[Renegade 13]

GalCiv 1 was ok. I'd rate it as being mediocre...not the worst game I've played, but SEIV was/is far far better.

Some points that made GalCiv not so good:

1. You could not design your own ships...they were pre-made, everyone had access to the exact same designs, no variation. That really sucked

2. Research tree was very very complex. I had to download and print out a tech tree just to keep track of where I was and what I wanted to research, and what each tech would give me.

3. Their concept of star systems kinda sucked. All planets, starts etc were all in one game square, which I thought was very clumsy.

4. It was very tough to get the AI's to make peace with you. They'd make peace and ally with each other, but you? Never.

5. Combat: Regular ships could not destroy an enemy colony. You HAD to invade it using transports, and the troops for those transports came from the population of your own planets! So attacking an enemy who had a larger population base than yours was virtually impossible, since they could repel any invasion you sent at them. Very very slow.

Other than those main points, it was an ok game, I've probably spent 30 or 40 hours playing it...not too bad for a game I bought for $20 on Ebay