Overview
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away…
This is how a typical story from star wars begins. For those of you who are sci-fi fan fans, nothing can match the exhilaration of a story like thisïŠ. Galactic Civilization 2 (or Galciv2) as it is known, comes from Stardock. Based on the responses to the original Galciv, which was released in 2003, they came out with this.
Fans of turn based strategy gaming will find this a very familiar and comforting sight.
The story thus far…
You have to lead a civilization to victory in the galaxy. It’s as simple as that. There are nine races you can choose from, including Terrans (aka humans).
Initially, when mankind was not yet out of the mammoth bashing phase, the galaxy was spanned by an alien civilization. These all powerful lords watched other races slowly coming up and beginning to move out of the caves. Some of these felt that they should be watched over and helped, while others (or the so called dreadlords) felt that they should be crushed. And thus started a galaxy spanning war.
Suddenly one day, they all disappeared. And all they left behind was ruins which we find on various planets. Humans discovered the hyperdrive and believing in the benefit of all races, shared this with each race as they encountered them. However, each race then went on a desperate expansion trying to get as much of the galaxy as possible under them.
Then, one day, the Dreadlords come back. The Campaign is the story of what happens next. No more spoilers...
The campaign is pretty open ended BTW.
Gameplay
This is what makes or breaks a game, and it is especially true in case of turn based games like these. Galciv2 takes the same old moves to a new extent.
I will consider only the skirmish mode, as this is what where you will be spending most of your time. You start off by choosing your civilization. As each civ has its own advantages (and they are pretty evident in play as well), and its own specialties, I suggest you start of by trying a different one each time. Depending on your style of play, you can stick to one later, or even create your own. I prefer the Terrans or the Arceans.
Then you setup the galaxy and choose what kind of stuff you want in there. Depending on the size of the galaxy, you are set for a game which is a day long, or one which can take a couple of weeks. The fastest I have finished one is in 12 hrs.
You then choose your opponents. Once done, you can start off.
Each turn, you can
- Choose what enhancements to build on each of your worlds
- Choose what ships are to be built on the worlds which have a stardock.
- Choose what your existing ships will do.
Additionally, you will also have to choose which tech to research, choose your ethical alignment (good, neutral or evil), and choose the amount of resources which can go into each sector among other things.
You have multiple victory conditions – you can defeat everyone, else ally with those whom you have not defeated, culturally influence more than 75% of the galaxy or else research to the end of the technology tree.
Tips for Beginners
Here are some things which I have found useful so far -
Addictive, with unlimited playability in the skirmish mode makes this one of the best games I have played in a long time. And its damn good fun.
Why I like this game
Research tree – It’s huge. Humongous. Gigantic. And I run out of words. With the kind of research you have available, it can take you an entire long game (with the size of the galaxy itself set at gigantic) before you can even see the end in sight. And its funïŠïŠ. It will take at least around 10 games or so before you get used to it.
Customizable ships – You have a ship builder in which you can do almost anything. Including customizing the looks of your ship, not just the tech in it. I got some real funky looking ships.
Unpredictable AI – It’s almost human in nature. You sometimes get the feeling that its another human playing. It has its quirks, and its damn good (most of the time).
Downs
No multiplayer – Imagine being able to play this against other human players. Although the Ai is very good, I would think a non-computer player would have made a difference. Even if not internet gaming, they should have at least had some LAN gaming options available. Right now, you can only post your scores on the website (or the metaverse as they call it).
Story – Does not have much of a part to play in the game (well...as much as I would have liked it to
).
Links
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
IGN review
A few more images
A single system
Planetary utilities
Another techtree
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away…
This is how a typical story from star wars begins. For those of you who are sci-fi fan fans, nothing can match the exhilaration of a story like thisïŠ. Galactic Civilization 2 (or Galciv2) as it is known, comes from Stardock. Based on the responses to the original Galciv, which was released in 2003, they came out with this.
Fans of turn based strategy gaming will find this a very familiar and comforting sight.
The story thus far…
You have to lead a civilization to victory in the galaxy. It’s as simple as that. There are nine races you can choose from, including Terrans (aka humans).
