Galactic Civilizations IV
Take command of a civilization that has just achieved faster-than-light travel in Galactic Civilizations IV, the newest entry in the award-winning space 4X strategy game series. Explore the galaxy, colonize worlds, shape cultures, make alliances, fight wars and pioneer new technologies.
Galactic Civilizations IV is a space, grand strategy and simulation game
developed and published by Stardock Entertainment.
Released on October 19th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 12 languages: English, German, French, Russian, Spanish - Spain, Polish, Spanish - Latin America, Portuguese - Brazil, Portuguese - Portugal, Italian, Simplified Chinese and Korean.
It has received 1,587 reviews of which 1,165 were positive and 422 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.1 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 24.49€ on Steam and has a 50% discount.
The Steam community has classified Galactic Civilizations IV into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Galactic Civilizations IV through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Quad-Core Processor (Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 2x00)
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1GB VRAM Video Card
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 22 GB available space
- Sound Card: Any
- Additional Notes: 720p Minimum Screen Resolution Required
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
While interesting, the galaxy being split into multiple sectors separated by a single paths doesn't enhance the game play that much. It seems to slow things down. The most annoying thing about the game is the bright galaxy background, it sometimes makes it hard to see objects in the foreground. It would be nice to be able to build a generic starbase like in galactic civ 3 and then choose what type afterwards. Requiring a mineable object to be in the initial starbase area of effect to create a mining base limits placement. It's unrealistic. Why can't I create a starbase, expand its area of effect through components and then choose the type of base. Finally, I've always been a strong proponent of allowing a starbase to be moved, albeit slowly, possibly with the effect of not giving it's effects that turn. Overall, the game is pretty good.
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For now, I conditionally recommend Galactic Civilizations IV. I enjoy it on a personal note. I've got 70 hours in the game, and it's dead certain I'll have a LOT more to come. IF, you have played previous GC series games and you've reached that point where you wanna move on to the next, then I fully recommend giving GCIV a whirl. It's rapidly becoming a pretty solid game. We're still at the stage where we're finding the odd new bug but honestly nothing game breaking so far. Updates are well organized and the Devs have a solid reputation for producing and supporting their games until the end. So it is absolutely a good investment and I fully expect a cracker of a game by the time it's complete and GCV is on the horizon. IF you haven't played those games though (or if you reallllly love the ship builder from GCIII), then I'd actually recommend starting with any of the previous games in the series (or just sticking with GCIII, GCIV's ship building is more frustrating than anything else right now). For anyone that is new to the series, starting with one of those will give you a better user experience, in my most humble opinion. As a sort of rough guide, if GCIII is a solid 9/10 then GCIV is a 5.5/10, by comparison. There's a whole league of development between them so GCIV does still have a bit of catching up to do in order to surpass GCIII, as far as I am concerned. I will re-review this at around this time in 2025. Edit: While all of the above still holds true to me, I feel that a quiet word of warning to prospective buyers is necessary here: You have been banned from Galactic Civilizations IV Community Hub You have been banned from Galactic Civilizations IV Community Hub by a forum moderator for your post in "Ships missing from shipyards": It kinda sounds like a cloud issue. If you lost internet connection or you've been tinkering with those files then that may explain why designs might be missing in game. The above three lines of text is the message that Galactic Civilizations IV Moderators quoted as ban worthy. Ban Reason: Due to consistent missbehaviour, you are banned for 1 month. Should there be even a tiny misstep, once you are allowed to return, it will end up in a permanent ban. While this ban is active, you will not be able to post or comment in the Galactic Civilizations IV Community Hub or upload new content to this community hub. If you believe this ban was issued by mistake, please contact Steam Support. This ban will expire on 27 Mar @ 2:40pm. Until then, you will not be able to post in Galactic Civilizations IV Community Hub Just wanted to put this here as a warning. This is what micro-censoring looks like. GCIV mods are very egotistical and are more than happy to abuse their power in the forum when they feel like it. Extremely toxic behaviour. Often the first sign of a declining community. Such a shame, since I was so looking forward to it at first.
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Having played over 102 hours in 3 games (including the tutorial), and I still have plenty left to learn (have a spreadsheet with over 40 notes about the game play, and expect to double after a couple more games). First post tutorial game was 35 hours, playing in small galaxy. Took 44 hours to play a game in a medium size galaxy, but the pace was faster because of a better outstanding (6.5 turns per hour vs. 7.9 turns per hour). Pros [*]Extremely addicting. Can put up a lot of resistance to starting or resuming a game, but once I'm playing, cannot stop. (Just one more turn.) Haven't gotten this sucked in since Stars! & Empire Deluxe . [*]Stellar graphics. Have the settings max'ed out, and it's probably the best-looking game on my computer. [*] DW2 killer. After playing GalCiv4 , I've totally lost interest, and won't even consider playing Distant Worlds 2 ; the game play in the later is nowhere near as much fun. [*]Research tree, is very deep. Even after playing over 200 turns in one game, never even saw battle cruisers. The 50% is a good idea, because it presents with more interesting choices. Frequently, the player is presented with multiple options of what to research next. (You mean I cannot research them all, now? Can only pick one?) [*]So many included races to play (23 predefined), all with different attributes. Only played the 2 human civilizations & a moth civilization, and had to adjust my play style between them. Then add what can be done with custom races. [*]Complex game play, but approachable. Read a comment back in September 2023 about it requiring a long-term commitment to wrap your head around it; scarred me away from purchasing it for 4 months. IT'S NOT THAT BAD. Tutorial helps, but expect lots of trial-and-error, as well as having to post questions to this forum. (After playing 2 games, I didn't understand trade routes or tourism.) [*]Both the developers & existing player base are extremely helpful. Having difficulty with some game play concept? Post your question. [*]Breaking the map up into sectors. Having one big blob of a galactic map is realistic, but daunting. [*]Automation of planet management is an option, but haven't used it yet. Cons [*]One tax rate for the entire empire, not a planet-by-planet basis, like DW2. My #1 gripe in the game play. Have a core world with only 47% approval rating? Would love to lower their tax rate only, leave everyone else's where it is. [*]Research Tree: Good, but could be better. Game has only 4 major branches, and the display of the tree doesn't show any cross linking. (Descriptions in DW2 are lacking, but it got this part right.) Summarizing, more branches & add cross dependencies. [*]Allow ship yards to be idle. Sometimes, you would rather save resources. (On the bright side, you tell a shipyard to keep being a particular ship model, until you tell it otherwise.) [*]Some areas where the player is given choices, more info should be provided to help the player make a decision. (Sorry devs, don't have examples.) There are areas when the player is provided the positive & negative consequences of each choice ... but it's not a universal feature. [*]Mangled text in a few locations. Only reported one instance that I saw. (My bad.) But the good news is that the development team is cleaning those up. [*]Tutorial: Missing planet hex types (e.g. Financial, Manufacturing, Housing, etc., etc.), planet hex type leveling up, and Trade Routes. Tutorial shouldn't overwhelm the new player, but at the same time, it should provide the basics to play the game; first 2 are very important mechanics, and I didn't learn about the 2nd one until late in the second game. Who this is NOT for : [*]RTS fanatics. This is turn-based, and demands that all production queues have something in them. Cannot just the game run, and wait for something to happen, as with DW2 . [*]No micro management of fleet battles. Move a fleet (or ship) into an enemy's hex, and watch the battle play out, or skip right to the summary. [*]Complete a game in one evening? Not the game for you. I make it a point to take my sweet little old time on these sorts of game, so the hours played per game at the top of this review are on the high side, but I also kept the # of opponents below what is suggested. [*]Indecisive personality? Besides the management of your empire, you are bombarded with questions that require an executive decision; typically when a survey ship completes its analysis of anomaly. [*]Expecting to learn all of the game play mechanics after playing the tutorial? Forget it! Too much depth, and I expect to be learning new aspects of the game play, even after 250 hours. [*]Are you a pacifist, and disdain conflict? Not for you, though there might be a way. Tried being peaceful in my 2 full games, and even they were dragging on for an eternity, found that I have no choice but purge my neighbors from the galaxy. War: Embrace it, or buy a puzzle instead. This review didn't do the game justice, and the videos, while helpful, don't either. And you DEFINITELY will not get through enough of the tutorial in the 2-hour Steam return window. Still have questions? Post them in the Steam forum, Stardock's GalCiv4 forum, or Discord.
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I don't know why there are so many negative reviews recently, it's rather mysterious to me. Seems pretty simple to me: GC4 is a solid 4X title...a good example of the genre. "Civilization in space" and/or "a turn-based version of Stellaris" are very basic, oversimplified - but fundamentally valid - descriptions. Picked it up recently and have been enjoying it a lot. I suppose one factor might be that I did not play any of the early GalCiv versions...many of the negative reviews seem to be either "they just re-skinned GC3 and charging a lot of money for it", OR "they changed too much from GC3, and not for the better". Aside from the rather amusing inherent contradiction in these two viewpoints, I can't really speak to that aspect. Taken on its own merits, GC4 stand up just fine to me. If one likes the 4X genre, it's hard for me to see how one would not like this particular game, shrug.
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I have played this game quite a bit, and I believe it is by far the best GalCiv iteration. There is a real depth of play, a lot of which I missed early on because I tend to play very fast, and skipping over a lot of improvements that can be done on planets and starbases. Stacking of benefits can greatly affect your performance with both items. Improving influence early, improving citizen abilities, changing policies during war, are things I ignored-which should not be ignored. It is always a good idea to stop every 5 turns or so, and really review what can be improved, what your plan is for each planet, which AI to deal with, etc. This is a turn-based game, learn to take your time. The most fun thing i think is the ability to create your own custom civilizations, and to leave them in new games to play against, and the ability to design your own ships. These help make the game seem 'alive" to me. The downside to custom design is that you have to use the available citizen templates for your own citizens, but the options are pretty broad. I had a very, very hard time getting into ship designs, it is absolutely not intuitive, but if you persevere you will wonder why you ever played without them. I still have trouble in that my designs all show up as very small on the ship screen, and I don't try to use the advanced hardpoint spots. I just load up the basic ship type and drag desired modules into the allowable space. A better system to do upgrades to ships is still badly needed. You can change almost everything in the setup of the game, Speed of play, speed of tech, size of galaxy, number of sectors, number of opponents, difficulty, etc. which makes replayability enormous. You can design new custom species for every new game if you want and even individualize their difficulty level. Perhaps best of all, the developers seem to like and play their own game, put out improvements and patches quickly, and are very responsive to the players. The more I play this game, the more I enjoy it. This is not a simple game to master and I think it is a great one.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 20 December 2024 00:44 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 20 December 2024 02:26 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 12:50 |
| Steam reviews | 23 December 2024 17:56 |
Online players
375
Developer
Stardock Entertainment
Publisher
Stardock Entertainment
Release
19 Oct 2023
Platforms