User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 257 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 48 out of 257

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  1. May 18, 2015
    5
    Its a good game, but a little boring and I believe that this is due to "easy mode" economics. One of the biggest challenges in galciv2 was to balance production, economy, research and approval. Well in galciv3 economy is stupid easy to maintain. Its trivial to maintain positive income even with no economic improvements on planets. Further, production seems to the king of all resources inIts a good game, but a little boring and I believe that this is due to "easy mode" economics. One of the biggest challenges in galciv2 was to balance production, economy, research and approval. Well in galciv3 economy is stupid easy to maintain. Its trivial to maintain positive income even with no economic improvements on planets. Further, production seems to the king of all resources in this game as you can convert production to other types resources (like money or research as you could in Galciv2) but you can increase production much more easily than the other two and you can set up production based planets almost 3-4 times as fast. Since there are so many ways to amplify production, you can easily have a planet with 2x-3x as much production than any other possible resource with their bonus buildings. As a result, my main production center almost always acts as my best research planets (same for money but I never need money in this game)... very disappointing when you consider how much longer it takes to build research planets, one would think there should be a reward for it but nope, you are better off making all production and converting to research.

    My only other gripe is the AI. It seems to me that the AI cheats in higher difficulties rather than playing by the rules. I am not sure if Galciv2 was that way but I dont like that because it cheapens a win and a loss does not really feel like a loss since I know the AI is cheating.

    Overall a good game despite the above gripes. Much of the old game is in Galciv3 but I really did not think that any of the new additions made the game any better. I think Galciv2 is a better game.
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  2. Nov 11, 2015
    6
    Rather than building on GC2, it seems to be rather bereft of features by comparison. The campaign was pitifully short and very disappointing.

    The large maps and resource systems have great POTENTIAL, but that's all it is at the moment. With the AI the way it is, I can't really recommend this game at the moment. Just play Galciv2.
  3. Nov 8, 2015
    5
    Great strategy games are a series of interesting decisions.

    GC3 lacks that flow of interesting decisions to be a great strategy game. Everything else is there. You have all the typical types of decisions (exploration, colonization, research, production) and even some unusual ones (ship design) and it's all executed at a high quality level. But strategy games are about the
    Great strategy games are a series of interesting decisions.

    GC3 lacks that flow of interesting decisions to be a great strategy game.

    Everything else is there. You have all the typical types of decisions (exploration, colonization, research, production) and even some unusual ones (ship design) and it's all executed at a high quality level.

    But strategy games are about the strategy, and GC3 just falls flat in that regard.
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  4. Aug 27, 2017
    6
    The game delivers everything it promised. The only objection I have with this game is that it can get a little boring as time progresses. Although I am not much of a civilization strategic type of gamer, I have played other games like Civilization Revolution, Tropico, and Age Of Empires and I found those to be more interesting then Gciv3. I did appreciate the high end graphics and I taughtThe game delivers everything it promised. The only objection I have with this game is that it can get a little boring as time progresses. Although I am not much of a civilization strategic type of gamer, I have played other games like Civilization Revolution, Tropico, and Age Of Empires and I found those to be more interesting then Gciv3. I did appreciate the high end graphics and I taught the mechanics were just fine. I also felt that the enemies were either too easy to defeat or to hard to oppose.
    Good Luck and Merry Ruling!!!!
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  5. May 31, 2017
    6
    GC3 is pretty run of the mill. It only has one real stand out feature: the cosmetic ship designer. You can spend hours in it making ships to fill out your fleet. However, that means nothing in terms of gameplay as what a ship looks like doesn't matter. The fanciest battleship at the base level is just as good as a cube. On the gameplay, well it is...adequate. Nothing really special orGC3 is pretty run of the mill. It only has one real stand out feature: the cosmetic ship designer. You can spend hours in it making ships to fill out your fleet. However, that means nothing in terms of gameplay as what a ship looks like doesn't matter. The fanciest battleship at the base level is just as good as a cube. On the gameplay, well it is...adequate. Nothing really special or amazing about it, particularly when you compare it to the other 4Xs that have come out. It is also a shame that where it is different (the ship designer) the devs have put zero effort into improving it. Expand
  6. May 23, 2015
    6
    Huge disappointment!