Initially, when mankind was not yet out of the mammoth bashing phase, the galaxy was spanned by an alien civilization. These all powerful lords watched other races slowly coming up and beginning to move out of the caves. Some of these felt that they should be watched over and helped, while others (or the so called dreadlords) felt that they should be crushed. And thus started a galaxy spanning war.
Suddenly one day, they all disappeared. And all they left behind was ruins which we find on various planets. Humans discovered the hyperdrive and believing in the benefit of all races, shared this with each race as they encountered them. However, each race then went on a desperate expansion trying to get as much of the galaxy as possible under them.
Then, one day, the Dreadlords come back. The Campaign is the story of what happens next. No more spoilers...
The campaign is pretty open ended BTW.
Gameplay
This is what makes or breaks a game, and it is especially true in case of turn based games like these. Galciv2 takes the same old moves to a new extent.
I will consider only the skirmish mode, as this is what where you will be spending most of your time. You start off by choosing your civilization. As each civ has its own advantages (and they are pretty evident in play as well), and its own specialties, I suggest you start of by trying a different one each time. Depending on your style of play, you can stick to one later, or even create your own. I prefer the Terrans or the Arceans.
Then you setup the galaxy and choose what kind of stuff you want in there. Depending on the size of the galaxy, you are set for a game which is a day long, or one which can take a couple of weeks. The fastest I have finished one is in 12 hrs.
You then choose your opponents. Once done, you can start off.
Each turn, you can
- Choose what enhancements to build on each of your worlds
- Choose what ships are to be built on the worlds which have a stardock.
- Choose what your existing ships will do.
Additionally, you will also have to choose which tech to research, choose your ethical alignment (good, neutral or evil), and choose the amount of resources which can go into each sector among other things.
You have multiple victory conditions – you can defeat everyone, else ally with those whom you have not defeated, culturally influence more than 75% of the galaxy or else research to the end of the technology tree.
Tips for Beginners
Here are some things which I have found useful so far -
- Colonize, but keep an eye out – Don’t go too far. Each colony ship takes away some of your planets population. If you go too low (<2b initially), your initial colony has a hard time recovering. Keep an eye out for planets with a higher class number. This indicates that it has more space on it for development.
- If you are stuck in a corner of a large galaxy, then make sure you research the propulsion systems first. The faster you go, the more ground you can cover, and the more planets you can colonize.
- Initially, make sure that your civilization manager concentrates on social production (this is the money assigned to developing planetary enhancements).
- On a new planet, do the following first
- Buy a stardock, so that you can begin ship production right away.
- Star the production of a basic factory. This increases the production of the planet.
- Once the population of a planet approaches the food production, then build a farm. To keep people happy, you will also have to build morale boosting enhancements.
- Constructors are used to build starbases. These are the most useful multipliers of any planet. When built, they can increase the economic, military or cultural effect of any of your planets. They consume a constructor when built, and can be enhanced repeatedly.
Addictive, with unlimited playability in the skirmish mode makes this one of the best games I have played in a long time. And its damn good fun.
Why I like this game
Research tree – It’s huge. Humongous. Gigantic. And I run out of words. With the kind of research you have available, it can take you an entire long game (with the size of the galaxy itself set at gigantic) before you can even see the end in sight. And its funïŠïŠ. It will take at least around 10 games or so before you get used to it.
Customizable ships – You have a ship builder in which you can do almost anything. Including customizing the looks of your ship, not just the tech in it. I got some real funky looking ships.
Unpredictable AI – It’s almost human in nature. You sometimes get the feeling that its another human playing. It has its quirks, and its damn good (most of the time).
Downs
No multiplayer – Imagine being able to play this against other human players. Although the Ai is very good, I would think a non-computer player would have made a difference. Even if not internet gaming, they should have at least had some LAN gaming options available. Right now, you can only post your scores on the website (or the metaverse as they call it).
Story – Does not have much of a part to play in the game (well...as much as I would have liked it to
).Links
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
IGN review
A few more images
A single system
Planetary utilities
Another techtree
