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Barely a week seems to go by without a new star-spanning 4X game appearing on Steam, claiming to either offer another variation of Civ in space, build upon the venerable foundations of Master of Orion, or to head off towards strategy's final frontier in the quest to deliver the definitive game of interstellar domination.The Galactic Civilizations series has been more successful than most at delivering on all of the above, possibly because, as its name suggests, it takes more inspiration from Sid Meier's blend of empire building than that established by past masters Simtex. That said, unless you're an insatiable fan of strategy's most overpopulated and underreported subgenre, the distinction will barely be noticeable. All that needs to be stated for the benefit of our introduction is that the original Galactic Civilization did what it said on the box, its sequel was widely regarded as the best in its class since Master of Orion and that, almost a decade later, this latest instalment looks to be as much focused on the future as its contemporaries are fixated on 4X's increasingly distant past.
For all that is new, GalCiv 3's strategy fundamentals are reliably well-established. Recognising that it's the first steps in any 4X game that are the most furrowed, Stardock have once again made it gratifyingly easy to get your empire started, issuing the means to quickly work outwards from your home world, develop nearby planets, establish a research strategy and ponder how best to deal with the neighbours. Granted, if you've sunk hundreds of hours into GalCiv 2, it may seem early on like you're playing an HD upgrade rather than a sequel, but once ship production is in full swing and the fleets are massing on the borders, you start to appreciate all that is new beyond the hexes, the more efficient screen layout and the obvious and necessary graphical upgrade to ships, stations, stars and planets.
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