GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS 4 REVIEW
Galactic Civilizations IV Overview
Calling Galactic Civilizations 4 the most accessible game in the series would be like calling the tail the most accessible part of a tiger. Stardock’s long-running 4X series has a tutorial, now with the (irritatingly) named ‘Space Clippy.’ It isn’t much help, however, as the game is easy to grasp as if it came from another dimension.
An example is the use of modules. What are modules, you ask? At first, I didn’t realize that modules were optional extras, but as I played more, I came to realize that they are actually consumable resources. Unlike the other in-game resources, which are either harvested in space or manufactured on a planet, modules are produced at shipyards.
Oh, and you can only create modules once you research the relevant technology, another thing I’ll cover later.
Space is Big
In addition to exploring each system individually, it is also important to examine how key features are presented. Take the game’s biggest new idea, sectors. Rather than one expansive landscape of stars, GalCiv 4 splits the universe into self-contained bubbles, connected to one another by subspace warps (aka space roads). If you like to randomly generate maps, there are about a dozen in which you can capture roughly 30 stars.
Stardock proclaims GalCiv 4 the largest game in the series, and the visual grandeur can be thrilling. Yet when playing at such a grand scale, not everything is fun. The Galactic-sized games in GalCiv are annoyingly slow while ship management is tediously meticulous as you constantly have to zoom in and out to give orders to individual fleets. GalCiv is more fun on smaller maps. This makes the empires move faster as they rub shoulders with one another more, as well as turning sectors into strategically important areas that you can monitor to a certain extent in order to defend your empire.
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Deep Thoughts
In addition to those welcome additions, players will also get the distinction between colonies and core worlds. Core worlds are planets managed by the player directly. You’ll assign a governor to them, construct productivity-boosting buildings on them, and you’ll have the option to build a starbase nearby. Colonies, on the other hand, require no direct management, they’re just making contributions to the nearest core world.
The goal is to reduce your management duties from as many as a hundred planets to as few as two or three. And it does, as long as you’ve figured out how to effectively differentiate between colonies and core worlds. Your colony only becomes a core world when you appoint a governor, so it’s your choice how it turns out. Core worlds need to be of Excellent rating or above. In a sense, because the game does not tell you this, it is very easy to rush into the colonisation of unhabitable places without a notice, while the AI takes all the good planets from under your nose, or snout, or proboscis.
If you are looking for a simpler way to establish core worlds than what is outlined in this book, direct intervention might be a way to do it. This sort of conquests can be quick and painless, depending on your preferred style of play. you simply click on a fleet or planet to attack it, then wait until the battle or siege is resolved. There is just one thing to know, however: core worlds can only be conquered after you research Planetary Invasion. Colonies, on the other hand, can be overtaken at any time with any ship, even a lone starfighter. On the other hand, if we go too far, wars can be little more than glorified pest control if colonies don’t have ships stationed to defend them.
Don’t panic
Once you figure out how to speak to GalCiv, the universe feels exceedingly strange and the possibilities for exploration seem increasingly inviting. The alien races you come across, like the skinless mantis-like creatures who thrive on aquatic worlds or armies of sentient robots who can subsist without eating, provide variety. But, of course, the odd anomalies you can scan for one-time bonuses, like different pieces of salvage, or alien artifacts that grant you a temporary power.
Eventually, when your empire grows, you will be able to order executive orders, which is like a quick fix that can instantly recruit a new colony ship, or raise your income, and so on. With how slowly progression in this game goes, these executive orders provide the right kind of immediacy to suit a sluggish game. Once, I utilized an artifact to give a colony ship an extra move, enabling it to evade a fleet of pirates and beat out the rival vessel for the best planet in the sector. Initially, your options for maneuvering are limited, so it is difficult to get anything you could call a decent deal from other factions. As the game progresses, your avenues of approach become more varied, for example, diplomacy initially seems limited, and it is difficult to get anything that is comparable to a decent deal from other factions. As your access to diplomacy tech improves, your diplomatic options will grow. There are drawbacks too. Foes may offer to make peace in war time but only if you stop developing certain technology.