Galactic Civilitations III is a 4X type game developed by the Stardock studio. If you are new to 4X type games, it means eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. It could also be categorized into real-time turn-based strategy.
After a beautiful cutscene, the game menu appears, the most classic both in terms of choice and form. I'm starting a new game ...
So I can choose from 8 civilizations, each with different traits and skills.
Then comes the customization of the game. This concerns the size of the galaxy and related options such as the quantity of habitable planets and resources ... Then I choose the conditions of victories, the choice of the parameters of the game, the presence of pirates , galactic events and, finally, opponents and their difficulty levels.
To continue to present the game to you, I switch to Campaign mode. There, the objectives are clearly defined.
I opt for the earthlings and a message arrives asking me to make a choice among the proposed answers.
These will only influence your ideological affiliation. There are three of them (Benevolent, Pragmatic and Malevolent) and allow you to unlock various bonuses and improvements, buildings, ships ...
Hardly arrived when there are enemies ready to do battle. So I send my fleet to compete with them. Regarding the fights, there are two modes, one fast and one of visualization. The view mode is not "useful" but fun.
In the fast mode, you can enjoy rather successful graphic effects.
Now that I have got rid of this fleet and the enemies on the planet, I will be able to proceed with new constructions.
The constructions will improve production, research, income and the well-being of my people. New buildings will be available later depending on my choices in research. The places where I can install buildings are limited so, over time, I should not hesitate to replace them as needed. Likewise, some squares have bonuses, just like putting buildings with the same function next to each other increases their performance.
When colonizing a planet, whether by force or by a colonizing ship, there are always several choices that are possible and offer various bonuses.
In addition to planetary colonies, it is possible to make space bases, it will be necessary to build the adequate vessel and direct it to the desired location. Once there, it must be deployed and, unlike the previous opus, we can assign several functions to it. It will be enough for that to create the same type of vessel and to send it above then to choose a function. Among these functions, we have the choice between mining, mining barracks, the Xeno-Archeology laboratory, a defense system ... The space base has an operating area which is well defined when we move the vessel.
It is not always easy to conquer the planets. This kind of exercise will require skilled vessels, otherwise expect to use up a lot of your fellow citizens to achieve it.
To end this overview, the last aspect of the game concerns the design of ships. It is quite possible to design your own ships.
Galactic Civilizations 3 is one of the best 4Xs around, although the diplomatic aspect has been "forgotten", this one has one of the best AI in this type of game. It also has a lot of animated scenes and of possibilities to admire our fights. Even if it is not possible to act other than on the camera, it is still pleasant (at least for a while). On the content side, beyond what the game itself offers, the Steam WorkShop should make a lot of contributions.
To conclude, do you like 4Xs, with a strategy focus, with a lot of customizable ships? This game is made for you !
The game is available for 45.99 € on Steam or for much less on other sites ...
To conclude, the official trailer:
As well as a kinematics:
