Between Steam Early Access, Greenlight, Kickstarter, and betas both open and closed, it can often be difficult to tell when a game has actually been released. Stardock, the developer behind the Galactic Civilization series, has announced that Galactic Civilization III will move from Steam Early Access to a full release on May 14th.
If you aren’t familiar with the series, you’re missing out on some classic space-faring fun. The game is best categorized under the genre 4X, as the four major parts of the game are to explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate.
In the year 2178, Earth is finally capable of faster-than-light travel, and has sent out a colony ship to see what it can find. You take control of the situation as the ship lands on a habitable planet, and from there on it’s all up to you. You’ll have to manage every aspect of your colony, from big picture tasks like whether to focus on military might or cultural influence, to the smallest minutiae such as how to equip scientists dealing with a dangerous artifact, or how large the thruster guards are on your ships.
As you get further into this turn-based strategy game, political relationships will grow infinitely complex, colonies will collapse, and massive wars will break out. Even as your colony swells and changes, you’ll still have to micromanage every aspect of that expansion. Your skill will determine whether your power spreads throughout the galaxy, or whether you die alone on a remote planet.
The third game in the series brings with it a raft of modern updates, including the ability to face up to 128 other races at the same time, online and LAN multiplayer, and revamped stat and ship building systems. The level of detail is impressively immense, and you can check it all out when the game releases on May 14th, or head to the Steam page now to pay the same price for the Early Access version immediately, with access to the final game included.
