THe game play sucked me in. The only issue was some of the auto focus changes but was common for the year it was released. I have not played II or III so I am guessing they learned. I am about to purchase II in hopes they got rid of the more aggrevating behaviors. Overall the game is very playable and well woth the $10 I payed for it.

This was one of the few games I played over and over as a teen.

I'll be honest, I never got into the sequel, because I didn't like the way the planets were depicted (though it probably made influence more intuitive). So I don't know how this one holds up to GalCiv II. But on its own merits, it's a good game.

In Galactic Civilizations, you start out as ruler of united Earth. The various alien races, having gotten the secret of hyperdrive from the humans, have turned off their massive wormhole portals and scrapped them for hyper-capable colony ships. The real space race has begun, and it's up to you to determine the path you want humanity to take.

Madcap conquest is definitely an option, but if that either doesn't sound appealing or isn't practical, you can turn to other means - being a technocrat and staying ahead by selling and leaking techs; buddying up to the top dog; making everyone's economies dependant on your trade; or amass cultural influence by convincing the aliens how awesome Hollywood, Nike and Coca-Cola are. In practice, most games tend to involve a combination of all the above - the alien races tend to be more receptive to your diplomacy if you have a lot of ships with big guns, or if a significant chunk of their economy is powered by trade with you. And being ahead in tech is useful for keeping a welfare economy afloat by selling techs to other empires, or to prop up an enemy of an enemy without going to war directly. Conversely, rolling in dough means being able to bribe your rivals, buy state-of-the-art warships from a militarist friend, and ramp up domestic spending (including research and social projects).

Along the way, you get to decide whether to be an evil empire, a benevolent federation or any combination and variation of them. A sprawling but sparsely populated expansionist nation, or a handful of highly-developed star systems? Military juggernaut or trade linchpin of the galaxy? Underhand arms dealer or open warmonger? Your answer to these questions is often simply "yes". It's telling that a game that allows you to build aphrodisiacs and massive theme parks also give you the option of building propaganda machines and pseudo-Death Stars - often at the same time (who says star-killing not-moons can't have fun water slides?).

The alien civilizations all have distinct personalities - by default some are good, some are neutral, some are evil, but fiddle with their alignment setting at the start of the game and they change accordingly - a civilization that originally extended a friendly hand will now threaten to exterminate you at the slightest excuse, and vice versa. They will gloat when they're winning a war, grovel when they're beaten; extort you when they're much more powerful and don't like you, give you periodic gifts with mincing courtesy when you're the powerhouse.

Though a thoroughly old game by now, this game has plenty of charm and solid mechanics underpinning them. I'm sure nostalgia only affects my verdict -that is still amazingly fun- only a little.

Unfortunately, this is not really a review of the game, so much as a warning that on some modern machines, the game does not work at all. There have been reported problems getting this game to install or run all over the forums, and while I didn't encounter any of the installation problems, even the proposed solutions to getting the game to launch don't work for me.

As such this is a thumbs-down, but mostly as a warning that the game may not work at all for you! "Tested" on 64-bit Windows 7.

Fun past time

While this game is clearly old its still quite a bit of fun. The user interface has a few issues but they are managable. the biggest downside was figuring out how to play the game which for me meant making the AI very dumb …. well below the beginner level ai for a game, figuring out some core mechanics then notching up the challenge after figuring a few things out.

I bought this version because I wanted to try it cheap and didn't know if it would be any good. But I was amazed.

Finally a game that can truly match the amazing gameplay and addictiveness of the Sid Meier's: Civilization franchise. Now I regret not buying the package deal of GC1&GC2, becouse I sure will buy the seqeul and am really looking out for part 3.

When your a Civilization junkie like me? You sure should try this game out! You will find yourself finally having something to beat your addiction, just get your self a new one!

Yes, a mini masters of orion, extremely simplified....i recommend for being a good game, a 6 of 10 game if you know master of orion and a 8 of 10 if you just like strategy....
but then, the most amazing discovery, there is the Galactic CIVS II! Soooo i am heading there =P . 3h of the old one are enough, lets now check the second.


overall a 6 of 10 game, i would buy it on the time of release, nowadays...go for the II.

A fun game i suggest starting on a easier AI until you have figured out how to paly the game and some of the mechanics as they can be a bit tricky at the start

GalCiv1 was thoroughly enjoyable, and fortunately I managed to pick it up and play through it before getting knee deep in GalCiv2. This is definitely the case where playing through one obsoletes the other, in my opinion... still, the amount of game you get for the 'Ultimate Edition' on Steam sale can't be ignored.

I have yet to play the sequel, but despite the lack of in-game help or ‘Civpaedia’ it is an interesting and fun game.

Any game where you can install a party-palace and a water-park onto each of your fleet of not-death-stars is an awesome game.

Do you like space? Do you like Civ1 2 3 4 5? Then buy this game

not nearly as fun as GalCivII, but it still is an alright reboot of the old GalCiv game on the Amiga

Good old game, thou it gets boring fast 7/10

in thiz game, you play as sir alan bradley of the terran alliance. humanity has just invented hyperdrive which allows quick space travel. with your first colony ship and survey ship now sets out to find new lands to settle in.

after traveling around space for new planets, u find a class 30 planet, perfect for ur colonists and just ripe for the taking, u command your colony ship to settle there. just 1 turn before u reach dat planet, an alien race known as the yor collective steals the planet.

annoyed but still feeling generous, you gift them hyperdrive and find another planet to settle. soon after the N-1 of the yor collective declares war on you and destroys your few ships. soon they invade earth and kills all the humans.

...

in thiz game, you play as sir alan bradley of the terran alliance. humanity has just invented hyperdrive which allows quick space travel. with your first colony ship and survey ship now sets out to find new lands to settle in...

but seriously, it is an amazing game. sure, it is showing its age, but it makes my boring days exciting again when i play this. turns out, its a nice replacement for civ4-5 for me. it also has a few bugs. in the first day i played this game, the menu was crashing the game, but soon after worked well again. i dont know if its because of me using compatability mode set to windows xp or smth. if u cant get this for the alr low 10 dollar price, try steamtrades.com u can find it cheaper there, if u dont get scammed.

classic style

This game does not even open. Finding any support for this game also seems impossible.

Do not waste your money on this game--it's way too old to run well on modern hardware and has many video issues on a GTX680.

A fun game, just like an older civilization turn-based game would be. It includes 8 races which I like the most, so you can interact with them the way you want. Also galactic influence plays a good role here as well.
Sadly, this game has some fouls and doesn't run good on newest OS, so it will be a no for me. You can't play this smoothly. Plus, a Civ V is way better choice and there is also a newer game for the Galactic Civilizations.

Just like Benjamin 005 said, this game seriously lack tutorial. Not to mention, the game literally HANG when the enemy ship attack my ship or vice versa. I can not colonize a planet that was colonized by the enemy even if I destroy the defense but the enemy can colonize your planets. WTF!

If anyone experience this problem and found a solution, please tell me.

Whilst i am not one for saying never play a game this is one that comes very very close. From the start far too much is given to you and a lack of useful tutorial leaves you feeling lost or even failing. Once you figure out what to do a majority of the fun is lost and game simply doesnt invite you to play.

i give this game 2/10