Galactic Civilizations III

 PC
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 257 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 140 out of 257
  2. Mixed: 69 out of 257
  3. Negative: 48 out of 257

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. DocMoriarty
    Jul 8, 2015
    4
    At a first glance GalCiv3 sounds better than it's predecessor but only on the "paper". Compared to GalCiv2 it's missing a lot of features and tools that make micro management of the systems easier and which are very helpful. It's often really simple things that are missing, such as the list of uninhabited planets or sorted ships by name in the shipyard. Another backdraw is the list ofAt a first glance GalCiv3 sounds better than it's predecessor but only on the "paper". Compared to GalCiv2 it's missing a lot of features and tools that make micro management of the systems easier and which are very helpful. It's often really simple things that are missing, such as the list of uninhabited planets or sorted ships by name in the shipyard. Another backdraw is the list of planets which is a joke compared to GalCiv2. But these shortcomings make it very unpleasant to play longer or with bigger maps, which contradicts the games claim that now even bigger maps are (at least technically) available, because they are practically not playable with the game mechanics at hand.
    If you haven't played GalCiv games at all so far, then i urgently recommend to get GalCiv2 Ultimate and forget about GalCiv3. Probably they are improving GalCiv3 over time, but so far i haven't seen any signs of that happening.
    I played mine for just 2 sessions and never again. Too tedious. Waste of money. When i go back to playing GalCiv i'm certain i'll do a GalCiv2.    … Expand
  2. spambox
    Dec 21, 2015
    4
    -AI seems to cheat badly. I had no 1 military spending economy and research production and AI had always **** load of more ships and technologies even with disabled tech trading. I could not even pay upkeep for 1/4 of his fleet size and I had twice as strong economy.

    -star base defence modules seems to be unbalanced quite lot and its not worth to produce -still quite buggy and game    -AI seems to cheat badly. I had no 1 military spending economy and research production and AI had always **** load of more ships and technologies even with disabled tech trading. I could not even pay upkeep for 1/4 of his fleet size and I had twice as strong economy.

    -star base defence modules seems to be unbalanced quite lot and its not worth to produce

    -still quite buggy and game gets lagy in mid phase since AI produces ships lige crazy idiot seemingly does not need to pay upkeep even for ships.

    -3d reall time battles and ship look designing stuff is pointless fancy waste. It servers no purpose.
    they should at least try to make it like gracious space battles    … Expand
  3. dk3d
    Jul 23, 2015
    3
    Disappointed. Graphics are totally out of date and building up your civ and moving ships becomes a tedious process within a few hours. The sense of being in "Space" is terrible due in part to the choice of colors used in the map/galaxy view and not being able to see the names of your planets or solar system when zoomed even out just a little is really annoying.

    The game interface as far    Disappointed. Graphics are totally out of date and building up your civ and moving ships becomes a tedious process within a few hours. The sense of being in "Space" is terrible due in part to the choice of colors used in the map/galaxy view and not being able to see the names of your planets or solar system when zoomed even out just a little is really annoying.

    The game interface as far as managing planets and whatnot is fine, it all makes sense, easy to deal with, but again, the sense of overseeing a huge chunk of the galaxy is totally not there at all. Battles are tedious, building up fleets is a snoozefest (not to mention moving them painful inch by painful inch).

    Just didn't fill that warm spot in my heart like I remember MOO and others did. If you had told me this was created 10 years ago, I wouldn't have doubted it.

    I've played basically one game, (over approx 12 hours of actual play) and as every goes by, the "one more turn" feeling turns into "What other game should I play." much quicker each time.

    I'll give it one more session perhaps but it's def on my "uninstall" short list as is another game from same company    … Expand
  4. ScienceAdvisor
    Oct 2, 2015
    4
    Just another game that was stripped of elements to package and sell separately as DLC, while trying to convince you that it is an upgrade of the previous installment. The scary thing is they still have a lot to do, and by the time they are done the total cost could be triple at their current prices. I strongly suggest waiting for a complete version in a few years, and do not get scammedJust another game that was stripped of elements to package and sell separately as DLC, while trying to convince you that it is an upgrade of the previous installment. The scary thing is they still have a lot to do, and by the time they are done the total cost could be triple at their current prices. I strongly suggest waiting for a complete version in a few years, and do not get scammed with another DLC-shuffle.