    The game at its current state makes me think that the game is rushed and under a poor budget. A campaign with only 3 scenarios? Are you kidding me? It is the shortest campaign in any game I have ever played. On top of that, the campaign is dull and boring, adding little to the original story. The game is very unstable, many if not most players encountered
    Huge disappointment!

    The game at its current state makes me think that the game is rushed and under a poor budget.

    A campaign with only 3 scenarios? Are you kidding me? It is the shortest campaign in any game I have ever played. On top of that, the campaign is dull and boring, adding little to the original story.

    The game is very unstable, many if not most players encountered blue-screen-of-death or crash-to-desktop issues from time to time.

    The game is very imbalanced. I can own everyone with a single carrier fleet on the hardest difficulty or keep producing the most overpowered ship 100 times the strength of my enemie's flagship every turn with my ridiculous manufacturing power; I could make a radar ship that reveals the whole map for me. I could make some "teleport" transport ship that is capable of bring 3 billions of my soldiers from one side of the universe to another, taking my rival's colony all in a single turn!

    Serisouly, I feel the game developers had spent little time on balancing the game because they don't even have enough time to fix the stability issue.

    In conclusion, the game is rushed and not polished at all. I suggest anyone who haven't already bought the game to wait until they fix the game or wait for a -75% price cut on Steam before buying it or just buy GalCiv 2 now because it is 100 times better than its successor.

    I would leave the game at a rating of 6 until they fix the game.
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  7. May 19, 2015
    7
    Another 4x game, with a decent budget. And it has all the usual flaws.

    - Retarded AI, that has to "cheat" like crazy in higher difficulties - Bugs Bugs Bugs everywhere - Unfinished, for example: after 30 minutes of searching every menu, I concluded that "logistics" value (limit/used) is not in the game currently. etc. The colony management, which is combination of tiles and
    Another 4x game, with a decent budget. And it has all the usual flaws.

    - Retarded AI, that has to "cheat" like crazy in higher difficulties
    - Bugs Bugs Bugs everywhere
    - Unfinished, for example: after 30 minutes of searching every menu, I concluded that "logistics" value (limit/used) is not in the game currently. etc.

    The colony management, which is combination of tiles and adjacency bonuses, with population and happiness values is very well done. Also tech tree is exceptionally well made, of all the 4x games i ever played this one does it best. There is no tactical combat.

    7/10 after release. I predict 10/10 after two years and 100$ worth of DLC and expansions.
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  8. Jun 8, 2015
    6
    Thankfully the difficulties I was having getting the game to run properly have been patched.... so I can now give the game a true review. Sadly I don't find myself raising the score from its original 5 very much. There seems to be a great platform here to make an amazing game.... but that's all it is at the moment, a platform. Don't get me wrong there is plenty of attractive details....Thankfully the difficulties I was having getting the game to run properly have been patched.... so I can now give the game a true review. Sadly I don't find myself raising the score from its original 5 very much. There seems to be a great platform here to make an amazing game.... but that's all it is at the moment, a platform. Don't get me wrong there is plenty of attractive details.... but compared to Gal Civ II with expansions it feels like a downgrade other than graphically.... even graphically the only real obvious improvement is improved resolution on everything. AI, while improved quite a bit from Gal Civ II is still pretty dumb. Ship builder is great but with an occasional bug or two. Research is pretty cool, actually.... however on default research speed you'll get to the end of the tech tree before the end of a game on larger maps. Speaking of larger maps... the 3 largest map sizes are disabled unless you have enough ram... so if you only have 4GB of ram you won't be able to play those galaxy sizes. Diplomacy is okay.... however the AI begs and asks for money or threatens you on a constant basis. It gets quite annoying and makes diplomacy feel cheap and without diversity. Customization is pretty awesome in this game on almost every level.... however the celebrated race creator is actually a little too short and simple for my taste.... especially considering you are supposed to be able to customize the race's AI behavior but you don't really get that many choices to mix and match with. Honestly I find the fact that some of the reviewers found this feature "too confusing and complicated" quite laughable. The graphics are okay. Sound quality is decent. Auto-Explore/Survey AI is terrible.

