Recent reviews by General Pants

I want to write a huge long review telling you how much I love this game and how much time I've spent playing it (1,600 hours to-date), but you don't want to read that. This is the best of the best. 98% of what you like about Total War is here, but it is simple and easy to learn. Difficult to master. When you get tired of it, there are a huge number of mods. Some (Masters of Strategy, DarthMod, Radious) make a completely new game. Did I say new game? There are essentially two other games for this title, one of which is stand-alone. I haven't played them, just not interested, but I still bought them.

For my money, this is the best computer game I have played in my 30+ years of playing. And it is nine years old! Buy it! If it is free, get it and all the DLC! You may just fall in love.

This is NOT a DLC, it is the culmination of GalCiv3, and the vindication of all of us who have held on to what seemed like a lackluster sequel. Crusade makes GalCiv3 a NEW GAME! The difference are striking, and the improvements are dramatic! My review is BUY BUY BUY!

Do not buy GC3 without this DLC, you will not get the full game! Does that sound like a problem? Yes, and no. It does mean you will pay more. However, what you get is not a DLC, it is an old-fashioned expansion, the kind that Civ5 had wherein gameplay really changed in dramatic and good ways. The game is astronomically (heh heh) better for this expansion! I have been highly critical of the DLC for this game before, but this one is so worthwhile, it justifies buying all the others. New players: get the bundle!

Gone is the problem of not having enough factions to fill the galaxy, thanks to a proper crowdsourcing system. Anyone can make a decent civ without knowing .xml! Full civilizations are postable on Steam, and you will only have to go to third-party sites for the really really in-depth civs and (still) mods. Ships and civs can be designed without starting a game. There are some glitches here, but they will be resolved, I am sure.

The new economic system is easy to understand, and there is much less micromanaging of your empire. New players will find it much more simple to play a competitive game early. The new "citizen" system is not the same as the 'great people' in the Civlization series, it is more fun! The resource system is a new model unlike that of the Civ series, and makes more sense. Managing starbases is easier than ever. The new interface makes large empire management easier (I only play big games). There are now more options than the old 'rush out and grab planets' strategy. I am still exploring this aspect of the game, but a lot of thought went into it. Modding support continues, and with the new civilization and fleet design system, everyone can add their creativity to the game in a much more accessible way.

Add to that the support and free added content that you can always expect from Stardock. Yes, I am an unabashed fan of this company: they once did a whole update just so those of us with slower computers could keep up! I have found that requests for improvement on their forum often magically result in improvements to the game. They really do care about your gaming experience!

So, all the fun of GalCiv2, with more customizability, more diverse play strategies, better graphics (of course), and an overall better gameplay experience. I have quibbles, but they are quibbles, not cons. GalCiv3 is finally a mature sequel with Crusade!

Again: BUY BUY BUY!

[NEW EDIT: I will review the new DLC Crusade soon. For right now, I want everyone who reads this to know that the game has improved dramatically! NOW you can get excited! Most of the "cons" I list here have been addressed. GalCiv3 + Crusade IS the game it was meant to be, and finally lives up to the name GalCiv3! It will still need a few tweaks, of course, and it still doesn't have everything GC2 had, but it has MORE. Much much more!

UPSHOT: Buy this game, but buy Crusade with it! Yes, that costs more money, but the difference is overwhelming!]


I loved GalCiv2, and I was very excited for this new game (I was a junior founder, I bought in early). Now I am not so excited. I think it is the best new 4X game space game out there, but it frequently fails to live up to its predecessor, and it certainly doesn't feel like it has benefitted sufficiently from nearly a decade of advancement in gaming. This game has great potential, but after waiting a year for it to be realized, I'm beginning to lose hope. If you like space 4X, sci fi, or galciv2, you might try picking this up on sale, just to see if you like it. Don't get too excited, though.

Here's a short breakdown:

Pro: Multiplayer (finally!)
Con: Multiplayer doesn't really work well
Con: How long will the game keep making money and therefore being supported with limited multiplayer?