    There is also the issue with the AI cheating to keep up with the player. Stardock claims there is no atrifical bonuses being handed out as many poorly designed 4X games rely on (usually a categorical production bonus as the player gets more powerful). Instead Stardock allows the AI to trade tech for free between themselves, as they did back in Gal Civ 2. Which is why when tech brokering was turned off in #2 the AI was such a cakewalk. Any player would jump at the chance to get free tech, especially since some of those give gloabal bonuses (e.g. +1 Speed to all ships). So not only do they get bonuses, but they are far more excessive than mere production (they get those too). This is to cover-up the continuing lack of actual intelligence in their system.    … Expand
  5. Stewart97
    Jun 4, 2015
    4
    The Good:
    >Bigger Map more Stars.
    >Larger Galaxies which actually look like they could be a whole galaxy. >Great ship designer. >Multiplayer is finally a thing now. (Simultaneous turns as well) >Hexes instead of squares. >Maps have more features >Shipyards build ships instead of planets The Neutral >Fewer things to do make the game less of a micromanagement hassle. But also    The Good:
    >Bigger Map more Stars.
    >Larger Galaxies which actually look like they could be a whole galaxy.
    >Great ship designer.
    >Multiplayer is finally a thing now. (Simultaneous turns as well)
    >Hexes instead of squares.
    >Maps have more features
    >Shipyards build ships instead of planets

    The Neutral
    >Fewer things to do make the game less of a micromanagement hassle. But also takes away some of the fun.
    >Graphics are improved but largely due to resolution. Only the ship editor will WOW you
    >Economy sliders have been replaced by an Economy wheel, which provides more control however the overall effect of finances or money on an empire is substantially diluted.

    The Bad
    >Fleet AI is dumber than a box of rocks. They make piecemeal attacks, they don't have to scout to find planets or other races, they just know they are there.
    >Empire AI is downright bad, they build but they build in non-nonsensical ways which limit the threat they will post to players even on the highest difficulty.
    >Lots of cool stuff from Gal Civ 2 Expansions, GONE.
    >Diplomatic design is really bad, limiting you to things the AI can do but you cant, once you trade with them you have a lockout which prevents you from doing anything with the other AIs except declare war, even with allies for up to 20 turns. Oh yeah and they pester the hell out of you for money and send you short messages which are annoying and repetitive. In short the AI = Half baked.
    >Largest Maps even on recommended systems lag between turns, stutter, and don't run the game well. How many gigs of ram do you need to run those? Even systems with 8GB,16GB, of RAM are being reported as struggling.
    >No Manual. Tutorial crashes sometimes.
    >Lacking polish.
    >Space combat while looking better, if you can get the camera to follow the ships, is completely hands off, so it is boring.
    >Franchise has seen better days unfortunately.
    >Gal Civ 3 vs Gal Civ 2, Feels much less polished, with much less to do, the stuff there is to do is repetitive and boring, not as satisfying. or complex as Gal Civ 2.
    >Some penalties are way out of balance which ruin the game.
    >AI plays essentially the same irregardless of which race.
    >While the game ships with a custom race creator, and supports up toe 128 opponents which was trumpeted as a major features, creating a custom race is an involved process that takes a significant amount of time. (No random auto-custom race creator, exists only 8 are supplied with the game)

