It’s like Civilization in space, fulfilling all your alien power fantasies

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Today, October 19th, the new SF strategy game Galactic Civilizations IV launches in the “Supernova” edition on Steam. MeinMMO author Schuhmann has already spent 40 or 45 hours with the game and says in his test: This fulfills all your alien power fantasies.

What kind of game is this?

  • Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova is a 4x game set in space. You start with your alien people and a starting planet that you can build similar to Civilization VI, plus you have a few spaceships to explore space. You will quickly take possession of other planets as raw material colonies or settle them as core worlds.
  • There are numerous resources and raw materials in the game that you can mine via starbases or on your planet. Certain luxury resources are necessary to build “Wonders,” unique buildings that can only exist once in the galaxy.
  • You then fight against numerous alien races for supremacy: 23 species are in the game. Other tribes can be downloaded for free or even created yourself. There are also “smaller races”, as well as pirates and space monsters – everything you need for a space adventure.

    • Check out the launch trailer for the new strategy game with the extraordinary alien races:

    Launch trailer for the strategy game Galactic Civilizations IV Supernova

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    Series has been around for 20 years – the latest part is a kind of 4.5

    Where does it come from? The series began in 1992 and then, like Civilization, continued to grow. Part 4 was released in April 2022 on the Epic Games Store. We tested it on MeinMMO back then.

    Today, October 19th, the “Supernova” edition is released on Epic Games and Steam.

    This is a kind of “Galactic Civilizations 4.5”: Some game mechanics were changed and 5 new races were added. If you don’t know part 4, you won’t notice the changes:

  • The important “Constructors” no longer need populations
  • For each race it is now more worthwhile to stick with their “appropriate” traditions
  • In addition, research is now freer than in Vanilla Part 4.

    • Brad Wardell, who invented the game 30 years ago, came back for the Supernova edition and says: He wanted to take the game “in a different direction”. The Steam release was the right time for this, he writes.

    If the species on offer are too normal for you, you can also play as a totalitarian alien cat.

    The game is extremely customizable

    This is what’s special about Galactic Civilizations IV – Supernova: You can tailor the game extremely to your needs. The customization options cover every conceivable aspect of the game. For example, I play without trading technology, without giving up the AI ​​and with a slow research and game pace, against all alien races available by default – i.e. against 2 opponents:

  • There are 6 sliders alone to determine the size and nature of the universe.
  • Plus 6 fine-tunings for the gameplay.
  • There are also 5 optional settings – here, for example, the action of techniques can be prevented
  • and 5 different victory conditions.

    • At least 17 of these settings have a direct impact on the game – the victory conditions are the only ones that don’t have such a significant impact.

    The 6 sliders on the nature of the universe (right) and the 6 on the course of the game (left).

    Depending on how big I make the galaxy, this leads to completely different gameplay:

  • If I choose a galaxy with many systems and distant enemies, I can play for hours without meeting an opponent because the 23 alien races avoid each other until well into the midgame. So I can research in peace and grab tons of planets and resources. It then plays more like a “Sim Universe” – kind of nice, but boring in the long run.
  • With fewer systems (only 4) and 23 races, I can only conquer one or a maximum of 2 planets until I encounter opponents. And in no time the entire system is occupied by the AI. So here it comes down to enemy contact in the early game.

    • I think every player will play around with the extensive parameters until they find out how they want to play the game.

    This extreme adaptability of the game guarantees a high replay value in any case.

    When you play against 22 alien races in a galaxy that is actually only intended for 19 races, the galaxy is pretty narrow.

    This is what makes it so attractive: In Galactic Civilizations IV Supernova Edition, the alien races and how to play them are significantly different.

  • The Yor are a race of cyborgs that can be used to attack immediately. They are technically extremely strong, you don’t have to pay attention to some aspects of the game such as food or approval ratings, but you need the resource “Duranium” to create new robots.
  • There is a type of spider race that is all about attack, and receives powerful bonuses when they can defeat and devour enemies.
  • There is a religious race that plays more passively and builds up a religion, thereby collecting “culture points” and being able to conquer opposing planets without a fight.
  • My favorite so far have always been the Mimots, small monsters that multiply quickly and overrun opponents.
  • There is also a tree race that can revive dead planets.
  • Plus every imaginable SF fantasy, from stone people to crystal creatures to marauding space orcs or noble dragon people

    • With all of these creatures, typical alien power fantasies from science fiction can be fulfilled: If you would rather be the Predator or the Borg or a race like the Zerg in Starcraft – you would like to be a greedy trader like a Ferengi, a noble warrior like a Klingon or a marauding space pirate.

    Everything is possible: the multitude of races, whether organic or not, always changes the gameplay. This is well done and promises variety.

    Especially since the “ideologies” of the peoples also prefer a style of play, which then grants its own bonuses.

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    Rewarding gaming experience with lengths in the endgame

    This is my conclusion: The Supernova Edition was just right for me: after the disappointing “Star Trek: Infinite”, I had already played Galactic Civilization IV with the normal edition and then bought the Supernova Edition in Early Access on Epic Games.

    At the beginning it seemed buggy and I couldn’t cope with the changes to the normal edition: after about 10 or 15 hours I lost interest in the Supernova.

    But there were a few more patches in the last few weeks and the game became noticeably more rounded. I was already hanging in front of the computer until 2 in the morning.

    Galactic Civilizations IV is available on Steam for €38.99. The game was scheduled to start tonight, October 19th.

    The Steam version now offered me a good, varied 4x experience for 31 hours, which I can recommend to every fan of games like Civilization VI or Stellaris.

    The game is deep, varied and really fun. The Steam achievements that I was unfairly able to secure before starting the game alone motivated me.

    Ha, only 0.1% of players have this achievement!

    You’ll probably rarely finish games, but that’s typical of the genre

    Like practically every 4x game, the Supernova Edition also has considerable lengths in the endgame when you have to manage 30 planets and 50 fleets and move them around every turn.

    As with the Paradox games, Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova will be a game in which you start many more games than you actually finish.

    But it has weaknesses, especially in the early and midgame, especially since the AI ​​is quite challenging and likes to launch a counterattack.

    Per

  • Motivating, sophisticated gameplay
  • 23 varied races to fulfill every power fantasy
  • Good transition from early game to mid game
  • Clean polish, good performance, (now) few bugs
  • Winking representation
  • Highly customizable game and therefore high replayability
    • Cons

  • Balance is certainly likely to be an issue – races are too different to be “fair”.
  • The game tends to feel “bloated” in the endgame if you command too many planets and fleets
  • Starting situation can be easy or difficult – depending on what resources are nearby

    • A change to the UR version: games now end much later. In Galactic Civilizations IV, winning and dominating a system was usually enough to claim the prestige victory. In the Supernova edition it’s much harder to get to the end.

    There was one match where I thought I had already won: 19 opponents had been defeated, only 4 empires remained, and I had conquered 2 of the 4 systems.

    So I rested, ran the moves, researched luxury technologies because I wanted to go for an easy prestige victory, but in the end this laziness flew back in my face because the opponents – unlike me – continued to do so They built up a military and then bombed me away with a superior fleet.

    They obviously had no understanding at all that I no longer wanted to build 50 ships every turn and laboriously move them to the other end of the galaxy.

    The alien power fantasy really blew up in my face.

    I subjugate humanity with a gang of ram-crazy space rabbits

    mmod-game