Customer Reviews

Galactic Civilizations II Gold

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

There is a lot to like about this turn based space strategy game. It is clearly the successor to the type of gameplay popularized by the first two Master of Orion titles back in the 90's.

The graphics are a nice update and there are limitless opportunities to customize the look and feel of the game along with custom starship, race and opponent construction.

You will find yourself saying "just a few more minutes" at 2AM and wondering how the heck the sun came up so fast, so be forewarned!

If you liked Master of Orion 2 and Civ3 but weren't so impressed with their successors (like me) I think you will like this game the most.

This game is highly addictive, beware! There are many ways to play (strategies to use), tons of map setup options, the ship customization is simple yet very flexible, and the graphics and menus are streamlined and pretty. Initial learning curve may be moderate for some but with even a short websearch you will find an easy read to help you grasp the few not-so-obvious points in the game. After playing a couple times the play will come naturally and you will have a hard time tearing yourself away from the game. Additionally, the product support, update system, and overall care the developers have put and continue to place in this game is top-notch in the industry. Enjoy!

If you loved Master of Orion II, Civilization II and other games of this genre, you were probably disappointed in the way the sequels progressed. Personally, Master of Orion III let me down the most, as it was just not a a very well designed 4x game. When I bought this on a whim on vacation in Montréal, I wasn't expecting much better.

I am happy to say, however, I was completely wrong. To begin with, this game is FUN. It is similar in many ways to Master of Orion II, only with an detailed 3-d map, a strong tech tree, a super-intelligent AI and a huge amount of customization options. The best part, however, in my opinion is the support that Stardock Games gives this product. As of this writing, a second expansion pack, Twilight of the Arnor, has come out. And that was after the team had worked on eight major patches to the game, all of which not only fixed bugs but added new features. The community is great too, and the mods that are available on the Stardock site will keep this game going for many, many hours after you think you've seen it all.

I would recommend this game to anyone looking for that 4x game that never came after Master of Orion II. You won't be disappointed

This is one of the few games that can keep my attention. I've been playing it since it came out and I will put it on the shelf for something new but always end up firing it up on a snowy night.

This is probably the most fun strategy game I've played in years. The atmosphere is great, the AI opponents are actually challenging (and that's without cheating, no less!), and tons -- and I mean TONS -- of customization options make for endless replayability. With adding onto that the constant updates and excellent support from Stardock, this might very well be the best PC gaming experience I've ever had!

This is a really cool turn-based space strategy game. Like many others, I've been loving this type of game for a long time (Reach for the Stars, Master of Orion, Master of Orion 2), and really have not found an adequate improvement upon MOO2, released way back in 1996. Pretty amazing hole in an otherwise saturated industry. I guess those of us who like turn based games are in the minority these days, but then again Civ seems to do very well so that says there are plenty of us. There have been numerous horrible attempts at succeeding MOO2 but they have all failed.

Anyway, I've not played this game enough yet to be sure its better than MOO2 but it had a good chance at it. I'll defer to the many reviews by more experienced players saying how great this game is.

What I can say is that after playing the demo of this gold pack for awhile, and deciding it is good enough to buy, the situation becomes annoying. Even though the last expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, was released ~6 months ago, there is no package that contains the full set of GalCiv2. In fact, Amazon doesn't even sell Twilight of the Arnor. Apparently Stargate only distributes it electronically or directly from them? Weird.

I want to buy a boxed combo pack containing the complete game. Especially in a case like this where the expansions are less about adding plot and more about expanding/fixing the rules. I want a nice professionally printed manual that I won't get if I buy the electronic download directly from Stargate (for the same price as if it was a printed, boxed version). Maybe this is too old school and I need to get with the times?

Anyway, cool game, 4 star instead of 5 for not having a good, easy to buy single package product.

I've been a gamer since I learned to read on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES. Once I beat a game I tend to resell it or uninstall it and put it away somewhere. I tried the demo of this game in summer of 2006, I actually bought it that same day, and I'm still playing it (Feb, 2008). This is a highly polished product, a great deal of time and effort went into its creation, and the company keeps patching it, not because it's buggy but because they honestly want to make it better. It is this attitude at the publisher that has caused me to support them whole-heartedly. I have preordered the next expansion, Twilight of the Arnor and have bought another product of theirs called Sins of a Solar Empire, which I greatly recommend as well.

The Bottom Line:
This game is deep, it has a steep learning curve, but once you use your head and figure out what's going on, this game is fantastic.

The GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS series in effect has kept the classic Turn-based Strategy genre alive. When the CIVILIZATION series was going to the dogs (all flashy animations and dummied-down options instead of evolving) and the MASTER OF ORION series was committing seppuku (unable to live with the shame of its 3rd installment), GC reminded us how much fun space colonization can be!

