Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords (GalCiv2), is a turn based strategy game that can best be compared to the hit classic Masters of Orion.
I found that GalCiv2 plays better then any of the Masters of Orion sequels. It is complex enough to allow for great strategy, yet simple enough, for those familiar with turn based strategy games, to pickup in under and hour and start playing.
GalCiv2 was designed on a very small budget. Roughly $300,000 was available to provide a fully developed product that worked at the highest quality and was customer ready. Most games developed today would require a minimum of three times this amount of bankroll to even consider being a marketable product. A company with such a small budget can design a complete, quality game if they have two things: talent and desire. Stardock has plenty of each.
GalCiv2 is not a Masters of Orion clone by any stretch of the imagination. GalCiv2 is the next generation of turned based strategy, with great graphics to complement the game play and user customizations. One of the most powerful qualities Stardock Entertainment possesses is their ability to listen to customer demands. Unlike large firms that listen to dollar signs and popular trends, Stardock listens to customer feedback on their message board and builds patches with bug fixes and product enhancements based on customer needs.
The graphics are highly detailed and well rendered. Each ship has a unique design, including custom colors and a host of minute details. If you zoom into some of the star systems, you can see the geography on the planets (especially earth). In fact, many planets have small moons in orbit around them. For a turn based game, the graphic quality and attention to detail is higher then I would have expected.
Once you have chosen your galaxy size, you must pick a civilization to rule. There are eleven civilizations to choose from, each with their own advantages and hurdles.. With so many civilization choices, it is certain that you will find one that matches your gaming style. Each civilization offers unique ways of ruling the galaxy. Some do it by force, some by luck, others by military might, and still others by espionage, technology, or even sheer numbers.
Once you select your civilization, you are given a number of points, which you spend to increase your civilization’s abilities in key gameplay attributes, such as: creativity, loyalty, luck, military production, defense, influence, trade, etc. The amount and variation of available abilities makes your civilization and game play unique every time you start a new game. This feature alone pushes replay value through the roof. You might try to destroy the galaxy with a huge military force, or through politics and trade, or by having so much technology you are too difficult to destroy, resulting in a “technological victory.”
Although you play as the Terran Alliance, you still can customize the civilization’s abilities to fit your gaming style. Campaign mode allows you to start simple, and build up to newer difficulties, as you progress through the campaigns.
Campaign mode offers you a goal oriented reason for playing. Some people like to play a single game like it was a chess match. Others may prefer a campaign style to experience a level of progression and wholeness in their gaming experience. GalCiv2 provides multiple options to suit any personality.
The metaverse brings the gamer community closer together, and allows those with an itchy competitive edge to feed their hunger. This is completely an option, and one need never bother with the metaverse game if they just want to sit down and play through without the thought of other real human beings.
A “turn” in GalCiv2 is equal to one week of “real time,” so all units of measure are typically listed in weeks. For instance, if you want to build a powerful ship it might take sixty two weeks to build it. That is equivalent to clicking “turn” sixty two times, if no external variables change to speed up or slow down the ship building progress. Imagine how many turns Darth Vader had to wait for his death star.
Turn based games do not suit everyone’s gaming desires. If you have played a turn based strategy game in the past, and found it enjoyable, you may find yourself up until sunrise with the addictive nature of this game.
When a planet invests highly in research, it will gain new technologies faster, because it is contributing to the creation of your technological marvels. The social attribute will help in population growth and speeds up planetary upgrades. A stadium to entertain your colony might take fifty two weeks to produce, but focusing your social resources will bring that time down significantly, to something in the twenty week time frame. A planet that puts more effort into military will produce your ships faster.
For those new to this type of game, do not fear that this is going to turn into a space “sim city,” because the detail is far from that level. The colony itself is a simple grid layout that contains a number of “tiles” that you can lay projects upon.
As you can see, the colony is not that incredibly detailed, so there is no reason to be intimidated by the management structure of it. The detail is kept low because you may be managing a large number of these colonies, and too much detail would be overwhelming and tedious.
The projects you are capable of building on a tile change as you increase your technology. Some projects, such as a space station, are relatively cheap to build and require only a few weeks (turns) to finish them. Other projects are major accomplishments, and all civilizations are notified when you have created one (similar to a Sid Meier’s: Civilization “Wonders of the World”). Projects will help advance your population growth, open new places to build on the planet, create economic growth, and build research centers.
