Galactic Civilizations 4 (PC) has been out for a few days. Testers compare it to the sci-fi epic Stellaris from Paradox and see little innovation. However, MyMMO author Schuhmann has found his favorite race: The Mimot are a bunch of cute and gluttonous monsters who act harmlessly, but then overrun the galaxy. And that’s what makes it so appealing.
What kind of game is this?
- Galactic Civilization is a classic 4X strategy game “Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate” like Civilization 6 or Stellaris. You start with a planet and a few ships and work towards building a space empire. Along the way, you quickly encounter other alien races: how do you deal with them?
- The game was released on April 26 for PC and only on the Epic Game Store. It is not yet available on Steam.
- Critics give the game a relatively weak 69% on Metacritic. The main criticism: too little innovation.
An oddly quirky game:
Many comparisons with Stellaris, where Gal Civ IV performs poorly
What is being criticized about the game? Testers who engage with Galactic Civilization 4 say: the game is craft-wise okay, but offers too little radical new ideas. Ultimately, it’s just “bigger, smoother, and prettier” than its predecessors.
The game somehow lacks a kick to make it more exciting and innovative.
The GameStar uses Galactic Civilization IV to highlight how incredibly good Stellaris from Paradox has become after what feels like 98 DLCs now (via gamestar).
This is generally a problem that all new strategy games are currently facing: The “last generation” of strategy games has received so many DLCs over the years that new games appear too simple and somehow lame. Total Warhammer 3 also feels this way:
Every strategy gamer has at least one quirky tick – This is mine
This is the tick I have with 4X games: I intensely played the predecessor, Galactic Civilization 3, and initially also felt that the 4th part doesn’t offer much new.
But I have a typical strategy gamer tick. I tend to play strategy games with a race that radically changes the gameplay:
- In Civilization 6, I only play as China and aim to build every single wonder that exists. As soon as someone else builds a wonder, I am mortally offended and end the campaign.
- In Stellaris, I play a crazy Borg race that ignores conquest mechanics and diplomacy, and solely wants to subjugate and assimilate all other races – resistance is futile.
- In Crusader Kings 3, I try to breed the Übermensch in Ireland.
- In Galactic Civilization 3, I played the strange, silicon-based race Slyne that doesn’t need food, but feeds on minerals – therefore, I completely missed an important game mechanic, which I only realized much later.
Intelligent trees revive dead planets – Or do you prefer Space Jesus?
This is what makes Galactic Civilization 4 appealing to me: While clicking through the playable races in the new game on the Epic Game Store, I saw the usual suspects:
- A warrior race like the Klingons
- crazy merchants like the Ferengi
- also strange stone monsters, the Onyx Hive, were back
Along with a all-consuming spider race, of course Cyborgs and two boring human races, which honestly make me wonder who on earth plays them. One even starts on “Earth” and has “Mars” right next to it. How lame is that?
In the end, my gaze fell on the Krynn: This is a kind of religious sect whose strength lies in peacefully conquering other worlds by extending their influence so far that they “culture flip” their planets and take them over.
I had found my way to play, I thought!
In the end, the purely passive expansion of my worlds was too lame for me. Especially since certain races explicitly refuse to join my cool new religion. Allegedly, Cyborgs don’t need my Space Jesus at all. Those fools!
After the Krynn, I tried out “Baratak Grove” and could even win with them: This is a race of intelligent trees that can revive “dead planets” with a seed, the only ones in the game that can do that. An absolutely OP mechanic.
Because these otherwise useless dead planets now become fertile colonies that support and relieve your main planets. This gave me such a strong advantage that I marched to victory because I simply got more out of my little corner of space than anyone else.
The Mimot Brotherhood cuddles the galaxy to death
This race ultimately captivated me: The “Mimot Brotherhood” looks like a joke and resembles miniature Ewoks. Other alien races like to greet them with: “Don’t underestimate us; we are not only cuddly but also incredibly cute.”
But there must be something to this race, as it is said that they evolved on a planet together with 4 other intelligent species, but are now the only surviving species. If a Mimot wants to be really nasty, he says: “You remind me of one of the races that evolved alongside us.”
In the lore, it is said: The race is known for its incredible reproductive drive and its nutty taste, as they are preferred as rations for aggressive alien races in tough times.
When I started with the Mimot Brotherhood, I initially thought the race might be buggy. Because every ship I built was suddenly there 2 times. The mating-happy fur monsters have a national ability that causes every ship they build to spawn twice, but with 25% fewer hit points.
All in all, the Mimot are a strange race because in their factions you can put leaders for special bonuses that ensure that the people multiply incredibly fast, but also eat like crazy.
The race appears to be completely gluttonous and frisky. While with other races you have to painstakingly find population units to establish new colonies or outposts, new cuddlers with the Mimot are plentiful.
Additionally, the class has a diplomacy bonus and has relatively high “social scores,” making it easy to turn Mimot into ambassadors to lull opponents while you proliferate and build up.
First cuddle and then gobble everything up
The combination of abilities leads to an exciting strategy:
- Instead of slowly building up and taking your time,
- you already burst out massive colonies early on while trying to cozy up to other aliens and act harmlessly, to avoid being eaten,
- because you expand twice as fast as everyone else, the sector quickly fills up with Mimot
- and then you consider whether to turn the tables and devour your neighbors who feel safe.
This leads to a totally expansive strategy, where the cuddliest race constantly needs more room to expand.
The exact opposite of the Mimot are the cyborgs Yor – they don’t multiply at all. Every new population unit has to be built anew.
This is what I love about 4X games: Even though Galactic Civilization 4 is frowned upon for “little innovation,” it brings exactly what I like about 4X games:
Many 4X games have such unique races that the entire game changes when you choose them. Some mechanics are not used at all, while others become extremely important.
Even though Galactic Civilization 4 is only receiving mediocre reviews, I have fallen for the cuddle monsters.
MyMMO author Schuhmann is primarily into strategy games besides MMORPGs:
In my game of the year, I have 14 children, 4 wives, and I am the emperor of Ireland
