A NEW SPACE BASED STRATEGY GAME

Galactic Civilizations, a new 4X strategy game developed by Stardock and published by Strategy First has been released. It is a single player turned based strategy game that has many interesting qualities to its credit as well as some flaws. While Galactic Civilizations could have been better, many interesting features make this game worth suggesting.

THE STORY

Humans have finally discovered the means to journey to the stars. Scientists have developed a new and powerful technology, the “hyper-drive” which will allow humans to join the other alien civilizations in interstellar travel. This new technology will revolutionize interstellar travel to an extent never thought possible. Thinking that this will benefit not only the human race but all other alien civilizations that exist in the galaxy this new technology is shared with them as well. While this was very generous it may have proved a fatal mistake in humanity’s race to make their mark in the galaxy. Communications between all civilizations then abruptly stop. Now humans as well as the rest of the five other alien civilizations exploit this new technology to colonize and ultimately control the galaxy. Who will win the battle of supremacy that looms on the horizon, will humans become the victors or will they be defeated by the might of the others?

THE GAMEPLAY

Galactic Civilizations has huge replay value due to the many options that you can use in customizing the game. You can choose what political party you belong to which will award specific bonuses. Choose the war party and each of your ships will receive an extra 50 hit points. Choose the mercantile party and you will receive an additional 20 points in trade and espionage skills. Other parties offer their own unique bonuses and you will have to choose one of them carefully as it will affect certain conditions within the game. You can also choose the size of your galaxy, or how large the playing field will be, from a tiny galaxy that can be completed in an hour or more to a gigantic galaxy that can take weeks or even months to complete. There are five alien civilizations, each with their own agendas and characteristics that you will learn to appreciate.

The five alien civilizations include the Drengin Empire, Altarian Alliance, Arcean Imperium, Torian Confederation and Yor Collective. You can even customize whether the intelligence of these alien civilizations will be that of a fool or whether they have a vast and superior intelligence that will truly test your skills. You can decide their morality and whether they will be a good race or a vile race. I especially liked that players can tailor the difficulty of these opponents because not all players play the same way. This game will bring many options for playing in many different and unique ways. It is these intense details and options that make this such an intriguing game.

You are part of the Terran Alliance, a human with the potential to pave the future as your actions will decide the fate of humanity. So much responsibility rests upon your shoulders that you will have to make wise decisions that will ensure victory. Victory in Galactic Civilizations can occur through military power which involves destroying all of your enemies, or through a political, cultural or technological victory. One of your main goals is to colonize as many worlds as possible. Not all of the worlds you will find will be suitable for colonizing and worlds you will come across will be ranked based on a scale of 20 different classes of planets, with one being the poorest up to 20 being the best. It is advised that you colonize planets, such as yellow stars, that are classified as 15 or higher as only they are suitable planets for colonizing and will yield the best results. You begin the game with a colony ship and a survey vessel.

Your playing field, which is in the vast region of space, is presented adequately, and you will appreciate some of the detail that went into showing the planets, anomalies and other areas that you will encounter. The graphics tend to be simplistic and could have used some improvement but they do the job. The game uses a fog of war to hide much of the playing field and it is only uncovered as you move your ships into new and unexplored territory. Colony and survey vessels are very important. Your colony vessel will help you in colonizing suitable planets. Your survey vessel is the only ship that can explore anomalies on the map. Anomalies are occurrences in space such as worm holes and other strange phenomena that grant additional bonuses when you discover them. Eventually you can also build constructors which have the capability of producing star bases on resources, which can grant you additional abilities. You will need to carefully decide the technologies that are important to your civilization.

Research technologies in defense theory, weapon theory, communication theory, industrial theory, propulsion theory and medical theory. Researching defense theory will allow you to build defenses that strengthen your ships and all planets under your control. Communication theory is also important because it will allow you to research the universal translator that you need to understand other alien species so that you can trade with them. Research into propulsion theory can aid your ships in traveling faster. Weapon theory will allow you to research powerful new weapons and ships. Many other surprises await you within each of these technologies and you will need to know which of them will aid your civilization the most. You may decide that you want to conduct trading with other civilizations. In order to trade within Galactic Civilizations you need to belong to the body of government known as the United Planets which passes laws that all those that belong to it must follow. Combat was also nice to see and it is determined by the statistics of each of the ships in battle, such as attack, hit points, and defense. This and much more await you as you pave the future for the human race in Galactic Civilizations.

STANDING PROUDLY AMONG THEM

Stardock developed an interesting strategy game in Galactic Civilizations. Even more impressive is the support they are offering players through Metaverse, where players can post about their victories and defeats in the game. Stardock has already released a bonus pack that extends the gameplay experience and can be downloaded from the official web site. The artificial intelligence is another area that seems to have been done well and Stardock hopes that in the future they can simulate the AI to play like another human player based on player information posted on Metaverse. That the developers are doing this plus providing excellent support to their customers is to be commended.

A few things in this game could have used vast improvement. There is no excuse for the lack of an in-game tutorial. There is a survival guide of tips available as well as a basic walkthrough in the manual but that can never replace the need for an in-depth in-game tutorial as seen in many of these types of strategy games. The manual is also plagued with typos and mistakes such as mentioning the option of choosing Universalists as a political party in the game when in fact you can’t. The readme included with the game mentions this but even that does not tell you what two political parties were removed.

I also would have appreciated some type of campaign that told the story of the struggle of the human race against the other five civilizations. They had beautiful cutscenes in the game when specific events occurred as well as excellent music that played in the background. I wish that they could have used the talents evident there to create a campaign that many players would have appreciated. I know they omitted a linear campaign in order to provide replayability through random events but I still would have liked a campaign or at least a better way to present the story. While not the best of the 4X space based strategy games out there, Galactic Civilizations still manages to stand proudly among them and will be one game that you will enjoy playing!

Pros

• Many diverse and interesting options for customizing the game
• Huge replay value, as each new game randomizes the world and events
• Impressive artificial intelligence
• Players can adjust the difficulty level of computer opponents
• Beautiful cutscenes as well as impressive music
• The use of Metaverse
• Excellent customer support from Stardock through releasing bonus packs and continued future updates

Cons

• No in-game tutorial and poor documentation
• Simplistic graphics, more variation in graphics would have been appreciated
• No campaign and a storyline that is not as developed as it could have been

Final Grade: 82%

Official Galactic Civilizations website

System Requirements:

• Windows 98/ ME/2000/XP
• PIII 600 MHz Processor or equivalent
• 128 MB of Ram
• Direct X 8.1 Compatible Video Card with 8 MB VRAM