    Overall it feels like the game was simply rushed to ship and will get extensive patching. Where have we heard that before? If Gal Civ 3 follows the same development as Gal Civ 2 gamers will probably see loads of additional development leading up to another rushed out expansion which will be patched liberally as well.    … Expand
  6. linax3
    Jun 19, 2015
    3
    what's most important in a game. the gameplay. what gameplay does galciv3 have. next turn next turn next turn next turn next turn....eventually it might end. I cant bother to check it myself. there is nothing that gives any reason to play this game. everything is predetermined, linear and every choice you make does not matter.
    you can build star bases for various purposes. the only reason    what's most important in a game. the gameplay. what gameplay does galciv3 have. next turn next turn next turn next turn next turn....eventually it might end. I cant bother to check it myself. there is nothing that gives any reason to play this game. everything is predetermined, linear and every choice you make does not matter.
    you can build star bases for various purposes. the only reason to build them will be gain of "strategic" resources (which are so useless) and influence space.
    you can build and design various ships which do not really differ one from the other. make fleets of this ships to gain strength. and you can use various 3D parts to assemble custom designed models for the ships. also design custom functional parts for the ships.
    you can colonize planets which extends you empire power. if you don't do it you will lose the game one way or another.
    you can manage distribution of empire resources over 3 axis (wealth, production, research) and production is further divided on 2 axis for ship and planet infrastructure.
    research tree is linear with 4 categories. some stages of the tree allow for a choice, 1 of 3, other 2 are lost.
    there is a 3 way ideology system that gives various bonuses. progresses really slow. you can progress in all 3 ideologies. a choice is made at every planet colonization.
    like I said above everything is pretty linear. you can have a bit different gameplay if you choose a different(or custom) race. but not much different really.
    well there are a few more gameplay elements but I say this again every one of this element is not making you think about it, take a hard decision or turn a different path.

    graphics. there are a few nice things about graphics, but they are not really in the game. you have to take a looking glass to see them(metaphor). but when you see them they are nice. through most of the game I was looking at symbolized 2D space map standing still in space. then there are more 2D images with more 2D images. some parts of the game are in 3D but like I said you really need to look for them to see them.

    sound. similar to the graphics sound is virtually non existent apart form the bad music which I turned off right away. sound effects in game are really basic and non appealing where they are present.

    artificial intelligence, if it can be called like that, seem to be ok. it seem capable to follow a simple linear game as galciv3.

    now to the technical part... game as of version 1.3 is full of bugs. my PC (Q9400, GTX480, 4GB RAM, Win8.1x64, HDD). game have only a few basic options to tweak it. on the default (which is custom?!) game stutters constantly, uses 10+GB page file, all my video RAM(1500MB), RAM is used almost all. CPU/GPU are not maxed out but high. Task switching takes about a minute(not entirely game fault, OS contributes). loading the game takes a lot of time. all that resource to look at a few 2D pixels. loading savegame takes even more time. although saving takes about a second, one thing done right!. primary problem is memory utilization. there is an enabled by default option in game that collects data. feels like the game is still in an early development phase.

    this is a third installment of the game which does not bring anything new. even dumbs down some parts.
    and the price is too high for this whole lot of nothing. my opinion... do not waste you time with this game. reading all of my review is more than enough. if you still think to give it a chance try before you buy. and if you like the game for some odd reason, have fun.    … Expand
  7. StrategyAddict
    Jul 1, 2015
    3
    Honestly, this game fails in every domain:
    1. space battles are fully automatic and also suffering from incredible bad camera control, like you wouldn't believe.
    2. AI is yet to be found. Very passive to say the least. 3. Economics are very simple and easly to maintain, which is a good thing, since the lacking statistical informations you get are making it hard rather the fun to make    Honestly, this game fails in every domain:
    1. space battles are fully automatic and also suffering from incredible bad camera control, like you wouldn't believe.
    2. AI is yet to be found. Very passive to say the least.
    3. Economics are very simple and easly to maintain, which is a good thing, since the lacking statistical informations you get are making it hard rather the fun to make informed decitions.
    4. Research is rather dull. New technologies mostly offer numeric improvements and add nothing to the way you play the game. Detailed descriptions of things you research are mostly abscent and images of new things to build as well.
    5. What might be seen as an upside is the ship editor where you can design your own ships. However it was buggy in my game, discarding the beautiful design I made. And also most of the design is purely cosmetical and even though the ships look nice in close view, they really move very ungracefull during automated space combat.
    6. Planets, even though generated, all seem to look the same and require zero consideration in terms of indiviual build strategies. Also, they are filled up with buildings rather quickly, so that you can not place things you newly research, what further nullifies the effects of research.

