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Gamespot reviews Galactic Civilizations II

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Gamespot reviews Galactic Civilizations II

"Galactic Civilizations II is a strategy gamer's dream, boasting a rare mix of depth, customizability, humor, and replayability. "

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/galacticcivilizations2/review.html?sid=6145309
from GalCiv2 Forums

   

The Gamespot review is in..

"Galactic Civilizations II is a strategy gamer's dream, boasting a rare mix of depth, customizability, humor, and replayability. "

This is one of the most in-depth reviews we've seen yet.  Gamespot was one of the first places the review copies were sent and it is clear from reading the text of the review that they played the game thoroughly. 

For example, the reviewer even touches on how the screens themselves are moddable (using DesktopX):

While there is a plethora of game features that we haven't mentioned here, such as a galactic United Nations that raises issues that all races vote upon that impact your empire, extensive trade and diplomacy with other races, and much more, one that is worth highlighting and that follows the thesis of letting you have it "your way" is the completely open nature of the game's user interface. The game screens are stored in a directory and can be easily modified. The game is also designed such that there is no limit to the polygons it can handle; users are already showing off incredible Star Wars-based ships with extremely high polygon counts.

It concludes with:

One of the greatest compliments is the comparison to Civilization IV that many people are making. Suffice it to say that Galactic Civilizations II is different in many ways than Civ IV, but stands next to it as one of the all-time best 4X strategy games.

The Gamespot score is 9.0.  Gamespot rarely gives out ratings over 8.9.  In fact, Gamespot has not given a PC game a 9 or better since last October -- when it reviewed Civilization IV. 

Check out the full review.

29,974 views 39 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
CIV III has that problem too.
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm really happy that Stardock is getting noticed both critically and commercially. You guys deserve it after 2 years of obviously hard work.

I just hope you don't make so much cash that you bring in a textbook jockey who knows nothing about games and subsequently breaks your business. Names will not be mentioned.
CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I see that GameSpy has their review up, a glowing 4.5/5 stars. They have a love/hate relationship with the AI, calling it one of the best features of the game but also part of what gives the game a steep learning curve. They slag on the in-game tutorials (which I have to admit were largely too basic to be of much use) and of course the lack of multiplayer, but overall a very positive review.
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I just hope you don't make so much cash that you bring in a textbook jockey who knows nothing about games and subsequently breaks your business. Names will not be mentioned.

GalCiv III we were thinking would make use of imperial focus points..

Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It was a GameSpot review of GalCiv2 that I read in Nov. 2005 that convinced me to pre-order and become a Beta tester!

Jeff Lackey is a pretty well known strategy game reviewer. The overall rating I suspect has something to do with no multiplayer.


I'm glad that Stardock put their resources towards improving the A.I. rather than multi-player! I'm still winning at level Tough but at least the A.I. makes me work for my victories unlike the crippled A.I.'s in multi-player games that don't adapt to my actions! There are many space based 4X multi-player games out there but only one, GalCiv2, that you can play a fun single player game!

Paul D.
Reply #32 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
GalCiv III we were thinking would make use of imperial focus points.


LOL!

Brad, I'm glad I'm already familiar with your sense of humor, because otherwise that sentence would probably have given me a heart attack.
Reply #33 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It is my sincere belief that a lot of developers/publishers are using multiplayer as a "crutch", or excuse, to make up for poor single player AI. There are some games, e.g., Battlefield 2, where the experience is really intended from the ground up to be MP, with SP more as a trainer mode - OK. But truly convincing AI is HARD - ask Brad. And takes a lot of time to develop and tweak and improve. At least one developer has said its not worth it to make an AI that is intellegent vs. cheats because the end result is the same. Bull dukey. I think its simple - not easy, but simple - to make an AI that can win or lose at a given level. What I think is really the holy grail is an AI that plays like a human - maybe a newbie, or maybe an experienced vet but one that plays like a human. That might mean sometimes being emotive, or holding a grudge, or being a friend in gratitude even if it isn't the optimal play.

But I'll let pros like Brad and team comment on that tangent!
Reply #34 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

My opinion of Gamespot has gone up by 10X. Any zine that has writers like Mr. Lackey who spend the time to participate on a forum such as this is one worthy of respect.

I dunno, I seem to recall hearing he was fond of an Apple 2 game called Sneakers.

 

Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It is my sincere belief that a lot of developers/publishers are using multiplayer as a "crutch", or excuse, to make up for poor single player AI. There are some games, e.g., Battlefield 2, where the experience is really intended from the ground up to be MP, with SP more as a trainer mode - OK. But truly convincing AI is HARD - ask Brad. And takes a lot of time to develop and tweak and improve. At least one developer has said its not worth it to make an AI that is intellegent vs. cheats because the end result is the same. Bull dukey. I think its simple - not easy, but simple - to make an AI that can win or lose at a given level. What I think is really the holy grail is an AI that plays like a human - maybe a newbie, or maybe an experienced vet but one that plays like a human. That might mean sometimes being emotive, or holding a grudge, or being a friend in gratitude even if it isn't the optimal play.

But I'll let pros like Brad and team comment on that tangent!

I definitely think many developers use multiplayer as a way of getting out of having to write AI.

Having done both, I can tell you it takes a LOT more effort to write a good AI than it does to make multiplayer.

Multiplayer is simply a programmatical feature.  AI requires the developers to be good strategists in the first place which is not usual for many developers and then be able to convert that strategy into code that can work its wonder very very quickly (i.e. in miliseconds of CPU time).

And having an AI that doesn't cheat is very time consuming. 

At the risk of poking fun at my reviewer friends in San Francisco, there's a lot more to a game than loading it up in your bay area offices and having a LAN party with it.  That style of play is not representative for the vast vast majority of strategy gamers.

Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


I dunno, I seem to recall hearing he was fond of an Apple 2 game called Sneakers.


LOL! Sneaker! I'd forgotten about that one. I assume Stardock's next game will be an update of Space Eggs?



Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Firingsquad has their review up now:

Link

Reply #39 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

LOL! Sneaker! I'd forgotten about that one. I assume Stardock's next game will be an update of Space Eggs?

Oh that was a good one too.  I'll have to check all my Apple 2 games here, there were a few others I really liked too.

It still have my favorite baseball game of all time.