Colony management is a good part of GalCiv2. The colonies are simple to manage and require little attention once you’ve queued up some projects or ships. Some colonies are so small you may just set them on one desired path, such as research, and leave them alone for years. Each and every colony will contribute something to your civilization and the empire it supports. So, do not forget the little people in life.
GalCiv2 contains many technologies, and perfecting them all is not usually a feasible option. The technology branches are all color coded to make it easier to read and understand. Weapon technologies are red, research advancements are blue, government is yellow, economics are orange, logistics are pink, and there are many others. You might choose the yellow and blue route and try to build up your research and advance your political power while also utilizing a little of the green branch, which covers construction and farming, to build up your population. The potential combinations are enormous, and each route you take will change how you win or lose the game..
Technology is a big part of this game and adds huge amounts of replay ability. If you want to spend your money on a strategy game that can give you hours upon hours of entertainment, the technology tree alone will keep your mind racing with possibilities.
Taxes and Spending are your two changeable economic values, and within your spending you can select how to distribute it:
How you adjust your spending will likely explain your tactics for winning. You may also change them over time as you become aggressive in different areas. You may push for more social spending as a young civilization, then later move into research spending to build better weapons (now that you have more people to work on projects). Some may end with military force to vanquish all other civilizations.
The game economy is simple enough that you do not feel a burden of financial management. There are enough bars and levers to tweak things for your given purposes, but enough simplicity to let you set it once and forget about it.
Exploring in GalCiv2 can be slow at times, especially in the beginning of a game. The larger the galaxy, the more you can find and explore, but the harder it will be to conquer. The speed at which you develop your engine technology will probably be impacted by the size of the galaxy you have chosen to play.
In many ways, the battle system is simplified compared to Masters of Orion. Battles can be displayed in full length while on the “Battle Screen”, which allows you to watch the battle and monitor how your ships handle the enemy on a 3d playing field, but you cannot alter the outcome. This battle screen allows you to replay the battle “VCR style” with video controls to stop, rewind, forward, and play out the battle. There are no strategic moves to how a ship attacks another ship; this is determined by the game engine itself. You click on the enemy fleet and attack it. The battle is resolved and the results are posted. You win or you lose. The loser’s fleet is destroyed.
Ground battles can be extremely expensive to fund. To attack a colony, you must first have the technology known as “planetary invasion.” Without the required technology, you can hold ships in orbit but cannot take the colony. A colony ship that holds five hundred people will have a difficult time destroying a million colonists. You can spend additional funds to increase your odds, or you can pay a small fee to cause massive damage to the planet. There are benefits and hindrances to all methods, so your specific goals must be thought out first. If you wish to keep the colony in perfect quality, to become a contributing member to your own civilization, you will be spending a good deal of money in order to protect it during your invasions. If you want to make sure it can no longer be a threat, then larger substantial bombing attacks can make that occur quickly and cheaply.
Battles may or may not be a large part of GalCiv2, depending on how you wish to play the game. However, it is a way to win, and your enemy knows it as well.
The amount of cosmetic ship design is over the top. You can add lights, wings, blade-like attachments, extensions, and so many additional cosmetics that every ship in your fleet can look unique. Granted, this does not affect its battle abilities, but it does make the ships look great and gives you a sense of ownership.
Ships can be uploaded to galciv2.com to share with other players. This means you can also download new custom ships if you find yourself lacking creativity or you do not see ship building as your forte.
The Stardock team obviously spent a great deal of time with the ship design system and they should be praised for their efforts. The fact that you can upgrade ships in the field, means you do not have to spend time and energy finding them all and decommissioning them, throwing out the design, rebuilding, and re-flying them to their old position. You can upgrade a ship, or your entire fleet where it sits, and be done with it.
The other civilizations use politics to their advantage, just like a human would. They build alliances, wage wars, and conduct espionage to get whatever they need. Trade routes will be setup between civilizations, so both can benefit, which may also benefit you in war time. If you attack an enemy colony that has a very lucrative trade route to another civilization, they may ask you to cease your attack. If you ignore them you may have more on your plate then you are ready to handle.
Political technologies also affect your political skill. You may make many demands and have blunt requests that send you to war if you do not have the skill to handle your neighbors. A civilization with high political technologies has the advantage when it comes to stopping wars, gaining new technologies, and receiving gifts of praise.
The political system is probably one of the more difficult areas to master in GalCiv2. Military might is fairly straightforward, but when it comes to being the nice guy, you have to tread water lightly. You must also take the time to research political technologies. It is hard to choose a ten week political technology when you can get advanced missiles in only three weeks. You must realize the value of politics, or end up with many empires hunting you down.
