Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition

Quite good actually. After just over 2 hours played, I already got the basics down more or less, so the learning curve is not that tough. Certainly worth it!

Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition, set in the year 2178, casts you as the architect of humanity’s cosmic ambitions, navigating a galaxy teeming with rival alien factions. This fusion of the original game and the Altarian Prophecy expansion weaves intricate strategic tapestries through technological leaps, economic mastery, martial conquest, or diplomatic finesse. Its intelligent AI and endless replay value shine, though the aging visuals and cumbersome interface might jar modern sensibilities. Triumph can be seized through warfare, cultural radiance, or scientific supremacy, ensuring each journey feels distinct. Yet, the absence of dynamic combat and planetary exploration can leave some voyages feeling hollow. Still, its engrossing depth and addictive mechanics cement it as a gem for strategy aficionados.

No tutorial to speak of

One of the best strategy of all time, love it for its simplicity. I played hundreds of hours as a kid and even today.

Not in 2025

This game is an excellent throw back to old school 4x gaming. It runs just fine, if you follow the instructions below. Run Command Prompt as Administrator and then copy/paste this line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Galactic Civilizations I Ultimate Edition\GalCiv\register_dart.exe" Change the path to reflect the location of your install location. This fixed everything and it ran just fine

Once upon a time, in the dark ages of space 4x strategy, after the fall of "Master of Orion III" and the ascendency of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, there were few space 4x games. Galactic Civilization filled a niche for, then, modern systems. It has many of the staples of 4x design: a plethora of strategic choices, political and economic systems, a morality system, and a roster of cool aliens with personas that show in their attitudes and behaviours. For a time GalCiv was seemingly a diamond in the rough. A neat little 4x strategy game from a plucky indie developer, but that was a long time ago... Honestly looking back on it now I don't know why I bothered with this game. It's very clear that the developers have 'cheated' a lot of behavior for the AI to the point that they may as well be playing a completely different game than you. AIs will spread willy-nilly in ways that would absolutely crush your economy, all the meanwhile having high morale, and fielding fleets of dozens and dozens of ships that players would/could not afford. Meanwhile you and your 6-12 planets (depending on the size of the galaxy you're on) are struggling to make ends meet while your colonies are miserable with ~%50 approval. If that's not evidence of absolutely abysmal AI cheating I don't know what is. Now 20-some-odd years later this game doesn't even launch right in fullscreen mode, requires finagling to fix that, and even Lossless Scaling can't fix this game's teeny tiny windowed mode. Just give this game a wide berth.

нет

it is fun

WHAT A FUN EMPIRE-BUILDING SPACE ADVENTURE.