Thursday review round-up

More review have come in!

The first one is from Gamer's Temple. I've long been a reader of Gamer's Temple. It's a great site.

From the review:

The game also boasts the best ship editor ever to appear in a strategy game. Of course you can select which engines, weapons, and systems go into each ship class, but beyond that you can see each component visibly and select where you want to attach it to the ship. There is even a whole collection of parts that are purely aesthetic so you can make your ships as cool, unique, or ugly as you’d like. The interface is very easy to use – just select a part and then drag it to the point that you wish to attach it to. You can adjust the size of each part, and even attach parts to parts. It’s really amazing how versatile the ship designer is and how many completely different designs you can develop.

BTW, wait till you see what you can do with v1.1's ship editor, it's even better! And it'll be easier to share your designs with others.  Read their whole review here.

The second review comes from LoadedInc. Our European publishing partner, Paradox, were the ones who wisely sent the game to Loaded Inc.

When it’s all said and done, Galactic Civilizations II strives to be an in-depth strategy game that creates a unique universe with an AI smart enough to compete. It not only meets that goal but surpasses it with ease.

LoadedInc, was a site I wasn't familiar with. But as I explored it, it's a pretty neat site that's well organized.  Check it out. Read the full review.

The next new review came from Game Vortex. You can read their full review here. This one was a pretty interesting read and while it gave a good score, there were some interesting points brought up. This is what they summed up:

Galactic Civilizations II: The Dread Lords is a great game, at least if you’re already into strategic gameplay. If your idea of fun is managing all the little facets of a civilization, this is the game for you. Even if you’re remotely interested in strategy games, Galactic Civilizations II: The Dread Lords is such an amazing experience that you’ll even force your way through the unfriendly interface and other issues. If action is more your thing, this isn’t the game you are looking for.

I can't really comment on whether the UI is good or not since I designed a good chunk of it.  I think a lot of it boils down to whether strategy games should be designed for the lowest common denominator. I think we clearly made our choice: No. And in some reviews, we've paid the price.  This month's PC Gamer gives us a positive review but talks about how inaccessible the game is to casual gamers. Even belaboring the point. 

I'd put it like this: The last few years have seen a dumbing down of strategy games to the point where if the mechanic can't be represented with a graphic and tooltip then it's "too complicated".  I'm willing to lose some sales in exchange for making a game that has some extra meat to it.  We can certainly improve the accessibility with a cleaner UI experience for sure and we continue to do so.  But I do think the casual game market has been more than served.

What we've tried to do is create a strategy game that is accessible to new players but does require they have some interest in strategy games. My 9 year old son figured out the game on his own and beat the campaign (and yes, he lost the first Dread Lord mission but took the alternative path and did fine).  But the game isn't purely a beer and pretzels type game -- for good and for ill.  I highly recommend reading the Game Vortex's review though because it does bring up many good points on that topic.

A decade ago (roughly), PC strategy games were having their golden age. Master of Orion, Civilization, Master of Magic, Stars, VGA Planets, etc.  And these games required the player to think.

I think the recent increase in popularity for PC strategy games, gamers have said loud and clear: "Enough. No more dumbed down games." 

I think that's one of the reasons why multiplayer has gotten so popular -- because the base games are so simplistic that they can't hold a player's attention very long so it's only in multplayer that they really have any lifespan.  

The next review we found is from a site called eToyChest.org.  They gave us a 97/100 which was really exciting. As the AI coder for the game, I particularly appreciated this part:

One of the biggest accomplishments of the first GalCiv game was its phenomenal A.I.. It was original, reactive and believable as an artificial opponent. In GalCiv 2, Stardock has raised the bar even higher. Featuring a multi-threaded A.I., GalCiv 2 offers an entirely customizable level of challenge. When set to the level of ‘Fool’, the A.I. will not only slow down and go a lot easier on the player, it will also make some really poor decisions and silly mistakes. At the ‘Intelligent’ level, however, it will be a tough nut to crack and will even give the impression that some behind-the-scenes cheating is going on. According to the developer, the success of the A.I. even prompted the game designer to debug the code at one point because he felt it was somehow cheating, only to discover that it was manipulating planetary taxation and morale-boosting planetary improvements in a completely legal—and economically devastating—manner. Coupled with the wide variety of races and paths to victory, the A.I. in GalCiv 2 probably represents the most complete and extensive challenge in the strategy game business.

The fact the reviewer was able to see that the AI plays differently at different difficulty levels is just so cool. I read many user reviews on various sites, both positive and negative and it really drive me nuts when I see someone say "The AI in this game is overrated, I played at normal and the AI did dumb things." When in fact, yes, it does, I had to write code specifically to make it do "dumb things". It's not just economic penalties. 

Of course, getting a 97 means that, like many you reading this, needing to check what other games got. From what I could tell, 97's the highest they've ever given a game so that was particularly cool.  They've got a lot of reviews for games I hadn't played or heard of.  That's one of the things I've noticed about many of these less traveled sites -- they have quite a variety of games and I think most gamers end up missing out on some of the little treasures out there. But I digress...

So that's all for now.  I'll bring you more soon. There's some interesting blog site reviews I want to do a round-up of. The CGW and CGM reviews are still to arrive.  We're really glad people like the game! 

More to come! !FROGCARE!