Everything CivIV is – but better. An engrossing game from a sympathetic company with challenging AI - finally!
The gameplay is solid – if, on larger maps, often unexciting at stretches. Combat, for instance, is not the high point of this game, since battles are not manageable tactically by the player and the battles consist merely in the subtraction of hitpoints from target hulls by weapons exceeding that target’s defenses. This is only a minor weak point, however, since the game doesn’t profess to be a tactical wargame, but a strategic conquest game – and at that, it succeeds.
In general, GalCivII plays very similarly to CivIV: you are building an empire, conquering land (planets and sectors in space), finding and exploiting resources, handling trade and diplomacy with your neighbors and rivals, fighting wars where necessary, trying to keep the technological upper hand, attempting to keep your citizens happy, and making sure your empire is not a cultural backwater – all of this in a 3D framework. Better than CivIV, however, is the following: In Civilization, each city can only make 1 manifestation of any building (e.g. once you built a temple, that’s it), so that cities tend to be uniform, while in GalCivII, you can (if for some strange reason you want to) build identical research labs on every available space on planet X, while turning planet Y into something vastly different. Additionally, the programmers of GalCiv2 seem to really know their stuff: The game runs smoothly and has no problems at fullest resolution with all eye candy on during lategame, even on my miserable little laptop (while CivIV slows to a crawl or crashes on my big machine). Speaking of laptops: GalCiv2 should also be applauded for trusting their potential customers with a game containing NO copy protection whatsoever: their customers are treated as worthy players, not potential criminals. In general, Stardock appears to be an exceptionally sympathetic company as well, REALLY listening to the community and posting frequent answers to any questions. (I had a tiny question regarding serial numbers when downloading the game from their website and I sent them an email; I received a fine answer from one of their tech support people within 30 hours, and if I understand correctly, their phones are running off the hook. Has anyone ever received a reply from Firaxis?) There are many ways to achieve a victory in this game, and each one is challenging. The robust AI of the game is better than any I have seen in a strategy game except for chess. Creating your own ships is both interesting, important and fun.
The only negative aspects of the game are the lack of documentation (the manual could be much more comprehensive, at least including information on the incredibly vast tech tree), the somewhat sparse graphics of the map (but perhaps that is just what space IS: sparse? In any case, the graphics of the interfaces and ships are all sharp and good) and the average sound.
In general: Stardock should be congratulated on making an excellent strategy game, perhaps the best strategy game in a space setting as well as treating their customers like kings or queens. If you liked the Civilization series, you will LOVE GalCiv2, since it is everything Civ is, but better.