Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

[Paladin Solo]

Pale Horse's Gamer Review;

First Impression: Galciv 2: Dread Lords

Although you aren't confined to one small/large planet (which could be good and bad), you are tasked with the fate of not just a planetary civilization, but instead, with the fate of the entire galaxy. Think Star Wars Empire at War, only better, bigger, and much more fun.

There is a main story-line for those of you who are not into the open-ended/Civilization-type games. And although I have not yet finished it, it's playing well for now. It involves a story, a galaxy not-so far away, in the future. The Precursors, as they are called, were the ultimate, supreme sentient, badasses. When other sentient and intelligent life begins to emerge in the galaxy, the highly advanced alien race is divided on two sides on what to do with these new beings. One side wants to preserve and protect these life-forms, and let them prosper, while the other wants to enslave it. Eventually, the rifts become so wide between the two, that the controversy spills over into all-out war, with the Dread Lords (the side supporting enslavement of all other life) winning the war on all fronts. But, one day, for some odd, unkown reason, they all disappear. The main story starts off with the humans already colonizing space in the year 2225, and in hostilities with some other alien races, and allied with others, like their Altarian cousins, who look remarkably similiar to humans/terrans.

Then, there is the single-player non-story random maps, not much different from the way Civilization plays. However, it is on a much larger scale than Civilization, believe me. The single-player, "free mode," as I refer to it, starts you off with selecting galaxy specifics and what race, whether alien, or human/terran, and what race specifics you want, such as race name, race leader, logos, ship specifics, political party choice, race abilities, etc... You can even design your own custom race. Then, once you're all set, you begin the game in a beautifully crafted 3-D galaxy, where your home star system and planet are laid in front of your screen, with other stars and planets nearby. You are tasked with leading your galactic civilization in the direction you feel fit, whether that is winning by an alliance-victory (like the U.N. victory in Civilization 4, except without the U.N. part, since there already is a United Planets Council) where you must either ally with all the major civilizations, or destroy those that won't, or whether it is winning by conquest, domination/cultural, or technological victory, where you research technology to the point of evolving past life itself (divinity, so to speak). But, before you get your hopes up on victory, there are major roadblocks in your way. There are unique AI in the game, where sometimes, they just plain hate you depending on your race, and will want to fight you off into extinction.

Other than the gaming-modes itself, the actual gameplay is very fun. Much improved over its prequel, space battles are now more fun to watch. Colonizing star systems are no longer limited to one civilization per system anymore, as more than 1 civilization can share the same star system, though with uneasy cultural consequences. Micro-management is not anything close to what Superpower would be, but it is still involved for a game like this. And, if you're not much of a fan of micro-managing your galactic empire, you can always install governors to do it for you. And, like in the prequel, you must try and keep the economy at least at a stand-still to survive, and that means winning elections for your political party in the Senate. The military side of the game presents tons of new opportunities, especially now that you can design your very own ships! Research and Developement come into major play as well, since they will lead you down the road you pave for yourself. Survival depends on staying up-to-par with technology in a dangerous galaxy. The research provides some entertaining reading material as well. Then, there is foreign policies, espionage, trade/trade embargos, and of course, domestic governing.

Aside from the main civilizations, there are just as much minor races that randomly can pop up at any given time during gameplay. It's nice, especially when you're playing as the humans/terrans, when you run into a technologically less advanced race than yours. Now you're the advanced alien life-forms. But don't think of this as a conquer or be conquered game. There are other victory options, just be prepared for some sinister AI, especially if you play on the advanced difficulty settings.

The one issues that need to be, and apparently are being resolved, are the bugs. From what I've seen on the forums, customer support is rather good. But, it'll take some time, none-the-less to resolve some of the in-game issues. But, until that happens, the modding community is rather good as well, and provide some helpful, useful, and fun downloadables, which can be easily put into your game, and even modded yourself.

All-in-all, I give this game a 9/10. I reccommend picking it up if you can.

Galciv

Stardock

 

[Signeon]

I love 4X games, and this looks like a great one. Gamespot had some interesting things to say about the ship creator:

In addition to playing with the default ships included with the game, there's a very cool ship designer that'll let you make your own. And you don't have to use the various ships included in the game; you can design your own from scratch, using any combination of technologies that you have currently developed. There's also a large set of purely cosmetic parts you can use to create the ship of your dreams; users have posted screenshots of incredibly detailed and complex new ships that they have designed.

They also said somewhere that there's no polygon limit to ship designing.

I'll pick this game up as soon as I have the money.

 

[Paladin Solo]

Pale Horse's Complete Gamer Review:

Update: The Campaign now sucks. The first few missions felt like they were going somewhere, but eventually, it's just a bunch of of the same crap all the way until the end. I won't give any spoilers, but the ending was a big dissappointment for me. Leaving PLENTY of room for a sequel/expansion pack is not a way to end a game. I need closure damnit! Oh, and don't bother researching too many techs until the last mission, because they don't carry over into the next mission. Every tech you research is mostly lost and doesn't transit into the next scenario. Another let down. Play the campaign only if you are intent on knowing what happens, and will buy an expansion pack or sequel. But, I STRONGLY recommend saving yourself the time, and looking up spoilers, because it's nothing special, believe me. Hopefully an expansion pack, large game update, or a sequel will give us some closure.

So far, the game bugs, and the crappy campaign are all that I hate about it now. However, the game strongest point is definitely the custom game/free mode. Playing this on Gigantic maps with the Dread Lords on Parade scenario on harder difficulties will easily entertain your mind.

Updated score: 8.5/10

It still stays my second favorite game though just for the free mode/custom game.

 

[SuAside]

funny how you only substract 0.5 after stating that the campaign utterly sucks, that the ending sucks, that people should read spoilers & that there's enough bugs to annoy you...

 

[Paladin Solo]

Like I said, the gameplay saved GalCiv2 from crashing and burning. And the campaign part of the game is just a minor add-on, the bugs are barely noticeable (you have to go through a chain of things for them to initiate), and the spoilers aren't actually spoiling much (a 2-year old could've come up with that story).

All of these are minor, although, hated, but not a major problem for the game. The true focus of the gameplay and the custom modes (the many types) are what makes this game great, and is mostly what it's about.

 

[Lost Metal]

There should be a board-law, that you have to have played a game for atleast a week, before giving it a review.

Most games, no matter how awful or great they turn out to be, get phenominal reviews on day 1.

Why? Because it is something new and exciting to mess with. Like a shiny new toy, to a curious little kid.

I'm eagerly awaiting the first-impression reviews for the game Oblivion, rather than the actual game. I'm not even buying the game, for the simple fact that I already know it will suck as bad as Morrowind.

But I guarentee we will be seeing some really great reviews the first week or so, then will come the fast transition into buyers remorse, finally leading to "dustcollectoritis." A common disease affecting most games created Post-1998.

 

[Paladin Solo]

Pale Horse's Gamer Review;

First Impression: Galciv 2: Dread Lords

There should be a board law, don't post unless you know what you're talking about.

 

[Lost Metal]

Pale Horse's Gamer Review;

First Impression: Galciv 2: Dread Lords

There should be a board law, don't post unless you know what you're talking about.

What your saying doesn't conflict with my request at all. I say people shouldn't be allowed to give game reviews, unless they've played a game for atleast a week.

It doesn't matter what kind of review it is (first impression, day 2 impression, day 5 on the 7th hour 19th minute impression, ETC...)

Obviously this rule won't go into effect, but it is my OPINION, that this is how it should be.

The reasons supporting this request is that,

#1 The poster won't have to clutter the fuck out of a thread, just to update his NEW impression of the game every single day.

#2, Readers of the thread, get a real and exact review of the game, and don't have to sift through the erratic posts of the reviewer as he slowly begins "realizing" his true feelings about the game over the course of a few days or weeks.

It is much cleaner, much more efficient and less crap/spam filled, my way.

Of course take into consideration, that I am 100% against board spamming and cluttering. I like to read and put out quality. I don't like to go through a 50 page thread, just to get the idea of what people are trying to say. So that is why I think the way I do about this matter.

 

[Paladin Solo]

What your saying doesn't conflict with my request at all. I say people shouldn't be allowed to give game reviews, unless they've played a game for atleast a week.

Even if you only play the game for a week, it can still be just a first impression, especially when the said is game fucking huge.

Obviously this rule won't go into effect, but it is my OPINION, that this is how it should be.

The world won't function on your clock. Unless, of course, you want to start a revolution banning first impression reviews world wide. Meh, I guess I won't mind shooting you.

#1 The poster won't have to clutter the fuck out of a thread, just to update his NEW impression of the game every single day.

Update everyday? What fucking thread are you reading? I gave a first impression, and a complete review, updating the campaign section after giving my extensive review on everything else... If anyone is cluttering anything, it's you.

#2, Readers of the thread, get a real and exact review of the game, and don't have to sift through the erratic posts of the reviewer as he slowly begins "realizing" his true feelings about the game over the course of a few days or weeks.

Again, I gave a real and exact review of everything except for the complete campaign. My true feelings, as said before, are it's still my second favorite game.

It is much cleaner, much more efficient and less crap/spam filled, my way.

Your way is cluttering up the review threads with suggestions on how the board should be run. My way is better with you not in it.

Of course take into consideration, that I am 100% against board spamming and cluttering.

Of course, you're not, otherwise you'd be against yourself.

I like to read and put out quality. I don't like to go through a 50 page thread, just to get the idea of what people are trying to say. So that is why I think the way I do about this matter.

Please re-read my first impression, and then my updated, COMPLETE, review and tell me I didn't add anything else other than telling you the campaign is worthless. I see no quality in your posts, just useless ranting.

As clearly marked in my first post, are the words, FIRST IMPRESSION. As clearly marked in my second post are the words, COMPLETE. There are no 50 pages of spam, there are no useless reviews, I did give people a complete idea on how the game FUNCTIONS without giving them much info on the last few levels of the campaign until my second post, but there is a person cluttering up my thread (you). Your rants belong in the Order, pal.

 

[Lost Metal]

There should be a board-law, that you have to have played a game for atleast a week, before giving it a review.

Most games, no matter how awful or great they turn out to be, get phenominal reviews on day 1.

Why? Because it is something new and exciting to mess with. Like a shiny new toy, to a curious little kid.

I'm eagerly awaiting the first-impression reviews for the game Oblivion, rather than the actual game. I'm not even buying the game, for the simple fact that I already know it will suck as bad as Morrowind.

But I guarentee we will be seeing some really great reviews the first week or so, then will come the fast transition into buyers remorse, finally leading to "dustcollectoritis." A common disease affecting most games created Post-1998.

The reason I am quoting my own post, is so that there's a chance you'll look it over and realize that it was not a personal attack on you. Because you seem to be lashing out at me, for stating my opinion on an idea.

This idea I presented isn't 100% geared towards you, 95% of it is geared toward the entire "General Gaming Board" in general, maybe 5% toward this actual thread.

The theme of the post, is actually a set-up leading to a joke. That joke being about the day 1 reviews we will see for the almost released Oblivion. How they will start off being flawless and lovable, slowly leading into a dust-collecting on a shelf, buyers remorse.

A smarter move would of been starting my own thread on the idea, but since I'm 100% sure it won't be implemented on NMA anytime soon, or ever, I didn't feel the need to. Which is why I just decided to haphazardly stick it in your thread.

My apologizes, although they will probably go unaccepted, for stepping on your yard.

 

[Signeon]

I don't think 4X games have ever had strong campgains before. I'd rather just stick with the freeform (non-story) game anyways; that's why I loved Master of Orion so much (along with Space Empires IV, but that's much harder).

 

[Paladin Solo]

*snip*

Sorry? Your somewhat misleading remarks on spam and cluttering had my blood pressure rising. Me, a fucking orderite.

Meh, although I'll get Oblivion, I WILL NOT post a gamer review because there'll be millions of it out there. Galactic Civilizations wasn't that very well-known until its sequel, I figured I'd give GalCiv2 a review for those of you thinking about getting Star Wars: Empire At War as your only Sci-Fi game for awhile.

PS:

Although I KNEW about this earlier, I simply FORGOT to mention it. The game has no copy protection, meaning heaven for those of you with multiple PCs and/or laptops. The new thread topic on Starforce sparked my memory.

 

[SimpleMinded]

A smarter move would of been starting my own thread on the idea, but since I'm 100% sure it won't be implemented on NMA anytime soon, or ever, I didn't feel the need to. Which is why I just decided to haphazardly stick it in your thread.

Mmm.. i can't really see a reason for it to be implemented on NMA as this is not a game review site. Maybe you should send your suggestions to IGN, Gamespot and Gamespy. In those cases, I agree with you completely as games like Black and white get tremendous scores and then are riddled in shame only days later. But that doesn't really apply here...

Back on topic, I've been looking to try Galactic Civilzaitons... I played the demo for Space Empires 4 Gold a while back but never played long enough to get a good feel for the whol genre.

 

[Murdoch]

So, patch 1.1 came out for this game recently, and I downloaded it. I enjoy the new features associated with ship creation it adds. Considering I originally thought that the ship customization was fluff and I would never use it, I now spend 10-15 minutes adding doodads to my new designs. I've progressed to being able to pwn at the median difficulties and have moved onto the higher ones.

All things considered, this game is a pleasant distraction for when the money grind of WoW gets old. I recommend it to all.

 

[Thorgrimm]

I enjoy the new features associated with ship creation it adds. Considering I originally thought that the ship customization was fluff and I would never use it, I now spend 10-15 minutes adding doodads to my new designs.

What I find rather amusing is that Master of Orion Three also had a detailed ship creation feature, and that was one of the major points folks whined about in that it added uneeded micromanagement. Now folks are finding that feature 'fun'. My how times change.

Not saying you in particular Murdoch, just using your statement to highlight my point.



Cheers, Thorgrimm

 

[Murdoch]

True, although the piece of shit also known as MOO3 had lots of other drawbacks that overshadowed its ship creation system. Although I admit I remeber very little about MOO3's ship creation system, as I only played it a few times before turning it into a $50 beer coaster.

 

[Thorgrimm]

Murdoch you are quite correct about the retail release being a 50 dollar beer coaster, but with a lot of the fan made mods out there it has become quite enjoyable, if you like extreme micromanagement.

Only reason I kept up on it was being a poor man with 3 kids to feed, I don't have a lot of fundage to spend on gaming, man I miss my single days, So I have to get the most out of what I have.



Cheers, Thorgrimm

 

[Paladin Solo]

I posted this on the GalCiv2 Forum:

Now that I've spent numerous hours playing this great game, and experienced even more situations the game offers, I think I'd like to take the time to try and plug in a few ideas here and there.

1) Transports - Is there anyway to get your huge, expensive transport vessels to not disappear on you after an invasion. I've been avoiding invading planets due to the disappearance of transport vessels ever since I played GalCiv 1. Now that you can design your own ships, I was wondering if there was anyway to make it so a transport vessel doesn't disappear after an invasion. I want to make a super-carrier vessel but have been disinterested in taking the time to because I hate it when transports vanish.

2) Realistic Warfare/Population - Though I like the idea of exterminating an entire planet full of aliens and then settling down with your own race afterwards, I tend to find this a turn-off now. I was wondering how hard it would be to try and mod the game so that only a specific population takes part in combat. For example, maybe splitting the population into military and civilian categories, or young and old (this could also add more subcategories like willpower, fighting abilities and capabilities, since military personnel will have more experience and know-how in war than a civilian, or a child vs. and adult, etc...) I know this is a large change to the actual design, but I would find it much more involved, and would plan my battles so that this feature could better advantage my outcomes, and possible the enemies' as well.

