OT: Galactic Civilizations (the game)

[Renegade 13]

For those of you who have played GalCiv, what do you think of it?? Was it enjoyable, and how does it compare to other turn-based space strategy games (such as SEIV). I downloaded the demo, and it looks promising, but due to the limitations of the demo, I can't be sure. But because I had a little money lying around (and my parent's PayPal account ) I bought it used on Ebay and am now waiting for it to arrive.

So, any opinions??

[Fyron]

It had very little replay value for me. Just not enough options for customization... can't even play as a different race than boring humans. Also, I do not at all like how they handled tech areas and anomolies (mostly the anomolies) enhancing everything by just doing a small percent bonus to various aspects, such as economy, trade, military, etc. Kind of silly... The combat is extremely simplistic, though a little above the classic Civilization combat model. No unit customization at all. Transporting population is handled very strangely, with a very poor interface... Same with setting up colony ships. Also, it is annoying to constantly have to siphon people off of larger colonies, as the more people you get, the more overcrowded the world becomes. It was a major source of micromanagement... One good thing was that the facility images were extremely easy to borrow for SE4.

[Gandalf Parker]

Its famous for its AI but unfortunately that was all I found interesting. The game play lacked. Felt like the game was written for the AI to have fun instead of the player.

[Roanon]

Gal Civ hides most of the rules, you do not even have access to a tech tree or a description of what you are researching currently. This way, it tries to appear to be exciting and challenging. Also, the interface makes it difficult if not impossible to retrieve useful informations or to get an overview to make proper decisions based on the strategical situation. But all rules and all informations given, it will probably be pretty boring.
I do not like these kind of games where you make lucky guesses about what will happen if you do this or that instead of thinking about strategical decisions. Things like these anomalies are typical for this game - I prefer Space Empires without ruins, for example. A nice game of luck and chance if you like this genre, making it easy for the AI, but not comparable to space empires in any way.

[Atrocities]

I love the look of the games UI and its political system. The game is a good game, but not of the calibar of SE IV. Then again, they are two seperate games entirely, and if they were combined, they would be awsome.

[Renegade 13]

Any other opinions?