    Because it at least has a campain, which is seldom for this kind of game and because it is an overall nice try, I'm giving out generous 3 points.However, I do not get how this game ever ended up over 70 on metacritic.

    Better alternatives include: StarDrive 2, Endless Space and still sins of a solar empire. I'd even recommend Distant Worlds and Planetary Annihilation over this. Or, if you haven't played it back in the days: Star Wars Empire at War.    … Expand
  8. THRASHMASTER87
    Oct 1, 2015
    1
    The only positive thing in the game is the ship editor...too bad that you are forced to see your beautiful creation spinning with no sense or logic during the space battles...
  9. weishui
    May 28, 2015
    4
    Sadly my first review here is for such a lousy game. Honestly, very disappointing that I have to register an account and write this review. I am a dedicated fan of strategy/space games (civilization, sins of a solar empire, Europa IV, etc.) , and I feel this game plain awful. This is the developer of beautiful , I just cannot believe it.

    --I can barely zoom in/out cos it takes    Sadly my first review here is for such a lousy game. Honestly, very disappointing that I have to register an account and write this review. I am a dedicated fan of strategy/space games (civilization, sins of a solar empire, Europa IV, etc.) , and I feel this game plain awful. This is the developer of beautiful , I just cannot believe it.

    --I can barely zoom in/out cos it takes 5~25(honestly) seconds when it switches between icons/real 3D models. It really can drive a man crazy. My computer runs well with all other similar games (homeland, SoaSE, civilization).
    --Have anyone notice the map scroll speed feels awkward? it moves much faster when zoomed in, and slow like hell when zoomed out. I never saw any other game use such design. Very inconvenient and it makes the game amateur.
    -The battle scenes not so good, ships rotate and turn slowly and strangely, audio and video out of sync many times(beams without sound and sound without missiles). It's like a awful children TV play of the 60s.
    --A custom faction is fun. But to be honest, not much for a gamer to design.
    --Customize your our ships? Man that's unique and awesome! But hey, don't forget you can barely zoom in to see your beautiful customized battleship. And hey, the battle scenes look dumb. Such a great feature wasted. Could be the only great part of the game.
    --AI, easy AI is rich but almost never build ships. Hard AI cheats but still dumb.
    --No strategies needed. no balance of economy, diplomacy, technology and military. It's like a ugly copycat of civilization. but still, they are there and you have to click on them.    … Expand
  10. Imod85
    Sep 5, 2015
    1
    It's just GalCiv 2 with better graphics (but still bad compared to other 4x-games), but less features than the original. Also there are no improvements to AI, UI, Menue, etc. It feels still outdated, the menues could've made a bit more clear and shiny. of course, hardcore-fans would say it is nostalgic, I say it's just old and dusty. Overall there is nothing new, it feels like no effortIt's just GalCiv 2 with better graphics (but still bad compared to other 4x-games), but less features than the original. Also there are no improvements to AI, UI, Menue, etc. It feels still outdated, the menues could've made a bit more clear and shiny. of course, hardcore-fans would say it is nostalgic, I say it's just old and dusty. Overall there is nothing new, it feels like no effort was put in the game, just copying an already existing game. Then there are still many bugs and the camera in battles is a joke. If you have GalCiv 2, you don't need this game. And if you don't have GalCiv2, then buy GalCiv2. It's way cheaper and has more content than this "new" game.… Expand
  11. cassius769
    Aug 9, 2015
    3
    No different from GalCiv 2. Slightly better graphics. So much heavier on the system. When you play on a massive scale it takes sometimes minutes for the computer to finish its turn. No innovation whatsoever. I mean GalCiv2 is already very good - what they could do is to add depth to it. I dont know perhaps ability to have something to say during battles. Minor options like stance or whatNo different from GalCiv 2. Slightly better graphics. So much heavier on the system. When you play on a massive scale it takes sometimes minutes for the computer to finish its turn. No innovation whatsoever. I mean GalCiv2 is already very good - what they could do is to add depth to it. I dont know perhaps ability to have something to say during battles. Minor options like stance or what kind of formation.… Expand
  12. Mikimax
    May 19, 2015
    4
    It's the same old game with nearly no innovation. New engine, new emmmm, i really can't find anything.
    Game feels like GC2, plays like it, music and sounds are the same, same factions, etc.
    Not to mention that the engine is not optimized, it slows down on zoom in zoom out on the main map and the game uses nearly 5+GB Ram and all 4 CPU cores. And even then the game looks like crap. Oh    It's the same old game with nearly no innovation. New engine, new emmmm, i really can't find anything.
    Game feels like GC2, plays like it, music and sounds are the same, same factions, etc.
    Not to mention that the engine is not optimized, it slows down on zoom in zoom out on the main map and the game uses nearly 5+GB Ram and all 4 CPU cores. And even then the game looks like crap.
    Oh and space battles, simply - same old crap.
    I feel sorry for people who bought this game. I certainly will not.    … Expand
  13. blazer666_uk
    May 30, 2015
    4
    Game is ok but that's all , AI is predictable and seems repetitive, I have played 2 games now and they both end up the same way me vs 1 CPU at the end. YAWN Cant see how this gets such good reviews. Ive been playing strategy games since Ultima IV (way back in the 80's) .
  14. blackbird1
    Jun 16, 2015
    1
    stardock needs to start make fully scaleable ui in all resolution or im done with stardock games

