Let
me start off by telling you right up front that Galactic Civilizations II is a
great game. If that’s all you were looking to find out, then there you have it.
Go right out and buy the game because you’ll probably love it. Go on, it’s OK.
Still here? Good, it means that you prefer to read reviews that go beyond the
“me like space game, space game good” review fodder that is served up by far too
many gaming sites to do little more than clog the internet and make it difficult
for all that spam to get through. You must be thinking, “That’s all well and
good, but why is it a great game and is it worth the time I could spend
otherwise reading my spam?” An inquisitive mind. I like that. Well, I’m here to
answer that question for you, but I have to confess that I’m not going to be
able to do full justice to the game within the space of this review. There is
simply quite a bit to it and to cover it all would require a serious amount of
time on my part, not including the time to find a literary agent and make an
appearance on Oprah. By the time the review finally got into your hands Galactic
Civilizations III would be released and we’d have to start all over again. To
save us both a lot of time I’ll cover what I can and leave the rest for you to
experience on your own.
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| The universe never looked so good. |
If a strategy gamer were to dream of a grand strategy game of space
exploration, commerce, and conflict, then odds are that it would look a lot like
Galactic Civilizations II (GC2). Well, minus the part about finding that you’re
actually playing the game in front of an assembly at your high school while
wearing just your underwear that is. As soon as you begin your first game you’ll
be given a taste of the degree of customization the game allows. You can tweak
the galaxy’s size to make for a short, fast-paced game or a long space epic. You
can specify the density of stars and the propensity for those stars to have
habitable worlds. You can select a race to play that fits your style of play be
it militarist, technologist, diplomat, or economist, and if the game’s default
races don’t do it for you, then you can design your own. Strategy gamers love
having plenty of options, and GC2 delivers them right off the bat.
In traditional fashion, the galaxy map sits on a 2D plane and play progresses
in a turn-based manner but the graphics have a more modern look to them. The
planets are colorful and appear three dimensional, and you’ll even see little
moons revolving around some of the worlds. You can use the mouse wheel to zoom
in and out of the map, and while zooming all the way in is not really practical
from a strategic standpoint; it is a nice way to view the detailed ships,
starbases, and planets in the game.
You begin the game with a homeworld and a couple of ships, and where you go
from there is up to you. Sure, you can win the game by conquering all of the
other races in your galaxy, but there are other paths to victory as well. You
can also achieve victory through diplomacy by allying all of the races to your
side or by reaching the pinnacle of technology. You can even get worlds to join
your empire willingly as they become powerless to resist the allure of your
culture. The great thing about GC2 is not only that it gives you so many paths
to victory, it gives you the freedom to change or adjust course as you play. You
may find that your pursuit of technology has given you better warships than
anyone else and just decide that you may as well go ahead and crush them all.
Even if you have a plan you may have to change it during the game (and more than
once) because of the game’s amazing AI.
The other alien races provide for some tough competition. Not because they
have a propensity to cheat as is often the case in strategy games, but rather
because they are genuinely devious and crafty. You’ll be continually surprised
in this game – that apparently peaceful race interested in nothing but trade was
simply raising a war chest of funds. You can’t just float your way though this
game on autopilot; you’ll have to constantly keep an eye on what your friends
and enemies are up to. This is the stuff that we strategy fans live for!
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