    Ok ok so overall I feel that this game gets less and less fun after about turn 200 (default game speed). Too many things occur too frequently which ruin the immersion and it's almost like every feature in the game starts off with "wow this is great" and ends with "oh, that's it?"

    I give this game a 6 out of 10. Great potential, but it has a long way to go. But as a fan of the series and genre I am really rooting for this one to get to where it needs to be! I hope some day I can redo this review and raise the score :)
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  9. Mar 17, 2016
    5
    A year on,any major updates/improvements? no. Still badly balanced. The interface is an improvement over Galciv 2, especially the research/tech tree. But still just more of the same. Either you overwhelm the AI or it overwhelms you. I've played civ games at immortal level, usually emperor, and total war on highest settings, so have a reasonable idea as a 'normal' player. Just glad aA year on,any major updates/improvements? no. Still badly balanced. The interface is an improvement over Galciv 2, especially the research/tech tree. But still just more of the same. Either you overwhelm the AI or it overwhelms you. I've played civ games at immortal level, usually emperor, and total war on highest settings, so have a reasonable idea as a 'normal' player. Just glad a friend swapped me a copy.
    Give it a try but find a friend who has it and try and borrow their copy before spending money.
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  10. May 26, 2015
    7
    Doesn't bring anything new to the old Gal Civs except for better AI and graphics. However the ideological tree is quite awesome. The malevolence choice gives you the ability to acquire free warships which proves useful the more you expand. Overall, still great fun. Words of advice: be merciless with pirates.
  11. May 20, 2015
    7
    Long story short: It's GalCiv 2 with better graphics (and less content due to the fact that GalCiv 2 had 2-3 expansions). That being said, GalCIv 2 is a great game and so is GalCiv 3.

    It has some major lag issues sometimes and is a hardware hog in longer games, but with some polish and optimization from Stardock, I can see this game becoming the 4X gem that was it's predecessor. My
    Long story short: It's GalCiv 2 with better graphics (and less content due to the fact that GalCiv 2 had 2-3 expansions). That being said, GalCIv 2 is a great game and so is GalCiv 3.

    It has some major lag issues sometimes and is a hardware hog in longer games, but with some polish and optimization from Stardock, I can see this game becoming the 4X gem that was it's predecessor.

    My only major problem with the game is the Campaign. Seriously though, what campaign? I clicked campaign and saw three parts. I thought those three parts were the three sections of the story hyped in the trailer and such. Nope. 3 Small, easy scenarios that I've already beaten on the second hardest difficulty with no problem.

    But GalCiv 3 one-ups it's predecessor in one key department: It has Multiplayer. And with the massive customizability of the games you play, you can really choose and pick how you want to play with your friends, more than virtually any other RTS, let alone games in general.

    Overall: this game could be a real gem, but it's not there yet. I can see it in the future getting a 9/10 rating from me, but it just doesn't quite cut it yet. If you don't have anyone else to play the multiplayer with, I would have to recommend Galactic Civilizations 2 for the time being, it's just a more polished, fleshed out game, even if it doesn't look as flashy.

    7.5/10
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  12. Jun 10, 2015
    5
    I'm giving this a 5 because it's close to a carbon copy of the old game, which was great. I'm deducting 5 because it feels pretty much like the old game with slightly shinier graphics and a few added features. When something is a decade or so in the making, you expect something a bit more fresh and new than this. Avid gal civ fans will have logged a lot of hours on the old game and willI'm giving this a 5 because it's close to a carbon copy of the old game, which was great. I'm deducting 5 because it feels pretty much like the old game with slightly shinier graphics and a few added features. When something is a decade or so in the making, you expect something a bit more fresh and new than this. Avid gal civ fans will have logged a lot of hours on the old game and will find their excitement quickly dwindling when they see how little has changed. Expand
  13. May 24, 2015
    6
    This review and rating is based on version 1.0 of the game. I do somehow expect things to improve.

