Galactic Civilizations IV
Last updated: 2026-02-16
- Excellent 4X strategy game experience
- Diverse races and factions enhance gameplay
- Easy to learn and use mechanics
- Repetitive and boring gameplay loops
- UI issues and cluttered interface
- Game plagued by bugs and crashes
Emotions
Players are frustrated primarily due to technical issues such as constant crashing, game-breaking bugs, and performance problems that make the game unplayable. Additionally, poor design choices, unbalanced gameplay mechanics, and issues with multiplayer syncing contribute to the frustration. Translation issues, lack of quality-of-life features, and tedious management also play significant roles.
Players feel disappointed due to the game's lack of depth, innovation, and engaging content, making it feel outdated and uninspired. Issues with AI behavior, graphical glitches, and poor translation further contribute to this sentiment. Many players also express regret over the game's similarity to its predecessors and the perceived lack of quality and polish.
Players are satisfied with the game's improvements, ease of learning, and enjoyable features such as custom alien races and ship design. The game's complexity, customization options, and replayability are also appreciated. Despite some bugs, the overall positive experience, stability, and developer responsiveness contribute to player satisfaction.
Players are excited about the game's depth, variability, and addictive nature. Features like ship design, civilization creation, and the potential for future DLCs and updates add to the excitement. The game's unique interactions, planet development, and positive comparisons to other strategy games also contribute to this emotion.
Players enjoy the game for its fun and engaging mechanics, particularly in the early and mid-game stages. The rich lore, varied races, and multiple paths to victory are highlighted as enjoyable aspects. Customization options and the overall gameplay depth also contribute to the positive experience.
Verdict
Mostly negative
Summary
Positive 49% · Negative 51%. Score: 51 / 100
Verdict
Predatory Monetization
Summary
The analysis of user reviews reveals significant dissatisfaction with the monetization practices of the game. Key issues include overpriced DLCs and season passes, lack of substantial content in DLCs, and a general perception of greed and cash-grabbing by the developers. These factors contribute to a negative user experience and a sense of being exploited financially. Score: 85 / 100
Top points
- Overpriced DLC and Season Passes - High
- Lack of Content in DLCs - High
- Perceived Greed and Cash Grab - High
- Technical Issues with DLCs - Medium
Verdict
Needs Improvement
Summary
The primary user complaints revolve around the complex and spreadsheet-like mechanics of planet management, significant performance issues after a certain point in the game, and the need for external resources like a wiki to understand the game. These issues severely impact the user experience, making the game feel more like a chore and less enjoyable. Score: 50 / 100
Top points
- Complex Mechanics - High
- Performance Issues - High
- Instructional Data Dependency - Medium
Positives:
- Many players express that the game is enjoyable, fun, and generally a great experience. The gameplay is intuitive, stable, and has a good pace.
- The game is praised as a great 4X space strategy game, perfect for fans of turn-based strategy games. It offers an engaging experience with a well-designed UI.
- The game features a variety of races and factions, each with unique attributes and mechanics, adding to the game's diversity and replayability.
- The game is noted for being easy to learn and use, with an intuitive user interface and helpful graphs and pop-up information.
- The game offers a robust ship customization system, allowing players to design ships with various parts and animations. This feature is well-received and adds depth to the gameplay.
Negatives:
- Gameplay is often described as repetitive and lacking depth. Players find the decisions and tasks monotonous and uninspired.
- The user interface is criticized for being clunky, confusing, and poorly scaled. Many users find it unintuitive and outdated.
- Players report a high frequency of bugs, ranging from minor irritations to significant issues, particularly in multiplayer mode.
- Combat is criticized for being boring, unbalanced, and lacking tactical depth, making it unrewarding for players.
- The game is reported to be unstable, with frequent crashes on startup and during gameplay, leading to a poor user experience.
Gameplay:
- The game is fundamentally a 4X strategy game, emphasizing the exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination mechanics typical of the genre. Players engage in turn-based strategic gameplay set in a space environment.
- The game features detailed ship mechanics, including movement, creation, and management. Players can control and customize their ships, which are crucial for fleet operations and combat.
- Space combat is a significant aspect, with players engaging in battles using lasers and explosions. The combat system includes both automated and manual control options, though some reviews mention it can be shallow.
- The game employs turn-based strategy mechanics, allowing players to plan and execute their moves in a structured, turn-by-turn manner. This includes both single-player and multiplayer modes.
- The game offers complex and deep gameplay mechanics, providing a high level of strategic depth and replayability. Players can engage in various mechanics that require careful planning and execution.
Performance:
- The game is poorly optimized, leading to performance issues even on high-end PCs. This includes slow performance in large galaxies and extreme resource consumption.
- The game experiences frequent crashes, particularly in multiplayer mode and during late-game sessions. This includes random crashes to desktop and crashes every few turns.
- Players report a variety of bugs, including translation bugs, glitches in economic policy settings, and general weird bugs that affect gameplay.
- The game runs poorly on large maps, with significant slowdowns and performance issues. This includes long turn times and slow performance in large galaxies.
- The game has various UI glitches and performance issues, including slow loading into battle viewer windows and glitches in the economic policy settings page.
Recommendations:
- The game is highly recommended for fans of 4X and strategy games, particularly those who enjoy turn-based mechanics and space strategy.
- Many reviews suggest waiting for a sale or discount before purchasing the game, indicating that it may not be worth the full price.
- Players who enjoyed Galactic Civilizations III will find this game familiar with updated graphics and minor gameplay tweaks.
- Despite some issues, the game is considered worth trying, especially for dedicated fans of the series or genre.
- Several reviews suggest playing other games like Stellaris, Endless Space 2, or X4: Foundations instead.
Miscellaneous:
- Some players expressed dissatisfaction with having to pay the full price for the game, especially without any affiliation or incentives from the developers.
