14 DAY TRIAL // This year is shaping up to be one of the best ones for video games that deliver a complex and engaging experience even before the moment when players start an actual campaign and get to the core mechanics.
When I played Pillars of Eternity from Obsidian, I spent almost two hours in the character creation system, exploring all options and reading up on my potential choices, before I finally committed to a protagonist and then actually started the story.
With Galactic Civilizations III, I jumped right into a game after simply choosing the Terrans the first time around, but after about two hours, I returned to the New Game screen in order to better explore its many options.
There are eight very different pre-made races available, known from previous installments in the series, but the Custom Race button opens up a wealth of other options to choose from.
Gamers can fine-tune their civilization to suit their own play style, and the amount of cosmetic tweaks that are offered is also impressive.
I tend to play scientifically-minded factions, and the system designed by Stardock is flexible enough and there are at least five different ways I could implement my tendencies in Galactic Civilizations III.
Customization means extended replayability
Carefully adjusting traits and abilities to make my custom race, the Campineni, able to out-think all their rivals while also giving them moderate productivity boosts at the expense of military might feel a little like cheating.
But it's impossible to create a template for a faction that will always be in pole position to dominate the galaxy, as all advantages need to be balanced with clear weaknesses.
But Galactic Civilizations III makes it easy to balance out such advantages by simply setting all the characteristics of the galaxy in which a campaign takes place at Random.
The most technically inclined faction cannot succeed in all possible versions of the galaxy, and I love to pair a carefully created race with a universe that's created by the engine with no input from me.
Alternatively, a random race with a carefully constructed galaxy can offer just as good a gameplay experience.
The extensive customization options that Stardock has incorporated in Galactic Civilizations III make the game very replayable, the kind of experience that will probably live on my hard drive at least through the end of this year.