    First thing to notice is how hardware hungry that game is ... and continously becomes more hungry over time as the game session draws longer. Visually it is a step upwards with much greater visual detail and diversity (at the aforementioned price of draining the hardware and occasionally
    This review and rating is based on version 1.0 of the game. I do somehow expect things to improve.

    First thing to notice is how hardware hungry that game is ... and continously becomes more hungry over time as the game session draws longer. Visually it is a step upwards with much greater visual detail and diversity (at the aforementioned price of draining the hardware and occasionally freezing for short to medium periods of time)

    Is it better than Gal Civ II? - yes... but it is not a quantum leap forward.

    - Planetary management is still not really a great challenge
    - Diplomacy and AI is a significant improvement (but i reckon that this is very subjective and also depends on the game session and situation that the AI can act in)
    - Ship design ... well... i don t like it. Shape and add ons again have no meaning but being purely cosmetical - all in all... i prefer Sword of the Stars in terms of customization
    - grand strategy is good - but has been well done in Gal Civ II already

    I was not able to conduct more testing because the game simply failed after some time - failed meaning.... zooming out and in caused seconds long freezes, turns took loooooong - and the game simply became a HUGE resource hog up to a point where playing it was no fun anymore.

    better optimized and expanded - this game has huge potential - its just no real fun in its current state ( on a mid end computer that is )
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  14. Jun 5, 2015
    5
    Was expecting more as a follow up to GC2. GC2 was one of my favorite 4x games. I really expected Stardock to build on that game with gameplay improvements and new options as a player. Unfortunately, little to nothing was done to expand gameplay, and same rock/paper/scissors approach to combat was carried over to GC3.
    Yes, the ship editor has been expanded, but snap points are a little
    Was expecting more as a follow up to GC2. GC2 was one of my favorite 4x games. I really expected Stardock to build on that game with gameplay improvements and new options as a player. Unfortunately, little to nothing was done to expand gameplay, and same rock/paper/scissors approach to combat was carried over to GC3.
    Yes, the ship editor has been expanded, but snap points are a little flaky and it can be frustrating to use.

    Given the amount of time in between games, it's a bit disappointing.
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  15. Mar 27, 2017
    5
    Long time Civilization fan and huge space nerd. Both of which are easier for me to figure out than this game. Starts out very fun but I eventually always go broke, even on easy. Maybe I'm just dumb. Never had that problem with Gal Civ 2. It's a shame because other than always going broke, it's a nice concept. Ship building a fun and unique for a large scale strategy game. I justLong time Civilization fan and huge space nerd. Both of which are easier for me to figure out than this game. Starts out very fun but I eventually always go broke, even on easy. Maybe I'm just dumb. Never had that problem with Gal Civ 2. It's a shame because other than always going broke, it's a nice concept. Ship building a fun and unique for a large scale strategy game. I just couldn't afford any late game no matter how much I invested in commerce. Expand
  16. Feb 23, 2017
    5
    It's hard to put 50+ hours into a game and then give it a thumbs down.
    I've had some good times with the game but mostly it's been either a game that was so trivial to beat the AI (early patches), or maddening ones (patch 2.0).....all while playing normal difficulty. I'm glad the devs are constantly improving and evolving the game but I think it has a critical flaw in that it has simply
    It's hard to put 50+ hours into a game and then give it a thumbs down.
    I've had some good times with the game but mostly it's been either a game that was so trivial to beat the AI (early patches), or maddening ones (patch 2.0).....all while playing normal difficulty. I'm glad the devs are constantly improving and evolving the game but I think it has a critical flaw in that it has simply too broad of a surface area on ways to play it, which can easily run the casual gamer into the ground...repeatedly. Ultimately it comes down to a "secret sauce" formula, as seen on countless fan sites, where you are going to lose unless you get a certain minimum amount of objectives done in the first 20 to 100 turns or else you're destined to lose. In other words, the whole game is made in the first series of turns....and the rest is simply a process of going through the motions.

