The Wargamer reviews Galactic Civilizations II

http://www.wargamer.com/reviews/galactic_civilizations_2/
from GalCiv2 Forums

 One of our favorite webzines have given Galactic Civilizations II a very thorough review from the point of view of a serious strategy gamer.

This review has the benefit of having taken a look at the game's progression through 1.0X, 1.1, and 1.11 and hence is able to watch the game's progression.

It concludes:

So, to answer my initial question, does Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords have that extra spark required to make it a classic? Can players finally lock away Master of Orion? In a word, yes. Every gameplay element in Galactic Civilizations II comes together to form an addictive, cohesive classic; every facet of the game, from the interface to the overall presentation, works seamlessly together to create that "just-one-more-turn" feeling that elevates the best turn-based strategy games to award material. Even minor dings like a slightly higher learning curve, a confusing technology tree or the lack of real multiplayer didn’t stop me from staying up until the wee hours vying for control of whatever galaxy I was conquering. Civilization IV may have conquered ancient human history, but Galactic Civilizations II has taken the same addictiveness into space, and could be a strong early contender for turn-based strategy game of the year.

Read the whole thing for a detailed wrap up of the game. Galactic Civilizations II is at a store near you or you can purchase it directly here where you can download it while you wait for your box to arrive. !FROGCARE!

13,921 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Or players can choose to play as the Drengin Empire, the antithesis of all that is good and holy in the universe. Some would say they are ugly, but they look like fuzzy orcs to me—I want to tickle them. -Taken from Review


Finally, someone saying what we're all thinking!
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Or players can choose to play as the Drengin Empire, the antithesis of all that is good and holy in the universe. Some would say they are ugly, but they look like fuzzy orcs to me—I want to tickle them.


He's getting eaten for sure.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice! Always good to see GalCiv 2 get the kudos it so richly deserves.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Some would say they are ugly, but they look like fuzzy orcs to me—I want to tickle them.


I want to tickle them with a few doom rays.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'll wipe out the entire race of those stupid fuzzy orce
They'll be begging for my mercy this time

Congratulation Stardock !
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have a hard time giving props to a game reviewer which allows mistakes as bold as an entire repeated paragraph to slip through. In this case:
“Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is a turn-based 4x strategy game, much like the Master of Orion series or its prequel, Galactic Civilizations....”
is repeated twice.
Talk about an amateur mistake that could be solved by a simple proof read. If I saw this in a print magazine I'd cancel my subscription.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Very comprehensive review, although not particularly objective on some points - but that the hey, just one more deserving feather in Stardocks cap
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
... confusing technology tree ... ?

How confusing can a tree with perfectly linear, non-forking branches be?
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Initially I thought the game was awesome. Great graphics, great concept, design your own ships and race. Then reality sets in.

The game is annoyingly riddled with bugs. In order to thoroughly clean them out, you not only need to upload all the updates from stardock (which requires you to load up something else entirely), you also at times need to copy the debug file from you game on the online forum. Even then the game is twitchy. I personally had to uninstall the game and then reinstall over the upgrade to get it working fairly well. And then there is the wonderful five minute plus wait whenever you try to load a game that is long in the playing. It's takes away the spontaneous joy of playing. It's like watching grass grow. And who has run into the occasional but reliable crashs after playing for awhile?

It's like this. In the early to mid nineties, when games were just starting to really get complex, exploring all the nuances of the joyous 386 - 486 - 586 progressions (sarcasm intended), games were twitchy. Soundblaster not compatible, video card hang up, need patch, blah blah blah. Only in the last five to eight years have games become fairly reliable. If you have a good system, almost all games now thankfully play smoothly. Except this one. Thanks to Galactic Civ 2 (how bad was the first one???) I got to relive all the annoying horrors of the late nineties all over again. What were you guys thinking??? Get a new tech crew or something. I can't even get a straight answer on your online tech help, because all I get is a computer automated response which gives knee jerk responses to key words in my email. It's like talking to a talkative lawn gnome.

I ended up unistalling the entire thing and sending it to my friend, box and all, in the mail. But he can't even use it with the original CD because, silly me, I REGISTERED the dang thing!!! I think he ended up burning it. Too bad, he loved the demo.

In short, IF GAL CIV 3 is done WELL, without the all the tedious crap riddled within this one, I may like playing it. As it is now, it is WAY too much "oops, we can fix that, and that and that and that and that, just install star dock and upload and blah blah blah". I'll stick with ol' faithful Warcraft.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
are you sure you're talking about GalCiv 2? Five-minute loading times?? Weirdo. Did you accidentally install one of the betas? Because this game runs perfectly stable here, which means not a single crash so far. Prolly there's something wrong with your machine.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
MOO2 is still a better game despite it's age.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I ended up unistalling the entire thing and sending it to my friend, box and all, in the mail. But he can't even use it with the original CD because, silly me, I REGISTERED the dang thing!!! I think he ended up burning it. Too bad, he loved the demo.


I don't get this. Why woud he be unable to play the game just because you registered it?

Teemeister, loading games can actually take quite some time since the 1.1 patch. Five minutes sounds a little extreme though.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Why woud he be unable to play the game just because you registered it?

Because the Serial Id is linked with his e-mail and Stradock has publically stated that they won't support second-hand copy. And you need the serial id to get the lastest version. But if he is able to have his serial Id associated with his friend e-mail, the problem should be solved