Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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Get the complete GalCiv II saga including Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, the expansion pack Dark Avatar, and the newest expansion pack Twilight of the Arnor!

Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition is a 4x, grand strategy and turn-based game developed and published by Stardock Entertainment.
Released on December 02nd 2011 is available in English only on Windows.

It has received 1,633 reviews of which 1,254 were positive and 379 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.4 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 9.75€ on Steam.

The Steam community has classified Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition into these genres:

4X Grand Strategy Turn-Based Turn-Based Strategy 3D Strategy Base-Building Top-Down Sandbox Sci-fi Diplomacy Management Building Moddable Space Artificial Intelligence War Aliens Futuristic Combat

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition through various videos and screenshots.

Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition screenshot

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

Operating system: Windows® XP SP3 / Vista™ SP2 / Windows® 7 / 8.1 / 10
Processor: Intel® Pentium® III 1 GHz (or AMD equivalent)
Memory: 512 MB (1 GB for Windows 7 / Vista)
Hard disk space: 2 GB
Video:64 MB DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card
Sound: DirectX® 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c
Other Requirements: Broadband Internet connection, also to activate this game you must create a Stardock account while launching the game on Steam.

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Feb. 2025

One of the best civ-esque 4X games in a space setting that in some aspects has still not been surpassed in 2025. Pros: + All 12 races have unique tech trees, AI personalities, diplomacy text and more. + Chess-engine type dynamic AI that has not been surpassed in any other 4X game and plays by the same rules as you. + Truly impactful galactic event system that keeps each game fresh. + Lots of different strategies to excel in, from influence, economy, diplomacy to war. + Actually really nice soundtrack for a 4X game. + Ability to create and download custom races and ship styles. (You can totally set up all Star Trek races). + A lot of content after 3 expansions, both in mechanics and in campaigns. + Well balanced and bug free after many years of community patches. + Runs on any computer and looks alright if you max everything out. Cons: - it's a game from 2008, expect some really shitty CGI and a lot of videos and UI elements to look a little low-res on modern resolutions. - No in-game encyclopedia leaves you looking through the included manual, "Community Edition Guide" and old forum threads to figure out the intricacies of gameplay mechanics as the game came out before community game wikis became commonplace. - Default ship designs are lacking, you are forced to use the ship builder to make optimized ship designs, this can be a chore and will lead to ugly designs if you can't bother to take the time to artfully place the modules. - Ship designer does not let you modify the auto-generated designs. - Suffers from the common "Space is empty" curse. No actual terrain, lots of uncolonizable planets and just deep space that is not fun or very distinctive either visually or strategically. - Compared to stuff like Stellaris, planets are mostly samey as well. - Civ4 style stacked combat system that does not really care for positioning outside of starbases. Overall I would recommend it just for the very tight gameplay loop and good AI leading to very interesting gameplay.

Dec. 2024

Good game play, good interface, enjoyable and something you can play over and over with no loss of enjoyment.

May 2024

Great strategy game placed in space. Now that I've played enough I can definitely recommend it to those that like Civilization or Endless style.

April 2024

My favorite grand strategy game of all time. I still play a couple times a year.

April 2024

I have been playing this game for well over a decade! I remember buying the disc version as a kid and falling in love with it! If you like TBS games or even RTS games then GET THIS! Its got so much to do.

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Data sources

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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates

Steam data	09 April 2025 14:04
SteamSpy data	10 April 2025 14:37
Steam price	15 April 2025 12:44
Steam reviews	14 April 2025 07:58

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition
SteamCharts - Analysis of Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition concurrent players on Steam
ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition compatibility

9.75€

7.4

1,254

379

Online players

Developer

Stardock Entertainment

Publisher

Stardock Entertainment

Release 02 Dec 2011

Platforms