Galactic Civilizations IV

Look at how far we’ve come. That’s a big theme in Galactic Civilizations IV, the latest entry in a strategy series that dares ask the question: what if Civ was set in space? These games have been around for longer than proper graphics. The latest entry is a cutting-edge survey of everything the 4X genre has to offer. But what makes GalCiv4 special isn’t all the exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating. No, what makes Galactic Civilizations IV special is its approach to story.

There are a good number of options for fans of sci-fi 4X strategy these days, with games like Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Endless Space, and Stellaris, just to name a few, but few franchises have a longer and or more successful legacy than Galactic Civilizations. Stardock has been turning out solid GalCiv titles since 2003 (or even longer if you count the original 90s OS/2 versions), although it’s been a while since we got our last new entry. That layoff comes to an end today, as Galactic Civilizations IV is prepped and ready to launch.

Despite having some interesting concepts and refreshing mechanics, Galactic Civilizations IV suffers from an unintuitive UI, lack of tooltip information, and production queue bugs.

A competent universe simulator, although you may need a babelfish in your ear to understand it.

In my earlier Galactic Civilizations IV Review in Progress article, I went over my first impressions of the game, noting a concern that certain elements were making the game feel like a mediocre experience. Unfortunately, now with more playtime under my belt, I can confirm that the game doesn’t hook me with the feeling I want to have when playing a 4x game, that feeling of needing to take just one more turn.