Starting off with a planet in a customizable Universe (size, resource abundance, scarcity of habitable planets etc), one begins his journey of exploration, colonization and conquest. With the exception of roving pirates who can be destructive if encountered early on (but whose annoyance can be deselected), the factions are well balanced and interesting.
The graphics are clear (with full zoom capability), whereas the interface is easy to master and friendly to use.

However, what makes GC so much more fun than any other space colonization game is its ship design options. From freighters and colonist-ships to planet defenders and frigates, there are no limits in what one can build in your dockyard. Want something that looks like STAR TREK's Enterprise, STAR WARS' Millennium Falcon or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's Colonial Vipers? Easily done - the sky is the limit.
Research will not only keep you solvent and your people happy but it will also make it possible to better equip your ships. Stronger engines, more effective armor, more destructive weapons.

And, on top of all that, this being a STARDOCK release, it comes FREE of any intrusive DRM scheme. These days, that alone deserves gamers' support. How much more so that GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS II is a great game. Its new patching method is neither convenient nor reliable and I hope the STARDOCK people will see to that promptly. Besides this shortcoming,

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

The Good: Hours of addictive empire building
The Bad: Weak AI and no multiplayer makes for little challenge beyond building the perfect empire

Let me start by giving you some context - I'm a Noble level player on Civ 4. I've been playing Civ-style games since the old Empire game on Macs and the original Civilization on PC, and I won't make any claim to have ever reached the upper difficulty levels. I get plenty of enjoyment out of the bottom half of the difficulty tree.

So when I start my review by passing along that I have yet to find a level of AI in this game that is a significant challenge, that should tell you something.

I purchased GC2 with all the expansions, including the recently released Twilight of the Arnor expansion. Overall, I have spent many hours playing the game, and thoroughly enjoyed building up empires and conquering the galaxy. It's good, classic, Civ-style fun.

That said, it has all the weaknesses of classic civ. An "infinite-city-sprawl" strategy still wins every time - grab more planets than the other civs and it's hard to lose. The AI doesn't seem to "think smarter" at higher levels, it just gets to cheat; e.g., you just get more penalties and they get more bonuses. The problem is, the AI is so poor that the cheats aren't really sufficient to overcome its weaknesses.

You can tell the designers were concerned about the lack of challenge from the AI because they have added "mega events," which tend to be game-breaking, random events. Having experienced most of them, I turned them off. The whole point the mega events appears to be to give you the human player something else to worry about besides the AI - whether it be ridiculously numerous fleets of super-teched pirates, the return of the super-advanced precursor race, or economy-crippling viruses... (In one case, one of the AI discovered a lost pre-cursor warship that was so advanced that the combined fleets of every race in the game probably could not have destroyed it. Completely at a loss as to what I could do, I offered the AI all of my techs in trade for his ship. Amazingly, he gave it to me. Needless to say, my invincible armada quickly wrapped up the game.) The problem with these events is that the AI is even *less* capable of dealing with them than you are. So the human player must spend endless turns returning things to the status quo, just so he or she can get back to conquering the now-even-more-pathetic AI civs.

These flaws are very disappointing, especially considering the advances that have been made in the genre in the last 17 years.

That said, there are things about the game to like.

If you like customization, it's here in spades. Not only can you customize the design and look of your ships, but you can name *everything* in the game; ships, planets, stars, starbases, etc. You can design your own civilization, including looks, names, and abilities.

The combat system is straightforward, with a good rock-paper-scissors feel. And there are plenty of ways to win that don't require planet-to-planet conquest.

There are plenty of avenues for empire building. Whether it's getting your planets up and running, crafting that perfect fleet, or cobbling together a network of starbases to enhance your economy or spread your cultural influence, you'll find lots to keep you wanting to take one more turn.

In the end, I've returned to playing on the tiny map - its makes for a faster paced, more challenging game, as there are less planets for you to gobble up to get an "ICS" advantage over the AI.

If you're looking for a decent civ-style game to keep you busy while you wait for the next offering from the genre, I'd recommend this game. Just don't expect the depth and challenge you get from a game like Civilization 4.

Finally, Vista Users - I don't know what the other reviewer's issues were, but I'm running the game on Vista and it works beautifully.

It gives as much hours of fun as Civilization 4, it is hard to stop and go to sleep. Very addictive.

And even more, it doesn't have any kind of DRM, one can install it on desktop, laptop and play on both. One of the few games that are really bought ant not just rented.
Stardock keep up the good work.