Galactic Civilizations III

If politics has disappointed us once again we can always console ourselves with entertainment: in the fairy world of space strategists nobody will prevent us from devastating planets and enslaving peoples. To be a niche in the niche, one must recognize that the offer is quite substantial, and it is not easy to emerge in a genre that often expires in the formula. So let's face it: Galactic Civilizations III is proudly formulaic. The Stardock title retrieves the hinges of the genre one by one and proposes them evenly. Planetary management? Check. Diplomacy and influence? Check. Alien breeds in Star Wars rubber costumes? Check. And so on.

So if you are a veteran, what should convince us to pour another offering into Stardock's bowl? Well, first of all the size. Galactic Civilizations III uses a new 64-bit architecture - you will need a suitable operating system - to offer truly immense maps and epic games. It's not the first time that a game spans such a large scale: while, however, Distant Worlds is a real-time experience that relies heavily on automation to run, Galactic Civilizations III remains true to its turn-based roots, and let micro-management increase in parallel with the size of the galaxy. As far as I'm concerned, neither approach is entirely satisfactory: but the Stardock title is still to be recommended to those who prefer a classic experience, Master of Orion style.

The big innovation? Let's archive it now: it's multiplayer. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't work in games like that, unless you have friends who are willing to make it a hobby. How to meet one evening a week around a table to play Risiko, with the difference that in this case you will have to convince everyone to buy a copy.

Looking for opponents in the mare magnum of the web, on the other hand, can quickly become frustrating because the games are objectively very long, the shifts require multiple decisions and, in the end, someone will be bored to be detached, or it will produce a rush of mutual destruction guaranteed. In the case of the Stardock saga, the very valid artificial intelligence makes the online component even more superfluous, so the new feature excites me little.

More important is the change related to the technology tree. It won't be the most spectacular of the features, but believe me, it's the good ideas in research management that make a strategic great. Here, the technological tree of the predecessor was full of dry branches, boring technologies that offered only a small percentage increase. "In ten shifts we get the 5% bonus on industrial production, which will allow us to invest in lasers that are 10% more powerful!". Sounds as funny as a queue at the post office, and in fact it wasn't much.

In Galactic Civilizations III the filler discoveries have not completely disappeared, but their number is reduced. Of all the technologies, divided into four categories and three eras, several unlock a new toy, such as a ray of death or a great planetary wonder. Specific technologies for each breed also help. Don't expect asymmetric gameplay: all alien species function according to the same strategic principles, and are variants of the human one. However, it is still interesting to manage the large hives of the Thalan rather than the ruthless armies of the Drengin. There's also a robotic faction that builds its citizens in factories, but that's the height of variety for Galactic Civilizations III.

Speaking of breeds, there are eight. There are a couple of them missing compared to the predecessor, but honestly you don't miss it. Not because the new entry - the Iridium, variation on the theme of the ultra-liberal Ferengi - is so phantasmagoric that it excludes the past. Rather because the saga species have never been very interesting.

While there is a fairly complex story behind it, the usual gallery of stereotypes emerges that do not embody credible aliens, but play styles - the Altarians are pacifist scientists, the Iconians expand rapidly and the Earthlings are the race-tutorial. A common stylistic choice, but it would be time to rethink. You can create custom breeds, for example, and there is also a certain aesthetic variety: a pity that the choice of traits and skills is really mild. Veterans of the genre will remember the aquatic, telepathic or invisible aliens of Master of Orion II: here, continue to regret them.

The rest of Galactic Civilizations III can be thought of as a restoration. Colonization, for example, is now enriched with unique planetary features and resources to be extracted with the help of space bases. Do you get your hands on a particular type of mineral? Well, you can build particularly powerful prototype ships, but in limited numbers. There is also an adjacency system, so building one building next to another provides special bonuses. Stardock has highlighted the feature among the important ones, but honestly it seems at best a somewhat tedious puzzle. An excellent idea, however, is to transfer naval ports into space: micro-management is reduced and an interesting strategic choice is required between a few structures, but close to productive planets, and small bases at the front that offer the advantage of the initiative.

The ideology system has been revised, recovering a page from Civilization V. Now, proceeding along the path of good, evil or neutrality, you can get specific bonuses, from situational ones such as a free colony ship to permanent advantages in the field diplomat or military. Practically the social policies of Civ V only that here progress is linked to moral dilemmas that appear when a planet is colonized. Things like: do you want to exterminate the potentially dangerous native fauna to make handbags, live in the midst of nature as children of flowers or close all the monsters in the zoos so that they don't do damage? The example is less caricatured than it seems, because several dilemmas are formulated with these extreme tones, hardly credible if attributed to a galactic government. Personally, I find the three simple ideologies of Civilization - communism, fascism and capitalism under false names - more sensible than this galactic version of the Dungeons & Dragons alignments.

I will briefly mention the graphics, which appear cured even beyond the standards of the genre, to end by talking about the design tool of the ships. It is extremely powerful: there are myriads of parts to assemble and it is possible to bring out practically everything, from robots to flying teapots. Remember, for flexibility, the Spore editor. Too bad that, just like the Spore editor, it is almost entirely separate from the gameplay. Your ships can envy the Federation Fleet, or they can be dreadful that defy the laws of physics, but nothing changes when tested. Only the weapons and defenses you mount on it count. Yes, because the combat of Galactic Civilizations III is rather abstract and tied to a simple paper-scissors-stone system. However, if your motto is "art for art", I guarantee you that you will spend the nights on the editor.

MODUS OPERANDI
I played Galactic Civilizations III thanks to a Steam code kindly provided by the developer. I tried the campaign mode, which consists of specific maps and objectives, and then tackled the sandbox mode and its vast customization possibilities.