    I've played Civ1 through 5, GalCiv2, Elemental, FE, etc.....and damn do I REALLY want to love galciv3 but it's just too screwy of a game that seems to be angling more for hardcore players. I think the game needs to be focused a bit more starting with the overwhelming state of the research tree. Yep, i'm sure that's controversial but it's WAY too broad. As a player I get sick of clicking through 4 trees (sorry but it needs to be 3) and having 12+ different choices that only (for the most part) very incrementally change the game. Research alone forces a player to micromanage, when that's a turn off for a LOT of people.

    I could talk forever and give example after example but it's just not worth my time. GalCiv4 will need to start from scratch if it wants to win me and others back. By and large it was too similar to GC2 to start with....but made worse by minutia and formulaic measures in order to win.
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  17. May 27, 2015
    6
    Disappointing.
    The good part is that it retains most of its predecessor + strategic resources.
    The worst part is the dumb pacifist AI. I was playing me and myself. No wonder the AI gets huge bonuses on higher difficulty. I tried a game on tough. Within 25 turns I managed to colonize 3 planets and 3 colony ship where on route, when through out diplomacy I made a peak in the 1st contacted
    Disappointing.
    The good part is that it retains most of its predecessor + strategic resources.
    The worst part is the dumb pacifist AI. I was playing me and myself. No wonder the AI gets huge bonuses on higher difficulty. I tried a game on tough. Within 25 turns I managed to colonize 3 planets and 3 colony ship where on route, when through out diplomacy I made a peak in the 1st contacted AI. He got 5 colonies plus 15+ colonyships and more than 5000 credits (this feat I could not achieve with 10-20% bonuses). Some turns afterwards I contacted the 2nd one, and looking at powers I had 40, 1st AI 90, and the 2nd 190. Ok so I quit and tried another on challenging with Huge galaxy(which is in teh middle) and everybody. I discovered more than half the technologies and no AI has any decent army. I'm fighting more than 70+ turns only constructors. Because oh god they build plenty of that. But even looking how they develop planets its omg. I think a 8year old would manage much better.
    Beside that there is no good macro controls. Ships list is one mess, fleet list doesn't even exist. Planets development are tedious, as I sad the AI does a really poor job.
    I will shelve this one and wait for the expansion.
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  18. Nov 1, 2015
    5
    Crash happy game, full of missing things like fonts, saved files that vanish in thin air, ship designs never saving, crashing or extreme lag, even fleets without ship icons (looks like your flying black nothingness inside your fleet logistical box) Some things I like but hey its so cool when your fleet flies off the map into nothingness while battling the opponent. What? Wait forCrash happy game, full of missing things like fonts, saved files that vanish in thin air, ship designs never saving, crashing or extreme lag, even fleets without ship icons (looks like your flying black nothingness inside your fleet logistical box) Some things I like but hey its so cool when your fleet flies off the map into nothingness while battling the opponent. What? Wait for bargain bin on this one... Expand
  19. Oct 8, 2015
    6
    I can’t recommend this game at its current $50 price. While the game has massive potential, there are too many issues with the game at present:

    There's a lot of micromanagement of planets. You need to adjust the slider for research, social manufacturing and income. Then there's a separate slider for social and military manufacturing, because buildings and military units have separate
    I can’t recommend this game at its current $50 price. While the game has massive potential, there are too many issues with the game at present:

    There's a lot of micromanagement of planets. You need to adjust the slider for research, social manufacturing and income. Then there's a separate slider for social and military manufacturing, because buildings and military units have separate production queues. You're going to need to adjust the sliders for each planet constantly to make production and research more efficient for each building, military unit and research technology. Production times are quite low, and you're going to have a lot of planets, so a good portion of each turn is spent on this.