This brings me to another point. Realistic sliders. I don't like loading up half-a-billion troops to have any hopes for a planetary invasion being successful. I especially hate it when the majority of my population is in combat transports. This takes away the realistic military feel of the game for me when I have transports that basically contain an enormous amount of my population suiting up for battle. I seriously doubt that my entire population is in the ripe age for fighting wars, realistically.

3) Race Population Uniques - I would like to implement a system where each race has specific preferences, and abilities. For example, the Yor's strength is that they have no morale. Though I know the Yor do have self-awareness of an advanced AI, since they are a robotic race, I however figured they have more adaptability than natural races would. For example, the Yor have no need for morale. This could give them the advantage of colonizing ANY world regardless of class. This could also give the advantage of having their entire population be considered military personnel (like the game already does for EVERY RACE). The Altarians could have the supernatural powers, as their race description says so they could perhaps have a bonus in planetary invasions due to their supernatural powers. And so on, and so forth for each race has some kind of advantage along with weaknesses. For example, the Yor's weakness could be a lack of individuality, so in turn, they're VERY predictable. This weakness could be exploited when it comes to planning for war/battle. The Yor could also be prey to EMPs (something the game does not implement other than ship warfare) and therefore, the Yor could be leading researchers and developers in counter-EMP technology due to their dire weakness to EMPs. The Altarians' weakness could be a counter-point to their supernatural powers (like how Superman got his powers from the Sun but was helpless around kryptonite). The Altarians could be helpless around some kind of counter-energy/energy-using source like strong magnetic waves and such (whereareas when it comes to Humans, magnetic sources are said to make us feel better). I would love to see this design implemented over any other.

4) More/Less Political Control - What I find lacking is the interface of politics. For example, in an Imperial system (the one you first start off with), you as a leader have total control over domestic and foreign policies. But as you advance through the stages of government, I would like to see less focus on a central element, and more on individuality. Granted, the leader of any government makes the pivotal decisions, but perhaps those decisions need more approval. For example, if you're part of a government other than the Imperial one, you need senate-approval to declare war, and change governments. I want this feature expanded to more domestic issues like raising and lowering taxes and government spending. This brings me to another feature I would like to see, and that is war-powers. For example, in times of war, except for say, the Federation government, in all other governments, the central leader has war-powers and can overrule senate decisions and such in keeping with galactic security interests. And perhaps each race will have at least one unique type of government system with its own branch of rules and customs.

5) Red Tape - I would like to see the implementation of a constitution like establishment at the beginning of the game to largely decide your race's course of path in the larger picture throughout the game. For example, if you establish a government based on the principles of a constitution, like that of the United States, you can only modify that government to the principles of that constitution. If you try to otherwise overrule said constitution, then there's the high likelyhood of your own race rebelling against you in a large fashion. I would also like to see the implementation of laws and like to see more involvement in ethics.

6) Espionage Micromanagement - I've always wanted to order an assassination of a political leader in my 4X games. Perhaps not to the point of taking out the main leader like N-1, for example, but maybe strategic generals and diplomatic persons. Perhaps in an effort to turn the tide in an economic stand-off, or military manuever, or even to prevent a research tech from being achieved. However, let's say you implement a system of caution and limitation so that this feature won't be abused.

Anyways, I know I'm asking for a lot, but I would really think a realism mod, or patch/expansion would bring this game to a higher level, and more praise from reviewers and fans alike. I would try and mod these features and designs in myself, but I'm not that advanced of a modder.

Well, criticize or support, and feel free to add your own ideas or modify mine. I really hope this gets to someone in GalCiv's gaming department or a really good modder with game-design knowhow.

 

[victor]

I just started playing this game, it's awesome. Looks like the optimal game so far,has everything Imperium Galactica II was missing. A bit hard, maybe, especially in the beginning. Ship design is sweet.