Pro: AI is what the developer prides itself on
Con: The AI is not very good
Con: Worse, there are obvious exploits
Con: Someone with a knowledge of basic probability needs to go over the game mechanics... there are some weird bits*

Pro: Huge maps and the ability to play over 100 opponents
Con: Only comes with a dozen factions. The rest are crowd-sourced on Steam, and they are generally lackluster.
Con: Only a slow trickle of "offical," complete new factions from the developer, and they seem to actively avoid adding them
Con: The first race they added in DLC is a species of super-aggressive squirrels that started in GC2 as a joke... seriously

Pro: Fine graphics
Con: The movies use proprietary software, so it is much harder to add new ones
Con: Certain things, like lights for ships and faction map colors, are limited and difficult to mod
Con: Clumsy interface

Pro: Lots of DLC support
Con: The DLC is mostly weak and disappointing
Con: The first expansion was similarly weak

Pro: Delightful ship designer
Con: You can only design ships in-game, no independent shipyard
Con: The designer is terribly organized and harder to use than the GC2 version

Pro: There is customer support
Con: You can't just record a bug, you have to send them a video showing them something they could reproduce on their own computer
Con: And they will close a ticket if you don't get back to them very quickly (they are not so prompt themselves)

Pro: Extensive modding support
Con: You can't upload mods to Steam
Con: Some programming shortcuts make "obvious" mods difficult (not unique to this game, I'm sure)**

Pro: Design as many factions as you want, supports multiple custom civilizations
Con: But they are in an uneditable form outside of the game***
Con: There is no interface for editing factions, you have to start a game
Con: Large numbers of factions become unmanagable in an administrative sense: how do you find the one you are looking for with no search and no rational order to the listing?
Con: Odd choices in programming colors limits the customizability of ships, interfaces, etc.
Con: Game still doesn't include all of the factions remaining at the end of GC2 (Drath, Korath)

Pro: Some "interesting" new game concepts, like tourism (yawn) and mercenaries (yawn)
Con: Lacks, or nerfs, many of the features of GalCIv2, including spies (coming), asteroid miners (nerfed), terror stars (maybe someday)
Con: Major features that came with the basic GC2, like politics and political parties, are gone. United Planets seems to be significantly nerfed.

Pro: The developer is very good about updates
Pro: The developer often throws new content into updates
Pro: The developer is pretty clever
Con: There seem to be a lot of glitches/ "unadvertised features" that still haven't been resolved despite extensive documentation


* e.g., Class 8 and 11 planets are more likely to occur than an either 7,9, 10, or 12, and random planets cannot be class 17!
** Aquatic ability is hard-wired, adding new strategic icons...
** You can't get the text back out to, say, spellcheck, the the text boxes are too small, the formatting changes unexpectedly, the typing interface is glitchy, and you can't give custom factions everything a built-in faction can (mostly for Steam compatibility)

This is the DLC I wanted. If you aren't obsessed with making new ships, this isn't for you. It is for me. I loved it. This is what DLC is for: adding things half the players don't care about. This was one I specifically wanted, and Stardock made. Thanks!

Not the worst DLC, this one is a little thin. Still, it doesn't make big promises like some of the other DLC, and there weren't any obvious missed opportunities. Worth it if you love the game, completely missable if you don't. In other words: DLC.

Seriously? Again? This is another $5 DLC that contains very little of what is promised. Sure, there are two new ship styles, and some new parts, but (AGAIN) the new factions are NOT PLAYABLE... what is this? I used to love the Korx in GCII (I am a weirdo), and I was going to mod them back in. Well, now I can, but WHY DO I HAVE TO? Why can't Stardock just ass these factions into the game? The Xendar And Haven would have been a great opportunity in the last DLC, but this is just too obvious! Boo Stardock!

No no no... just no. This is a $5 DLC that contains almost NOTHING. The "new" faction is a retread of the humans, and the other two "new threats" ARE NOT PLAYABLE FACTIONS! What a waste of time! Campaigns interest me not at all, I want new ship parts (got some of those), new factions (not really), new ship styles (one), and new gameplay (none). Basically, $5 isn't much, but you could totally pass this up unless you are an avid player. And, with a few more DLCs like this, there will be fewer of those around, thinks I...