Galactic Civilizations 4 considers itself the most accessible game in the series. This is true, just as the tail is the most accessible part of a tiger. Stardock’s long-running 4X series now officially has a tutorial in the form of a little robot helper, cursed with the nickname ‘Space Clippy’. But Space Clippy does not help much when a game explains everything as if it has come from another dimension.
Need to know
What is it? Colorful, deep space 4X game
Expect to pay: £ 39.99
Developer: Stardock
Publisher: Stardock
Reviewed on: AMD Ryzen 5 3600, Nvidia GeForce 2080 Super, 32 GB RAM,
Multiplayer: Yes
Link: GalCiv4.com
Take modules as an example. What are modules, you ask? Well, I did too. At first I thought modules were optional extras you could choose to tailor your star bases (which act as both resource harvesters and deployable checkpoints, with modules helping to enhance these features in different ways). But then I ran out of modules, on which I realized that they are in fact a consumer resource. But unlike almost every other resource in the game, which is either harvested in space or produced on planets, modules are constructed at shipyards.
Oh, and you can only construct modules once you have researched the relevant technology, another problem I will get into later.
As with many other systems, GalCiv never explains any of this properly. Space Clippy just points you to various menus as a dismissive waiter at a foreign restaurant. The irony is that GalCiv 4 is not as blunt as it seems. It’s just awful to communicate, which means enjoying the game at its best involves a lot of fake starts.
The space … is great
This is not just about understanding individual systems: it is also about how key features are presented. Take the game’s biggest new idea, sectors. Instead of displaying its universe as one large surface of stars, GalCiv divides 4 cosmos into independent bubbles, interconnected by subspace warps. You can play on randomly generated cards with about a dozen of these bubbles, each of which has about 30 stars in it.
This lets Stardock proclaim GalCiv 4 as the greatest game in the series ever. While visually impressive, it’s not that fun to play on this scale. Games of ‘galactic’ size are painfully slow, while ship management becomes extremely cumbersome as you constantly have to zoom in and out to issue orders to individual fleets. GalCiv is more fun on smaller cards. Not only is the game moving faster with empires being forced to rub more, but the strategic importance of sectors is becoming more acute as the spaceways that connect them become motorways that can be monitored (even if they are not complete). blocked) to help defend your empire.
Not that keeping the attackers out will guarantee victory. GalCiv 4 introduces a new victory condition called “Prestige”. This tracks how great your empire is in a wide variety of categories, and gives you Prestige points for reflecting on how good your military or your research or tourism industry is. Get enough prestige points and you win the game. This helps facilitate non-violent victories and prevent larger cards from falling into wars of exhaustion. You can also get Prestige bonuses by completing a series of quests that replace the standard campaign from previous games, and unlock as your civilization meets certain criteria. This lets you experience the “story” of GalCiv 4 without being forced to play as a specific faction.
Deep thoughts
GalCiv 4 just does not have much of a hook compared to other space 4X games
These welcome additions are accompanied by the distinction between colonies and core worlds. Core worlds are planets that are controlled by you directly. You will assign them a governor, build productivity-enhancing buildings on them, and have the opportunity to build a star base nearby. Colonies, on the other hand, require no direct leadership, simply channel their resources to the immediate core world.
The idea is to reduce your management tasks from up to a hundred planets to maybe a dozen or two. And it works – or at least does when you’ve figured out how to effectively distinguish between colonies and core worlds. A colony becomes a core world when you appoint a governor to it, so functionally it is up to you to decide. But only worlds with “Excellent” ratings or above are worth transforming into core worlds. Since the game does not tell you this, it’s easy to rush into colonizing a bunch of barely habitable stalemates, while the AI chops all the good planets from under your nose, snout or trunk.
The “right” way to establish core worlds is slow and involved, and you may find yourself more prone to direct intervention. Conquering other empires is mechanically straightforward: you just click on a fleet or planet to attack it, and then wait until the battle or siege is resolved. But again, GalCiv fails to mention that core worlds can only be conquered after researching a specific technology called Planetary Invasion. Colonies, on the other hand, can be snatched at any time by any ship, even a lone starfighter. This goes too far the other way, with wars falling into glorified pest control unless you ensure that all colonies have a few ships stationed to defend them.
Do not panic
Once you’ve analyzed GalCiv’s distorted attempts to communicate with you, the universe feels sufficiently strange and mature with the possibility of an extensive sci-fi sandbox. Not only in the various races you encounter, ranging from carnal mantis-like creatures that thrive in oceanic worlds, to armies of sentient robots that do not need food to survive, but also in the many anomalies that you can scan for smaller rewards, such as ships you can patch from wreckage, or strange artifacts that give you one-time powers.
As your empire evolves, you will unlock a series of “executive orders”, special edicts that can instantly recruit a new colonial ship, increase your income, or uncover a new system on the map. In a game where progress is very gradual, these quickfire bonuses offer satisfactory immediacy. In one case, I used an artifact to give a colonial ship an extra drag, helping it escape a fleet of pirates and beat a rival vessel to the best planet in the sector.
As the game unfolds, your approaches become more varied. Diplomacy, for example, seems limited at first, and it’s hard to get something resembling a decent deal from other factions. As you gain access to better diplomacy technology, your opportunities to form different relationships and alliances expand significantly. However, there are still problems, e.g. enemies who seek peace during a war while refusing to give you incentives to stop.
Until…
In fact, while most of GalCiv’s “problems” stem from poor onboarding, there are a few other black holes visible in the middle of the background of competence. By far the biggest is research. GalCiv’s technology tree is more of a technological arboretum, so to make decisions easier, the game presents you with several new technologies, cut semi-randomly from the tree, to choose from as your next research project. This works fine until you actively want to pursue a particular technology, such as. The Planetary Invasion system, which I mentioned earlier, which is an important mechanic to leave to the whims of chance.
You can swap technology with other breeds – that’s how I eventually got it – but they must be willing to swap it with you, a situation is by no means guaranteed.
More generally, GalCiv 4 just does not have much of a hook compared to other space 4X games. There’s a little here you have not seen done better in e.g. Stellaris, such as the golden grain of the narrative attached to anomalies. Other new features, such as the Crusader Kings-style relationship you have with governors and citizens, are very simplistic, which basically means a planet can leave you for another faction if you let the governor’s opinion of you fall too low. The ship editor is nice, fits well with GalCiv’s general visual chatter. But it is very much an auxiliary function with little significant impact.
Galactic Civilizations 4 is like an ancient alien race that wakes up to find a bunch of groundbreaking little newcomers who have hit the stage, all buzzing around with their hot new spaceships and innovative ideas. Its response to this is to get big, but it is also broad and conservative. Space Clippy represents a symbolic attempt to make contact, but Galactic Civilizations 4 ultimately does not care if the message is understood.
It has a heritage that spans decades, disciples in the thousands and a formula for space exploration that has worked since time immemorial. It does not require your approval. It’s GalCiv.