    but anyway this game is not bad but also not great its just another mediocre x4 game

    but i would give 6 or 7 points instead of one if i could read everyhting....
  15. Ogbek
    Sep 27, 2015
    0
    Doesn't support steamos despite being a recent game. That alone means I won't buy it.

    It's basically just a retread of Galciv II with better graphics -- no bad thing, but certainly not compelling enough to buy a game that won't play on a steam machine.
  16. santiagopm88
    Jul 12, 2015
    1
    God awful. Such a disappointment.

    The campaign has 3 (!) scenarios, I was done with them in no time. The story was barely getting started when it ended abruptly. The AI was atrocious, it did not capture a single one of my worlds, mount a coherent offensive (it didn't even try). On top of that the interface is missing really obvious features common to all such games (can't see a list of    God awful. Such a disappointment.

    The campaign has 3 (!) scenarios, I was done with them in no time. The story was barely getting started when it ended abruptly. The AI was atrocious, it did not capture a single one of my worlds, mount a coherent offensive (it didn't even try). On top of that the interface is missing really obvious features common to all such games (can't see a list of fleets, only individual ships? Can't quick save?) and is extremely buggy. Do yourself a favor, hold unto your good memories of this franchise and skip this instalment    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

53
#53 Best PC Game of 2015
51
#51 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
80
#80 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
  1. GamesBeat
    Apr 29, 2016
    87
    Galactic Civilizations III is a great 4X space strategy game, one that will keep you pushing for one more turn late into the night. If you’re looking for a terrific multiplayer experience, GalCiv III won’t scratch that itch, and some parts of its core pacing stumble. But the combination of depth, ease of gameplay, and a sometimes-funny, snarky aesthetic, make GalCiv III a delight to play.
    Read full review
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 3, 2016
    80
    Galactic Civilizations 3 is too much work and too little game. [Jan 2016]
  3. Games.cz
    Oct 12, 2015
    80
    The universe of Galactic Civilizations III is so great - gigantic environment, generous editor and ever-improving game balance is hopefully a good apology to fans disappointed that new installment doesn’t change anything.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »