Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Fun for a few hours, but disappointing. I expected more from a turn-based space strategy game in 2003. Not much new here.Among the flaws are no ability to customize the ships, a painful UI, simple combat system, no ability to change the screen resolution, sparse manual, and a few remaining crashing bugs (even with the latest updates). I'd recommend Space Empires IV (a 2-3 year old shareware game) instead. That game has more complexity and depth without the annoyances.
Rating: 
Summary: This one will get you!
Review: This has everything I was looking for in MOO3 (which failed terribly) and more. -That 'one more turn' addictivness is there.
-You feel like you are controling the game, it's not controling you.
-It's a game with good depth and strategy to it, but not over kill to the point of feeling drudgery.
-The AI is good and I have yet to see it make rediculous choices. (For instance: when a rival civ declares war on you, they will feel they are ready for war and have a fleet ready to come after you imediatly.)
-The Sciences work nicely with game play on a couple diffrent levels. You get that sence of "I need that science so that I can ..." and so on and so forth. The need to pick a scientific path and specalize or risk falling behind other civs is also a natural by product of the science system. There is more I could say. I will list my one 'con'. -There are no 'warp lanes' between star systems. The whole map is open on a grid system. Any star can be reached from any other as long as your ships have the range. In past games I have enjoyed the strategy involved in setting up defenses at stratigic star systems. In this game there really aren't any single "stratgic systems" since anyone can get to any star. This has not effected my enjoyment of the game however. Buy this game. It's well put together. It's fun to play. It is supported well by the company. You will love it.
Rating:
Summary: Great game
Review: Well, surprise, surprise: MOO3 was horrible and this game is great. The other reviewers will tell you something about why Galactic Civilization is lots of fun. I would like to add a unique element: the designers care and provide frequent game play enhancements and updates on their website. The game is already very stable and fun, so the updates on the website are not patches for the most part. Instead, they are feature enhancements. This is an unusual element---many other developers publish a game and that's the end, except for one or two patches to fix the biggest bugs. In contrast, Galactic Civilizations is undergoing continuous gameplay improvement with already exceptional AI and features. This game is up there with the Civilization, MOO2 (TWO!!!), and Imperialism.
Rating: 
Summary: Turned based complexity for the strategy gamer
Review: Galactic Civilizations is a turn-based game in which your aim is to dominate a galaxy of planets. You can only play a human, facing against other races of characters of various alignments and with varying cultural missions. Developed by StarDock, Galactic Civilizations is is a planetary take-off on the Civilization genre. The way in which you win is up to you. You can defeat the other planets with your military, or culturally enrich them all, or even unite them together in a worldwide peace. The AI is where this game shines - the computer notices if you are massing your troops in a given area or taking other steps to cause it harm. Your interface also adjusts depending on how you tend to act. If you start slaughtering helpless natives, your interface starts to take on a more dark tone. The game is relatively complex. You have to keep track of your armed forces on the various planets, you have to keep up diplomatic negotiations with your friends and enemies, plus track the economic status of your worlds. Definitely a game that you get sucked into and realize suddenly that it's 3am and it's time to get to sleep ... Graphics are good, and do the job of letting you see where your forces are and how your plans are progressing. This isn't a game of cutting-edge graphics, it's a game of pitting your intelligence against the AI of your many opponents. Balance your taxes with your spending, and move out to influence the rest of the planets. Highly recommended for turn-based gamers who enjoy a game with complexity.
Rating:
Summary: MUCH more playable than that "other" game
Review: Galactic Civilizations absolutely delivers...and more. FUN! I have played the Civ games, Alpha Centauri, the MOO games, and other strategy games dating back to such early dinosaurs as Sword of Aragon. GC delivers a very thorough strategy experience. Mention has been made that GC involves the player in the "feel" of the game. It does so, and very well. The game has made me feel very much a part of an epic story with the ebb and flow of politics, blunders, victories and defeats inherent in any storyline. Here is a comparison to MOO3, which I recently purchased and played for many hours: *MOO3 - flat story and feel. No feel of involvement or depth. The races all hate you.
**GC - Good alien AI, you get a feel sometimes that a real person is playing their side. Some like you, some don't, some even regret being your enemies. *MOO3 - CARPAL CLICK INTENSIVE. My wrist hurt after playing a couple games. For days. If there is ANYTHING that can be clicked, MOO3 will make you click 5 times to accomplish it. Ouch.
**GC - Normal clicking. Some decent keyboard shortcuts. Could have used a couple more, but way better than MOO3. --RESEARCH:
*MOO3 has an extensive tree that is sometimes confusing and uninteresting. Click a category and hope you get something good.
