Initially I got to the defeat the dread lords mission and couldn't beat it. I thought it was the final mission and was disspointed how short the campaign was.

I tried it again today and after a long game researching all the technologies and a reread through the manual I worked out the 'exploit' needed to win the mission. I really disliked the fact that it felt as if the 'dread lords can only attack one ship at a time' situation was an artifact of the combat engine rather than a weakness of dreadlord technology.

Still, I was nicely surprised that there were more missions after the dread lord's defeat. I did a couple and got to a jucy bit where It seemed like I was going to be giving the choice between siding with the thalans and exploring the pocket universe the dread lords came from.

Right, no choice there. Still, there's a galaxy that needs saving so I'd better go and capture this pocket universe device. I manage to snag the planet on the second try and read the cool description of haven. Oh ho, things are really starting to get exciting now.

And then.... That's IT? The campaign abruptly finished and none of the plots have been resolved, the Dread lords are still at large with no opposition to stop their rebuilding and conquest, the drengin are being evil all over the place, the torians are enslaved and you have no idea who the mysterious figure is or what alternate universe the thalans come from.

Very disappointing. The strategy game is decent, one of the better ones, and a reasonably way to pass the time until a better game comes out (strategy games aren't my favourite genre). I've got GC1 though and knew generally what to expect so one of the bigger reasons I bought the sequal was because it had a campaign that I expected to be interesting.

Hopefully it's just a hiccup and an expansion pack or sequal will bring it up to a decent quality (Bioware just about managed it with Neverwinter Nights), but it's just a shame that an otherwise impressive game had such a let-down.