Being a turn based game with minimal system requirements can be great for adults with kids. You can sneak in an hour here and there, maybe a bit before dinner, and a bit before you go to bed. You must control your urges to click the “turn” button when it gets late, because there are no drugs you can take to get you off this addiction.
If you were a fan of Masters of Orion or loved any of Sid Meier’s strategy games, you may want to go out and buy this today. The price is almost $20.00 less then an Xbox 360 game, so it won’t burn a hole in your wallet. You will also find a great support message forum, where you can talk directly with members of the team (yes, even the lead developer), and get feedback on any issues you may be having with the game.
Graphics: 7
Sound: 6
Game play: 10
Replay value: 10
References:
http://www.stardock.com
http://www.galciv2.com
GalCiv2 was designed on a very small budget. Roughly $300,000 was available to provide a fully developed product that worked at the highest quality and was customer ready. Most games developed today would require a minimum of three times this amount of bankroll to even consider being a marketable product. A company with such a small budget can design a complete, quality game if they have two things: talent and desire. Stardock has plenty of each.
GalCiv2 is not a Masters of Orion clone by any stretch of the imagination. GalCiv2 is the next generation of turned based strategy, with great graphics to complement the game play and user customizations. One of the most powerful qualities Stardock Entertainment possesses is their ability to listen to customer demands. Unlike large firms that listen to dollar signs and popular trends, Stardock listens to customer feedback on their message board and builds patches with bug fixes and product enhancements based on customer needs.
Graphics & Sound
The graphics and sound do not reflect the shoe string budge that this game was created on. The music score is relaxing and very professional. The sounds FX are not going to break any records or make you run out and get a Surround Sound system but they fit the game style.The graphics are highly detailed and well rendered. Each ship has a unique design, including custom colors and a host of minute details. If you zoom into some of the star systems, you can see the geography on the planets (especially earth). In fact, many planets have small moons in orbit around them. For a turn based game, the graphic quality and attention to detail is higher then I would have expected.
Single Game Mode
When you start your first game of GalCiv2, your first choice is to select the size of the galaxy you want. You can choose from tiny, small, medium, large, huge, gigantic, and custom size. The first time gamer might want to select a tiny or small galaxy, so that they can keep the game shorter and experience the game play and options. After a player builds their skill a bit, they will probably want to move into a gigantic galaxy. Gigantic galaxies are unimaginably big, and they provide hundreds of hours of competitive civilization goodness.Once you have chosen your galaxy size, you must pick a civilization to rule. There are eleven civilizations to choose from, each with their own advantages and hurdles.. With so many civilization choices, it is certain that you will find one that matches your gaming style. Each civilization offers unique ways of ruling the galaxy. Some do it by force, some by luck, others by military might, and still others by espionage, technology, or even sheer numbers.
Once you select your civilization, you are given a number of points, which you spend to increase your civilization’s abilities in key gameplay attributes, such as: creativity, loyalty, luck, military production, defense, influence, trade, etc. The amount and variation of available abilities makes your civilization and game play unique every time you start a new game. This feature alone pushes replay value through the roof. You might try to destroy the galaxy with a huge military force, or through politics and trade, or by having so much technology you are too difficult to destroy, resulting in a “technological victory.”
Campaign Mode
Campaign mode sends you down the path of the Terran Alliance civilization, and contains objectives and an ultimate goal involving the Dread Lords. In campaign mode, you cannot select all the variations that you can in the single game mode. You can, however, choose between many more difficulty levels. The difficulty levels for the campaign are: cakewalk, easy, simple, beginner, normal, challenging, tough, painful, crippling, masochistic, obscene, and suicidal.Although you play as the Terran Alliance, you still can customize the civilization’s abilities to fit your gaming style. Campaign mode allows you to start simple, and build up to newer difficulties, as you progress through the campaigns.
Campaign mode offers you a goal oriented reason for playing. Some people like to play a single game like it was a chess match. Others may prefer a campaign style to experience a level of progression and wholeness in their gaming experience. GalCiv2 provides multiple options to suit any personality.
The Metaverse
Stardock takes a single player, turn based game, and turns it into a competitive show of skill. The “Metaverse” brings gamers together by posting high scores online, through the game system, for later viewing on metaverse.galciv2.com. All metaverse games follow a standard set of rules, allowing no custom maps, to keep a level playing field.The metaverse brings the gamer community closer together, and allows those with an itchy competitive edge to feed their hunger. This is completely an option, and one need never bother with the metaverse game if they just want to sit down and play through without the thought of other real human beings.
