There’s
often a fine line between revolution and evolution, and which side is ‘right’
varies dramatically from game to game. Sometimes we want the next best thing.
Sometimes we want a thing we like, simply done better. That’s what GalCiv 3
offers—not so much picking up where the last game off as returning to its
template with a stern expression, some better technology, and a few years of
lessons well learned.
Stardock’s
series is pretty much unique in the 4X genre—a space conquest game that sits
alongside Master of Orion instead of simply in its shadow. It’s not just a game
of rules and strategy, but of quirky charm—witty descriptions to take the harsh
edge off the technologies, an attempt to make the aliens you encounter feel
like they have personalities instead of simply being a rendered face on some
stats, and enough wrapping to feel like there are could actually be
people/aliens somewhere behind your comma-filled population figures.
The
biggest two differences between this version and the last, aside from a
graphical polish, is that GalCiv 3 now supports multiplayer and demands 64-bit.
The former speaks for itself. After years when the characters themselves would
occasionally mock the idea, you can now have multiple players fighting over a
galaxy. The 64-bit side of things is more interesting, though for the future
rather than now. Much like a Civilization game, GalCiv is intended to have a
long life. For the moment, it allows for crazy things like having a map with a
hundred empires on it (though good luck actually doing that, never mind playing
the result). It does however mean that future expansions, and player mods, have
far more room to breathe than they once did, which bodes well. From another
company, it would be hard to take that on the nod. Stardock though has proven
form in this regard, both in improving its good games, and fixing up the
originally dreadful Elemental.
Back into space
Either way though, the core game is
extremely well-made. It’s not simply a question of rules and options but the
general feel that made the series what it is, the biggest being that (with a
combination of tech and wrapping, much like Alpha Centauri) playing against the
AI has the feel of being up against opponents rather than simply algorithms
that happen to have a face on top. Where so many 4X games, particularly space
ones, are almost willfully cold, there’s a warmth to GalCiv that’s key to the
fun of casual to at least mid-tier play.
Like past games, it does have a few
irritations that only really strike mid-way through, such as finding out what’s
actually wrong with a planet that looks like it should be performing far
better, and otherwise tracking down some numbers in a pinch. By the time you’ve
gone from a few systems to a bursting empire, there’s enough of them splashing
around to drown in. Individual sections are very well laid out, with the Tech
Tree especially making it easy to see what leads to what and what the benefits
are, but the lack of a good centralised in-game Civpedia type resource does
make looking things up harder than it should be.
The biggest omission from the last
game—for now—is that political side has been stripped down. No elections, no
governments, no spying. They’re due to return in a later expansion. The sting
of that is helped by a few new arrivals though, such as ideologies. Where past
games had a Good/Evil system, the civilisations this time are judged as
Malevolent, Pragmatic, and Beneficial, with moral decisions providing points in
each that can be cashed in for special perks. These range from basics, like a
free colony ship or a top-quality planet, to galaxy-affecting boosts like any
race who attacks your homeworld being automatically declared war on by everyone
but their outright allies, and every planet or starbase within your Influence
range joining your empire. Nobody ever said you can’t be both Benevolent and
bastardly sneaky at the same time! Other new additions include pirate bases
that become more of a problem the longer they’re left alone, a shift to space
based ship construction, and new environmental dangers to deal with while
exploring the map.
GalCiv
is far more focused on the strategy side of conquest than the tactics of
individual ship encounters. You don’t get any direct control over your ships at
all, though you can watch the very pretty laser-beams and explosions from
assorted cinematic angles if you choose. Instead, ships are given classes based
on their load-out. A basic hull might be a Guardian, but slap life-support on
it and it becomes a Support. Its role determines what it does and who it goes
after in combat. How it actually looks though is almost entirely up to you. The
design panel includes a huge selection of aesthetic items that can be scaled,
moved, stuck onto hardpoints and even given some basic animation, all ‘free’.
Ships can also be shared, with Steam Workshop support coming.
Whether
new to the series or returning though, GalCiv 3 is easily the best recent 4X of
this scale— the whole galaxy as campaign and sandbox. It’s hardly the most
dramatic upgrade a game has ever had, but it’s both a more than solid update in
the here and now and a great base for expansions and mods for the next few
years.
Infinite space, still never enough good worlds
to go round.
Need To
Know
Reviewed
on:
Core i7, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX 970
Play it on: 2.4 Ghz Core i5, 6GB RAM, DirectX 10.1 video card
Price: $50 / £30
Release Date: Out Now
Publisher/Developer: Stardock Entertainment
Multiplayer: Yep, with six-plus players.
Link: Official site
Play it on: 2.4 Ghz Core i5, 6GB RAM, DirectX 10.1 video card
Price: $50 / £30
Release Date: Out Now
Publisher/Developer: Stardock Entertainment
Multiplayer: Yep, with six-plus players.
Link: Official site
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon