Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition
This was one of the few games I played over and over as a teen.
I’ll be honest, I never got into the sequel, because I didn’t like the way the planets were depicted (though it probably made influence more intuitive). So I don’t know how this one holds up to GalCiv II. But on its own merits, it’s a good game.
In Galactic Civilizations, you start out as ruler of united Earth. The various alien races, having gotten the secret of hyperdrive from the humans, have turned off their massive wormhole portals and scrapped them for hyper-capable colony ships. The real space race has begun, and it’s up to you to determine the path you want humanity to take.
– Real player with 194.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Grand Strategy Games.
In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#291 out of 612)… it’s time for Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition.
You might know Galactic Civilizations by its other name: “Oh, yeah, there was a game before Galactic Civilizations III, wasn’t there?” Indeed there was! The obvious question here is: why should anyone play Galactic Civilizations 1 when the third game exists, and is so, so good? Historical context? Pure, unadulterated whimsy? A PC so old and out-of-date that it doesn’t even qualify as a toaster? Galactic Civilizations I has got fewer features, less polish, and less depth all-around. Furthermore, you’re in for one hell of an uphill battle if you’re even -thinking- of trying to get the game to run on a modern operating system. Galactic Civilizations does not play nice with anything more advanced than Windows XP!
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Expansion
Good game for the price.
Clean, Simple, Fun.
Found the instructions clear and informative
- Crushed the impossible AI on my 5th game.
– Real player with 18.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
Interesting little side-scroller. Simple but fun concept, easy to pick up and play. Not much meat to it once you master the basics but for what it costs it’s definitely worth it to give it a go and see if you like it.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
AI War: Fleet Command
This game is amazeballs and you should buy it now.
Oh, and if you want to play Ai War multiplayer with me just send me a friend request. :)
Alright so if that wasnt enough for you and my hours of playtime arent very convincing lemme tell you about AI War. This game has been called by many people a tower defense of sorts. I would mostly agree but you cant just put it as a tower defense when thats not what it aims to be. This is a real time strategy with some light 4X here and there, well mostly the Expand and Exterminate parts. This game does not feature a diplomacy system because it is always the ai against you beacuse of the plot of the game. Its written in the description of the game on the store page check it out and you will know why the ai is always your enemy.
– Real player with 820.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
This game is not fair. From the first second of any game, until (in most games) the last stages of the game, the AI possesses sufficient firepower to obliterate your insignificant rebellion without really stretching. In this repect, most games of AI War are a wonderful breath of fearful concern. Always looking over your shoulder. Always trying to avoid annoying the AI too much. Always treading softly, while carrying the biggest gun (indeed every gun) you can find.
Let’s be clear; if you’re looking for a game that holds your hand through a linear, scripted campaign, this is not the game for you.
– Real player with 517.7 hrs in game
Slime Fantasy: the search for the lost sword
More Reviews @ TheVideogameBacklog.com (It’s not updated a lot currently because I’m working on my 2nd game.)
Full disclosure: I went out of my comfort zone for this game because I saw a post about it on twitter about Slime Fantasy and it looked cool. It’s a Pico-8 game about a slime that needs his sword back to defend his kingdom and so I followed the link to Steam. What I saw there was a cool-looking pixel game with zero reviews. Honestly, I hated to see it. Especially when I thought the game looked interesting enough. Then it was confirmed to me that it was a “kill you a lot” platformer. I hesitated for a day or so then picked it up. It did and does kill me a lot; that much is true. Is it worth picking up though? Let me break it down for you.
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Eador. Masters of the Broken World
I’m really not sure whether I can recommend this game. I’m kind of on the fence about it. I’m still not sure whether I’m going to click ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ when I finish writing this review…
The thing is, for what the game is and tries to do, it’s probably my favorite game of all-time. I’ve spent THOUSANDS of hours playing this over the years. Things that I love:
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the tactical combat, complete with diverse battlefields, terrain, spells, balance of stats and abilities
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the wide assortment of diverse fantasy units and items
– Real player with 2546.7 hrs in game
I was introduced to the Eador series in the opposite order of release (as of writing this review). I bought Eador: Imperium in early 2017. I sank a good 40+ hours into Imperium, and I thoroughly enjoyed parts of the game. However, the negative aspects of the game overshadowed the positive (see my review here ). After that experience, I was never planning on trying any other games in the Eador series. But on the 5th anniversary of the Eador series, Eador: Masters of the Broken World (MotBW, for short) was given away for free! So I gave it another shot.
– Real player with 253.0 hrs in game
Space Tyrant
I really like this game and it totally deserves to be as popular as games like Slay the Spire. I got both this and Slay the Spire during the summer sale and ended up refunding Spire because this one enthralled me so much. You might be wondering how the two games are comparable at all, but you must keep in mind that Space Tyrant is as much a roguelite as it is a 4x, and it very much conforms to the idea of losing horribly and repeatedly but having fun in the process as you gradually build up your deck and learn the game. In many ways it scratches the same itch as games like Spire, but something about the colorful aesthetic, humorous themes, and creative genre-mashing put the drab Spire to shame, at least for me.
– Real player with 119.5 hrs in game
TL/DR: 6/10. Great idea, beautiful game, but harsh game design. Expect hardcore RNG roguelike play that detracts from wonderful 3x/4x design and a fun narrative. Also, the devs seem to be onto bigger and better things.
For a game about being a tyrant, you sure are stuck with specific game rules and no options to revolt against the oppressive developer-made campaigns. I really enjoy the idea of this game, and it did many things right…however, some design choices left a sour taste in my mouth. It’s like eating chocolate only to find that someone laced it with lemon juice. I’ve played tons of 4x games (love the genre!), and as much as this game is thought of as a “light” beer and pretzels version, it’s actually way more punishing, and your strategy, no matter how good, might not be enough due to insane RNG and hardcore random campaign rules. I get plenty of that in real life. I want to enjoy the games I play.
– Real player with 83.7 hrs in game
Aggressors: Ancient Rome
This review is actually a Thank you letter to the developer for making this game.
For unbiased reviews skip this one.
I think it was 25 years ago that most of my school holiday time was used to do what I really like. Gaming. But I did not had my first PC yet, so gaming was spending one day in the city to collect all kind of painting materials and paperboards to create the ultimate game myself.
The Civilization boardgame, HeroQuest boardgame and some rare tabletop games I owned served as an example. But mine had a bigger boards, more options, more counters and features, more of everything actually.
– Real player with 562.4 hrs in game
Aggressors - Ancient Rome
This obscure historical game is turn based strategy / tactics to dominate the world starting in 280 BC by default, but adustable from 1000 BC to 500 AD. It is single player and is my personal choice for game of the year. I have played it for over 480 hours in the past 60 days. It is published by Slitherine and available through them, on Steam and GOG.
Where I am coming from
–———————————–
I am the curator of Strategic Win https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9074928/ and have reviewed 142 games there in the past 2 years. I bought this game from Matrix games.
– Real player with 521.5 hrs in game
Dominions 3: The Awakening
I own Dominions 3 and 4. Started playing Dominions 3, few monts later Dom 4 came out - moved to it.
Now I’m playing Dominions 3 and enormousely enjoying it. Less spells, less magical items than in Dom 4 - somehow even more fun.
Why I like Dominions:
1. Very interesting fantasy setting (not just elfes and other copies of Tolkien imagination) with Valkiries, armoured gorillas, ghouls, giants, chariots, eagle-men, bat-men, spider riders, raptor riders, fiery salamanders, armoured or undead elephants, giant ants, tiny dragonflies, barechested warriors, tritons with amber armour, hydras, halfblind cyclopes, nagas, twoheaded giants, liches, krakens, dragons, mechanical dragons, trolls, tengu, ghosts, lamias, jaguars, werejaguars, powerfull but insane gods, mages of various kinds,assasins, shark knights, Vikings with glamour, Aztects with flying ability and many, many more…
– Real player with 360.6 hrs in game
BLUF: This game’s pretty awesome, if you can get past the ancient graphics and focus on the creative/imaginative aspects.
I loved the game. Yes, it is complex, but I think the complexities are actually exagerated. It’s basically raise armies, research spells, invade provinces, collect gold, etc. But somehow I find it 20x more engrossing than any other “4x” game (which I don’t think it quite is). There are little quirks, like that it is turn-based, but then all the movement happens at once for everyone, seasons affect gold income, but they also affect how many mushrooms grow in the forest for your witches to collect, and it’s all these quirks and the plethora of races to play that make the game world feel alive. I love how you are slowly introduced to the lore; it never feels like a chore to read it to get into the game, you just pick up some of it as your priests randomly summon some ultra-powerful seraphim that then randomly gets itself killed by wandering around the map.
– Real player with 159.4 hrs in game
Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension
I’ve played several thousand hours of this game, and dominions 3. The only other game i’ve played anywhere near as much is tabletop rpgs. But i’m biased, old hand, fan, etc. This guy isn’t. Here’s what he had to say on the Steam forum.
@Stephen:
Earlier tonight, one of the most epic occurences I have ever seen in a video game occured. Seeing that as a sign of a good game and also worth telling about, I decided to post here for your reading pleasure. Since it is only due to a confusing chain of events that this occured, I’m going to tell the full story from start to finish. Enjoy.
– Real player with 595.5 hrs in game
Dear friends, I know that many would have you believe that the Pale Ones are extinct, save for the occasional emergence of an Earth Reader or the primitive Pale Ones that are sometimes encountered in remote regions. I am here to set the ancient records straight.
Long have I labored in service to the Ancients, dead and forgotten though they may be to most of the civilized world. Only after extensive research and tireless experimentation had I uncovered a ray of hope in the sea of Agarthan darkness.
– Real player with 333.1 hrs in game
Sakura Stars
The game is very hard but have boobs.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
It is a good game, however this game should come with a manual but for future reference, z to play x to shoot. you can’t use mouse to move but rather the up down left and right keys. It is not a must buy but if you are a pro mover then it’s a must buy game. It is hard to defeat but not impossible. This game doesn’t have any sexual content or nudity. A game just for fun.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game