"An awesome space-based empire building game"

The best game I've bought all year. GalCiv takes over where older games like Civilization II leave off. It features a ton of strategy as well as great support forums and an online ranking feature called the Metaverse. A relatively new game developer turns out a great title that is the sleeper hit of the year give it a try!

Graphics: 10/10
The graphics on the game are stunning and crisp. The in game movies flow with perfection and are seamless and entertaining. You aren't left trying to figure out what any odd shaped blobs on the map are, everything is easily identifiable and realistic looking. The star effect and the grid lines give it a war room feel.

Sound: 10/10
The background scores on the game match what is currently happening and the lyric free music will bring hours of gameplay enjoyment. In case you get bored of the default scores, the game offers the option of loading your own mp3 play lists instead. You can't get any better than that.

Game Play: 10/10
It brings a whole new meaning to gameplay. Intelligent AI, multiple difficulty levels, various sized maps, tons of units and features. You have to play it thousands of times and still you won't have seen all the possibilities. The random aspects keep it fresh but not frustrating. It can be as easy or as hard as you make it. Games can last a few hours or a few weeks! Compete for scores with other players online with a metaverse ranking, or join an empire (clan) and compete for top honors that way. The only note is that the game does occasionally drop you to your desktop, but the customizable number of turns on the autosave and the restore previous civilization feature makes this more of a nuisance than a tragedy. All in all it's not enough to drop the rating.

Replay: 10/10
As I said you will never do it all. And you will never get tired of trying to do it all. You can customize your civilization in so many ways, turn on or off so many features, try various goals, strategies, and victory conditions. Change player alignments and intelligence levels, map sizes, galaxy types and hundreds of other settings. All it's lacking is multiplayer, which for some people would discount it right away. But that is not this game's strength and it thrives without it, give it a chance!

Overall: 10/10
You owe it to yourself to pick this one up. You will wonder where the time has gone and why you never heard of this title earlier. Everyone deserves to have Galactic Civ on their shelf.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/03, Updated 07/27/03