**GC has a large tree that is somewhat limiting. You will likely research everything as the game progresses, but you can leap ahead in areas to gain a particular advantage over other races. Little guessing as to the benefits you get, and a single advance CAN help you turn the tide in a war. --STORY:
*MOO3 had a story?
**GC involves you with hints and tidbits as the game progresses - not rigidly canned like some games (oh, its turn 4 - time for the X-event), but very fluid and varied from game to game. --COMBAT:
*MOO3 shines here for those that like tactical combat. The MOO2 and 3 games disappointed me from the MOO original due to not knowing exactly what ship helped, hurt, or lost/won you the game. MOO3 has a tactical maneuver element despite the other lack of detail.
**GC has simplified combat. You immediately know if your ships suck, and why. There is no tactical maneuver element here; you move your ship into contact and combat is immediately resolved. --GRAPHICS:
*MOO3 has flat, simple, and colorless graphics. Might as well have been a technical manual. Only the alien interaction had any color.
**GC has lively colors everywhere. None are too bright. None are flat. A VERY appealing game to the eye. However, the graphics aren't the BEST or most advanced out there. Has more of a good arcade video-game feel to it. --GAMEPLAY:
*MOO3 seemed to come down to every game being a click war against enemy spies. #&@* spies controlled the game and there was NO way to be "rid" of them, no matter how high you oppressed, no matter how many unassigned counter-operatives you had... whatever you spent years building, you would lose a tenth of everything to a spy with a bomb in one turn. VERY frustrating game. My wife offered to throw it away for me several times.
**GC has been different each time so far. You can win by CULTURE, TECHNOLOGY, ALLIANCE, or CONQUEST. All are possible and likely. GC ALSO adds in an interesting twist to the gameplay. Often you are faced with ethical choices involving benefits and penalties that are often realistic and interesting. Your choices determine whether you are good, evil, or neutral. Research based on your moral standing becomes available too. The game mixes elements of Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and every other famous sci-fi big-screen storyline in a well-balanced offering. My OVERALL review here is 5 stars. It earns it. The producer, Strategy First, is well known for offering improvements and updates to their games. There is already 2 updates out as I write this, and the game has only been out for a week. The game is well-priced and a much better entertainment than MOO3. If I had to break it all down to one small description, GC is smooth, streamlined, and fun.
Rating:
Summary: Solid 4X Conquest Game
Review: I love Civ II. Civ II is the best 4X turn-based strategy game. Many games have emulated Civ II, including, appropriately, Civ III, but to me they just seemed like glossier versions of Civ II. That is, Civ II with more eye candy. A lot of game features, such as trade and city development, became more automated in the later games, but automation takes away any personal attachment to your virtual empire. For me, Gal Civ has brought back a lot of the fun I had playing Civ II. Now, don't get me wrong, the rules are a variation of Civ II, and automation is available if you want it, but the developers have done a nice job keeping you involved with the game. My favorite variation is the inclusion of "star influence," which basically defines the outline of your empire within the galaxy. It is reminiscent of the borders that become automatically defined in Alpha Centauri and Civ III, but in Gal Civ its clear exactly how the borders are defined and how your decisions affect the borders. I suppose the same may be true of Alpha Cen or Civ III, but I never stayed interested in those games long enough to figure it out. The impact of the sector boundaries is felt most strongly when you try to expand your empire. Ships have a limited range outside of your borders (nice idea), and some cannot leave your borders at all! This makes it very difficult to "rush" your AI opponents, and they don't rush you. Instead, you have to build up the influence of the core of your empire, allowing you to send ships farther away as the game gradually progresses. Another bonus: the AI doesn't cheat. It plays by the same rules you do. That means if you take out a planetary improvement, it's gone, and the AI has to live with it. Nice. I've been playing for a couple of weeks now, and I'm still coming across strategic surprises that keep me playing. If 4X turn-based games are your bag, baby, then I recommend Gal Civ wholeheartedly!
Rating: 
Summary: Has potential but serious issues with gameplay
Review: I like the idea of a space civ but no one has really been able to pull it off yet. There are a couple huge, obvious problems with this game. In the name of elimination of micromanagement, they have eliminted control over resources at the planet level. There are two build queues, social and military. You set the % of resources that go to these queues and research at the civ level. So if you have 33% of the resources being spent on social projects (planet improvements), and you don't have anything to build on one planet you throw away a third of the production on that planet. There is no printed tech tree, and you cannot find out what technologies are available or what the requirements are. All you have to go on is the name, tech type (trade, weapons, defense), and the immediate benefits. So there is no way to plan or focus your research unless you've played the game several times and have it memorized. Both of these issues are far worse than any other game of this type I have ever seen. The first civ managed to get these right, but this game doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: Great game!
