Galactic Civilizations IV

Games in near unplayable on a large map. Why? There is no way to find the currently selected ship. 1 minute of each turn is just trying to find the current ship on the map. All they needed was a red flashing circle, or clicking on the ship would take you to the ship, but no...... Hotkey C, should in theory center the map, but it doesn't work either. I found people complaining about this a year ago. It didn't get fixed. I played 1 game, but it too painful to have a second one. There are also a whole bunch of other minor bugs, but nothing game breaking. It's a shame to have it ruined by something this simple, as they seem to have put a lot of effort into the game otherwise.

I've owned GalCiv 3, but never gotten truly warm with the franchise. But GalCiv 4 showed up in a sale, so I figured why not give it another try. Literally turn 1 into the tutorial, the game made me throw my hands in the air at somehow being a modern hex-tiled, turn-based 4X, but also not having units display movements paths as you're setting up a move order. This is fundamental basics that Civ3, almost two decades ago, already had down, and a feature that, no joke, EVERY SINGLE GAME (of similar genre) had. Because it's just that fundamental to being able to plan out your unit movement across the map. Pet peeve, surely, but there's such as a thing as absolutely faceplanting first impressions. But, alright, playing on, meeting a potentially hostile new faction, usual 4X stuff. Get an event, chose to piss off the AI player for internal culture gains. 1 turn later, I'm contacted by the AI player. Oh, instant declaration of war? No, actually. They offered me their full treasury, open bord...

AI Garbage.

The PowerPoint presentation of 4X space games Pros, Cons, and review. Pros: - huge waste of time, you can play 100s of hours on drafty brain mode without getting ahead. Cons: - sloppy UI and AI design on the level of an undergrad student doing a JAVAscript model of viral proliferation - no intelligence, purely a war of attrition simulation - results in delusional, simplistic AI behaviors that expect you to respond on the same trash-level performance - deliberate waste of time. game stacking obstacles for no other purpose than giving you "clean-up" chores. - conculsion: this game treats you as an equal. A brainless parasitic entity without standards or a concept of dignity or self-awareness, and it gets upset if you don't comply with its expectations. Review: If GalCiv 1, 2, 3, and 4 have proven anything, it is that the corporate Zeitgeist seems to be that you can do anything to pull money out of people's wallets with the least effort and they will take it up the...

just boring research build explore destroy blah

Unimpressive all around plus it kept running in the background after I closed it, eating like 6% of my PC resources. Refunded.

This game is extremely bland, even mediocre in its design. I’m not sure I’ll put more hours into it, as my playtime is valuable. Perhaps a major overhaul through modding the data could improve it, though. That said, if you’re looking for a simple, no-brainer push-piece kind of game, very conventional, it might be fine for some light, undemanding sessions. But expect, regardless of the race you choose, to deal with the same very standard and predictable tech tree (for example, weapons: you get 3 types, and each tech just upgrades one type by one level up to about level 12—nothing more, nothing less, zero originality or variety. And there are plenty of examples like that, really the whole game is designed this way). The 3D graphics are good; the 2D ones, not so much (everything looks the same, and you could swap the starport icon with the clinic one—if you’ve never played the game, I challenge you to identify any recognizable elements!). The design, as I said, is mediocre a...

Great improvement on GC3, enjoyable if not as complex as I'd like

Fun expansive game play . 1 Negative is he forced peace it sometimes puts on you.

I am very torn about this game. I want to love it. I really do. I have played Gal civ 2 and 3. Pros: Solid game, I like a ton of the features in it, the detail is great and the ability to customize is great! Even now I am about to spool this game up and play it in passing while I work! Cons: I hate that the AI decides to end my wars because they are going "poorly". Poorly as in I have pushed back the AI invaders and they are not winning any ground, but my "advisors" say that I am loosing and give the enemy a credit stipend from me?! WHY DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?! If I could mod that out I would frankly! I have noticed this has a ton of AI in it, which I am not that upset about in itself, I do wish the AI voice prompter would have different flavors so its not just sound like a human robot when you are playing the DRENGIN Empire. LASTLY the biggest critique by far. I think Stardock needs to add spice to this game. What I mean spice is excitement. This game can be VERY slow, ...