretty hard to beat in terms of replayability. Like GalCiv, it generates a different universe each game, so each game is different. GalCiv has 5 races, which is far less, and not much of a detailed backstory -- but, again, it depends on your preferences.
These are both great strategy games -- it simply depends on what kind of game you prefer.
Review Page:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Actions