Review: Hmm where to start, i was very dubious after my Moo3 disapointment. I thought people were latching on to any TBG in hopes of fulfilling the gap Moo3 left. Well it fills that gap.
Ai, The AI is the most sophisticated i have ever seen, i have played 9 games, and managed to scrape 2 wins together, it makes beating CIV3 on deity a piece of cake :) It can spot your tactics, if you start massing ships in a sector near someone you have a bad rep with, they will also begin moving defensive ships to their sector, and make defensive Star bases. If you try for the culture victory, they can regonise this and counter equally well. The AI simply put is the best i have ever seen, add into that the fact once there are more games on the "MetaVerse" the Game will connect tot he site, and automatically update itself! how cool is that! Sound, Well..adequate, i have heard worse and better. It does come with a built in MP3 player though, which is a nifty idea. Graphics, Well they do the job, the cutscenes are good quality, all the screens are high res and great looking. Your UI changes depending on whether you are committing evil acts, or being an angel. It was such a nice suprise as i Enslaved a Pre industrial race, and my UI changed to an evil looking red one. And all the other civs recognised me as an evil leader :) Ships look okay, although i would have liked to see them change as you upgraded them, maybe show shields etc? Gameplay, Well this is where GalCiv shines, its incredibly addictive, it reminds me of the first time i played Civ2, this is going to be staying on my system for years to come. It is simple, yet incredibly deep underneath, its intuative, everything is 2 clicks away at most, its by far the most challenging TBG i have played, it hooks you in to the game..and before you know it, 5 hours have passed. (I should know! i went to work on friday after 2 hours sleep due to this game!) Diplomacy is great, its easy to use, you can trade ANYTHING including your poor peasant folks :D, they declare war intelligently. If for example, you have 5 trade routes with one civ, you can see how much of their Economy is funded by your trade, if its high, IE 20%, they will defend you to the limit, send you ships, as they know they need your economy to keep going :D. On the same note, if they start trading with other Civs, and stopping it with you, you have a good idea they will be attacking you soon :D Overall, im very impressed, you can have quick 2 hour games on the tiny map, and i dont doubt on the gigantic maps they will last weeks. Stardock have Promised that they have a team of people purely working on gal-civ for the next year! they have already patched it, and released a free bonuspack, and in the next year they tell us they will regulary patch, and update the game. Hell they even put in user suggestions in the last bonus pack, and state that they will consider all our suggestions for the next bonus pack!! You only have to look at their forum to realise what a decicated company this is, and they really do want to keep making the game better and better. I can give gal civ nothing else bu 5 stars out of 5. Excellent! Great job StarDock!!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Game
Review: This game is absolutely amazing. It feels like a cross between Master of Orion and Civ. I became addicted the first day I bought it. They got rid of the tactical combat and ship design which plagues most 4X strategy games today. Nothing like tactical combat to turn 10 hours of fun play into 50 hours of boring, tedious battles. I'm glad somebody finally made a game like this. Also, the game offers many paths to victory. I've won games where I haven't been involved in a single battle by concentrating on diplomacy and culture. Other games I've terrorized the galaxy with my elite armadas. There really is just too much to say about the game. Try it!
Rating:
Summary: The true heir to "Master of Orion"
Review: Master of Orion III was a catastrophic disappointment, the sort of failure that can kill a franchise. GalCiv, on the other hand, is the resurrection of a popular OS/2 game (perhaps the only popular OS/2 game?) that succeeds where its more illustrious kin fails. MOO3 offers plenty of depth, but then proceeded to savage game play by allowing the AI to completely master that complexity. In the end, players were left to do little more than hit the "next turn" button. Not so in GalCiv, which offers plenty of player control, yet also includes just enough automation to keep things moving along. Diehard MOO2 fans (are there any MOO3 fans?) will be disappointed that the game doesn't offer the ability to design starships or to efficiently colonize sub-standard worlds (I know I was). But the game's strengths more than make up for these weaknesses. The game's greatesting strength is its AI. It's militarily aggressive, and capable of launching devastating late game attacks that will keep players used to mopping up at that point on their toes. Just as impressive is the fact that if you pay an AI to attack an enemy, it really *will* attack the enemy. It was happy surprise when I paid a race to declare war on an opponent, and then saw their ships flying along side mine on planetary raids. Very cool! Over all, this is a darn good game. Is there room for improvement? Yes. But anyone burned by MOO3 would do well to return that game and pick up this one instead.
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