Rating: 
Summary: Only 5 other major races???
Review: I'm sure this is a great science fiction strategy game from reading the reviews but for a game to be right up there in terms of popularity it has to have more adversaries. I have played MOO2 and really liked it. In MOO2 you got to compete up to 7 other alien races. In GC you only get to deal with 5 other alien races. I hope someone from the SF team reads this and puts in at least 10 other major races in the sequel. More aliens to compete against, the more fun the game will be.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but MoO3 is better
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Did they forget to put the fun in?
Review: This game seems like a near-clone of Alpha Centauri, but set in a galaxy instead of on a planet. The basic structure of the game is virtually identical, but the major difference is the lack of fun. There is no sense of humor and no cool videos. And the competing races are not at all memorable. Without these elements of entertainment I very quickly felt like I was just reverse engineering a computer program. Also there are holes in the playability of the game. Several times I got stuck in a state where I had no resources to do anything and I just sat there turn after turn with nothing happening, waiting to be overwhelmed by other teams. It was not at all clear what I had done wrong. Good concept and technically sophisticated. Just not fun.
Rating:
Summary: Undocumented and buggy, but still good
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: classic 4X game from small programming group
Review: This is a 4X game in the classic sense. You explore a two dimensional space, exploit population resources and build up a tech tree, expand to as much space as you can, and exterminate the competition. :-) The game has a strong online following, and the game is modular, with the configuration files in plain text. This means you can add on things like ships, random events, tech tree, etc -- and the online community has done exactly that. The game was built by a small shop (four guys) who are very much old-world gamers. The game is not especially creative in terms of UI or goals. (I wish people would stop making space games that are not three dimensional!) What is clever is that the AI's are reasonably smart, and have four different personalities. Red always tries to conquer the world by force. Blue is tech-heavy, and tries to ally with green. Yellow tries to out-expand everyone. The AI appears to play fairly, other than the fact that it knows the locations of everything in the map (its explained that they are older civs, and explored the universe with radio telescopes). If you enjoy 4X games, then this is a must have for your collection. Lots of replayability, and a very smart game.
Rating:
Summary: This One's a Keeper!
Review: This game is everything a turn-based space strategy game should be -- complex, but not overly so like MOO3; detailed; epic in scale; user-friendly interface; varied in victory styles; and fun, fun, fun. The game is as difficult as you want it to be -- warning, if you set it at higher difficulty levels, you will get rolled up and smoked rather quickly, probably, because the AI in this game is very, very smart. Each alien race has its own AI profile and they each act differently. Your alliances with them depend on your own choices of whether to act in a good way or an evil way -- an aspect which adds another dimension to the game. Politics also works interestingly in the game, with empires jockeying for influence in the United Planets council, but also with intra-empire politics, elections and so forth which can have an impact on stability, economic productivity and the like. The game is very complex, but the user interface is so intuitive that it makes it relatively easy to manage the complexity. If you like turn-based space strategy games, this is the best one to arrive in a while. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Everything Master of Orion III should have been..and wasn't
Review: Ok, I admit to a certain fascination with strategic space combat games. Two of my favorites continue to be Master of Orion, and its sequel. Master of Orion III (recently released) however was a real disaster.. formula over substance, a bizarre mix of uncontrolled AI and tedious micromanagement, and no replay value. Galactic Civilizations is, somehow, an exact opposite of Master Orion III despite stemming from the same basic concept. Here's a quick run-down of the best parts of this game (although there are many more). I will likely lapse into a comparison with Master of Orion III as a good example of every point this game made the right decision, but Galactic Civilizations is equally accessible to even the most casual strategic gamer. 1) Ease of play. I cannot stress this enough. I took the game out of the box for the first time, installed it, started it up, and away I went. Some of the nuances may require the manual, but everything is logically laid out and you can navigate throughout any sub menus with a simple point and click. This is the exact opposite of Master of Orion III, which delights in instantly generating a baffling maze of overlapping and arcane sub-windows.
