Galactic Civilizations IV

In spite of having been in released for over 5 years (it arrived on steam later than other platforms) this game still never found it's stride and, like it's immediate predecesory, is still more of a sandbox game than a fully fleshed out game in it's genre. Even after a few expansions some game systems feel half baked and playstyles limited. If you just want to design a civilisation and some spaceships and can pick this one up cheap you might enjoy goofing around with it though I wouldn't seriously recommend it to anyone looking for a full 4x / grand strategy space game when better options, such as Endless Space 2 or Stellaris, exist.

This isn't it Game content feels unbalanced, poorly explained, and full of obtuse mechanics I do not see the point of. It's unpolished, incomplete, and already seeing a lineup of dlcs.

Игра максимально замудреная. Куча кривых механик. Выставляешь в настройках - "появление других цивилизаций далеко", раз - а они на соседней с твоей планете. Как по мне далеко - это как минимум.. далеко). Так же нет нормального вики в игре, нет описаний и о многих вещах приходится догадываться. Если в 3 часть я играла много и с удовольствием. то здесь решила вернуть, однако мне отказали из-за того, что я наиграла больше 2х часов, пытаясь все же ощутить вкус игры.

I only play multiplayer, and this game is hamstringed for multiplayer. 3 is a better game. If single player is your jam, skip this review. The multiplayer maps are limited to very small maps (small, medium, binary sectors) in a game whose selling point to me was that there would be huge map with a bunch of sectors to explore and exploit. I figured this would give me a couple battle phases where in 3 I only really got one. Well if you want less than half the map with less opponents maybe that's fine. This patch they fixed some desync issues which is great, maybe in the future they will let you play the whole game in multiplayer instead of what feels like the trial version.

Multiplayer is very broken. Played 5 games, never got to finished even one. Every game would desync after 30-40hrs of play. Worst.

I still think this is the worse of all GC, bad job. You start form an excellent GC3 and build this :( how it can be possible ??? Hope you will do as MS and create a GC5 that will revert my opinion.

I've been playing 4x since the original Sid Meier's Civilization. Played pretty much every one and enjoyed them. I came to this one because I like to play games after their launch and shake down cruise and the Holiday sale. Gal Civ 4 feels like, "What if we did Civ in space? Instead of land to upgrade, you can build starbases between planets." So it's great; it's a highly polished version (4th generation) of Civilization in space. A better tech tree, AI, more customizable units, more strategies, diverse races some with missing mechanics to make their approach divergent, more mechanics to try out and explore ... and on and on. My hold back here is that the game feels like it has stayed the same more than it has evolved. With three decades, I'm hoping for something new. Also, I'm not as young as was several decades ago, so I don't have time to micromanage units and cities/planets. Frankly, it was always a slog with 4x, but with interstellar distances being vast, most of my time is spent planning to move units. And then of course, there is the ship customizer for you to micromanage your fleet designs. And what about setting up starbase array of multiple starbases across your territory and manage their modules so your ships can travel as quickly as possible? It's a lot of micromanaging, and at my point in life, too much. Like the Civ of Yor, I'm 18 hours into a game and the end is not in sight. Games are longer than the counterparts. Another point is that at my age, I don't have the time to play multiple 40 hour play throughs. But hey, maybe you will read this review and say you're a big fan of getting lost in micromanaging an entire galactic civilization. To each his own. UPDATE: I'm sure everyone is looking at this and saying, how can he not recommend it if he's played 77 hours? Well, I've played one game on large map for 50 hours, and I haven't finished the tech tree for the end game. Every turn I have manufacturing to manage for 20 planets and then send the ships it produces into fleets. Grind grind. Own half the galaxy, but still not done.

Ever since Microprose released Masters of Orion, there were only few games making the top of the mountain with GC taking its rightful place among those. GC IV is as good as all the previous versions. Can't complain.