    Galactic Civ 3 has limited documentation in game which doesn't provide much information about how the mechanics work. The tutorial only touches on the most basic concepts. You're going to spend a lot of time alt-tabbing to look up game concepts in your browser. The documentation in game that does exist describes your research technologies and ideology options. However, while the game mechanics have been updated in patches, the text in game often isn't updated to match the changes. Many of the tool tips describing research technology don't fully match the actual gameplay effects.

    Diplomacy is pretty broken at present. Some research technologies give you an option of specialization. You can only pick one choice per technology. Some of the choices are seriously unbalanced. For example, you might have a choice between 10% extra research or a 10% reduction in the maintenance of research labs. Research labs only cost about 1credit per turn to maintain, so the maintenance reduction is a negligible bonus. Since you're stuck with your choice for the rest of the game, it's a clear choice in favor of the research increase. But here's the kicker, if another civilization likes you they will occasionally give you techs. Like what happened to me, when they gave me the 10% maintenance reduction specialization. There is no way to decline the "gift" so I was stuck with this and 10% less research for the rest of the game. There is also an issue with tech trading where civilizations can trade tech when they don’t have the prerequisite for it. Imagine having a game of Civilization where you can give another civilization “flight” when they haven’t discovered “the wheel”. Apart from the obvious lack of realism, it makes tech trading unnecessarily confusing due to the sheer number of techs that show up to trade. You shouldn't be able to give a civilization a tech unless they have the prerequisite first. Because of these flaws with diplomacy, you're better off disabling diplomacy options like tech trading, random events and the “United Planets” when you setup your game.

    There is a lot of use "good and "evil" concepts. For example, your ideology stretches the range from "benevolent" to "malevolent". Basically, you decide whether your civilization is "good" or "evil". Several of the alien races are "evil" while others are "good". Malevolent civilizations don't hide the fact they are "evil" and seem proud of it. It’s not a gameplay issue, but I feel the story deserved a bit more depth than simply painting various alien races as good guys or bad guys. It’s like something off Fox News or CNN.

    Overall, I'd say this is an OK game, but Endless Legend, Civilization 4 & 5 are better. I can only recommend it if you're already bored of these other 4X games. If you've played all the good 4X games and have time on your hands then it’s worth a look. Its lack of polish means it’s not worth its $50 price tag. The developers do update this game so it will improve over time, and the game definitely has huge potential. Give it another 6 months of patching or try to pick it up on sale for $30 or less.
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  20. Feb 26, 2020
    5
    Dumber version of the original, that felt less engaging, less interesting and less complex.
  21. Jul 23, 2021
    7
    It was free on Epic, so I've tried it...Thanks EPIC!!.
    Classic turn based sci-fi game that hook you to play "just one more turn" until very late in the night.
    Lots of races (Star control aliens too with DLC), lots of ships customization, good visual for an old game.....but it suffer form a little of repetitivness and slow micromanagment (late game). Games (random map and not campaign)
    It was free on Epic, so I've tried it...Thanks EPIC!!.
    Classic turn based sci-fi game that hook you to play "just one more turn" until very late in the night.
    Lots of races (Star control aliens too with DLC), lots of ships customization, good visual for an old game.....but it suffer form a little of repetitivness and slow micromanagment (late game).
    Games (random map and not campaign) tends to be fun at the beginning and less enjoiable when you have played for many turns.
    Late game phases...when you have to defeat last opponents are slow and with lots of grinding.
    You'll have to manage lots of planets - colony - ships -science-money-resources and so on...at a slow pace (combat preparation is a little slow, especially resource gathering late game)
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  22. May 13, 2022
    7
    good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good good
  23. Aug 23, 2023
    7
    Solid game, very fun in the early with interesting options with the ship creator. It becomes little repetitive in the mid game and boring in the late game.
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 31
  2. Negative: 0 out of 31
  1. 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.
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 3, 2016
    80
    Galactic Civilizations 3 is too much work and too little game. [Jan 2016]
  3. 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.