2) Dynamic galaxies. Not only are the galaxies as generated filled with all the necessary different planets and weird space phenomena, many of those phenomena will keep appearing throughout the game. Your survey ships (used to explore weird asteroids, wormholes, and other space debris for potentially beneficial discoveries) are in constant motion. Even sectors in the center of your galaxy can suddenly sprout temporal anomalies, derelict spacecraft, and other goodies.
3) Morality counter. Throughout the course of the game you are greeted with various Emperor-level decisions you have to make. Each typically has three 'answers'..one "good," one "neutral," and one "evil". For example, your scientists may have suddenly realized a way to re-animate the dead, giving you potential access to billions of zombies. You can decide to 1) purge all knowledge, which is 'good' but costs you 500 credits, 2) store the knowledge and never use it (neutral), or 3) Let the brain-eatings commence (evil, but your soldiers get 30% stronger).
4) Turn-based. Take your time, no need to worry that the 10 minutes you spent pondering which incredibly cool research option to choose (see #5) puts you behind the eight ball.
5) Wild technology trees. Not only are the technology research trees vast, they react to your in-game decisions and morality counter. Evil empires get the option to research evil things, and so on for good ones. Unlike many strategy games where any variation in the tech trees comes from randomness, much of this one comes from you. Show a predisposition to loving evil mind control powers? Time to dig up some more. Can't get enough of pretty terraforming techs that spruce up (ahem) your planets? Dig in.
6) Smart, well-played enemies. Your computer opponents (both Major races, your primary challengers, and minor races, France-like civilizations of one or two stars that often appear later in the game) behave intelligently, and don't cheat. They won't go to war with you the turn after signing an alliance, nor randomly try to invade your most powerful planet with a single scout ship every single turn for 20 years. You can even vary the difficulty setting of _individual_ civilizations, not the game itself. So you can play against two races at "moron" intelligence, one at "normal" intelligence, and another at "genius" level all at the same time. Heck, even their racial descriptions change depending on how smart they are. Nor do they cheat at higher difficulties by getting free techs, money etc..they really are just a lot smarter in what they do.
7) Engrossing political systems. I never thought I would ever say that about a strategy game. In the Civilization games, for example, you can choose between various governments as you learn them, typically upgrading each time, or using one type for war. While in Galactic Civilizations you can also research new government types, you also have to choose a political party to be affiliated with. Each party (military, pacifist, technologist etc) gives you various racial bonuses in addition to those you apportion when you start the game. Moreover, every few years there is a short internal election (unlike those tedious voting conferences in MOOII and III) where, if you lose control of your senate, you lose some bonuses until the next election. There's also a galactic council to play around with.
8) Pre-built ships, and free-range space stations. At first, I thought not being able to design my own ships would suck. It doesn't. In fact, it's oddly liberating..as you learn new techs, you get better ships by default, speeding up the whole process (also see the morality effects on technology trees above). Also, you can use special ships to build space stations anywhere. Those stations, as you upgrade them, give bonuses in the sector they're in for everything from trade to diplomacy to battles. Layer them for even more fun. Anyway, check this game out. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: This game is a steal at any price.
Review: I have more money than time these days so I tend to purchase games with good reviews and then determine whether they live up to the hype. GalCiv delivers. It is challenging (actually, quite challenging) and great fun. In addition, the support that this product receives from Stardock, its creator, is unparalleled. I purchased this game shortly after its release and have already upgraded it by downloading the changes Stardock has designed. This fall, Stardock is promising further upgrades to owners at no cost (essentially a free expansion pack). This is a great game to own from a great company. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Chalk one up for the little guy
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Not really much pleasure in playing this game
Review: From the reviews I ahve read of this game it seems they are seeing a different game from what I have played. I would have thought a possiblity of a "cultural" victory was possible. In the 6 games i have found only one thing happens. You are suddenly attacked with more ships than it seems possible to have been built in the time you had played (especially considering the amount of research that should have been necessary). Even if i set the bonuses of my civilization to max research I still find the other civilizations coming up with attack ships before I have even began research on them and by the time i can build much beyond defenders there is a fleet of invading ships numbering more than twice their known planets. I am disappointed in this game enough to go back to playing civilization and wish i had saved my money.
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