Turn Based Gaming
The turn-based nature of GalCiv2 makes it great for gamers with an abundance of interruptions; like the 25+ gamer. People that enjoy turn based strategy games will find a warm place in their heart for GalCiv2. There are very few good turn based games being developed for the PC today. GalCiv2 plays well on most standard laptops, so there is no excuse not to cuddle up on the couch with your loved one while playing a few turns.A “turn” in GalCiv2 is equal to one week of “real time,” so all units of measure are typically listed in weeks. For instance, if you want to build a powerful ship it might take sixty two weeks to build it. That is equivalent to clicking “turn” sixty two times, if no external variables change to speed up or slow down the ship building progress. Imagine how many turns Darth Vader had to wait for his death star.
Turn based games do not suit everyone’s gaming desires. If you have played a turn based strategy game in the past, and found it enjoyable, you may find yourself up until sunrise with the addictive nature of this game.
Managing your colonies
Every colony has three key attributes to manage: military, social, and research. The player is able to split their resources across all thee fields, or target a specific attribute for that given planet.When a planet invests highly in research, it will gain new technologies faster, because it is contributing to the creation of your technological marvels. The social attribute will help in population growth and speeds up planetary upgrades. A stadium to entertain your colony might take fifty two weeks to produce, but focusing your social resources will bring that time down significantly, to something in the twenty week time frame. A planet that puts more effort into military will produce your ships faster.
For those new to this type of game, do not fear that this is going to turn into a space “sim city,” because the detail is far from that level. The colony itself is a simple grid layout that contains a number of “tiles” that you can lay projects upon.
As you can see, the colony is not that incredibly detailed, so there is no reason to be intimidated by the management structure of it. The detail is kept low because you may be managing a large number of these colonies, and too much detail would be overwhelming and tedious.
The projects you are capable of building on a tile change as you increase your technology. Some projects, such as a space station, are relatively cheap to build and require only a few weeks (turns) to finish them. Other projects are major accomplishments, and all civilizations are notified when you have created one (similar to a Sid Meier’s: Civilization “Wonders of the World”). Projects will help advance your population growth, open new places to build on the planet, create economic growth, and build research centers.
Colony management is a good part of GalCiv2. The colonies are simple to manage and require little attention once you’ve queued up some projects or ships. Some colonies are so small you may just set them on one desired path, such as research, and leave them alone for years. Each and every colony will contribute something to your civilization and the empire it supports. So, do not forget the little people in life.
Managing your technology
One of the greatest aspects of GalCiv2, in my opinion, is the ability to design new technologies and continually build an edge against other civilizations. The advanced technology works in your favor in a number of ways. New technologies become negotiation tools when talking with other civilizations in need. Technology also means project upgrades on your planets, government and political discoveries such as new styles of government, and more powerful weapons.GalCiv2 contains many technologies, and perfecting them all is not usually a feasible option. The technology branches are all color coded to make it easier to read and understand. Weapon technologies are red, research advancements are blue, government is yellow, economics are orange, logistics are pink, and there are many others. You might choose the yellow and blue route and try to build up your research and advance your political power while also utilizing a little of the green branch, which covers construction and farming, to build up your population. The potential combinations are enormous, and each route you take will change how you win or lose the game..
Technology is a big part of this game and adds huge amounts of replay ability. If you want to spend your money on a strategy game that can give you hours upon hours of entertainment, the technology tree alone will keep your mind racing with possibilities.
Economy 101
No civilization likes the idea of taxes. This is just a fact of life, and your colonies realize that taxes are needed, but that does not mean they have to like it. Just like many civilization based games, the higher the tax rates, the better chance your people will revolt. Nobody wants to lose an entire planet to an outside influence, especially if it’s an enemy bordering your space.Taxes and Spending are your two changeable economic values, and within your spending you can select how to distribute it:
How you adjust your spending will likely explain your tactics for winning. You may also change them over time as you become aggressive in different areas. You may push for more social spending as a young civilization, then later move into research spending to build better weapons (now that you have more people to work on projects). Some may end with military force to vanquish all other civilizations.
The game economy is simple enough that you do not feel a burden of financial management. There are enough bars and levers to tweak things for your given purposes, but enough simplicity to let you set it once and forget about it.
Exploring the galaxy
The galaxy map is contains star systems with suns and planets like a real galaxy. Exploring the galaxy requires scout ships, and usually, some technology that makes their engines better. As you explore, you will find many uninhabitable planets, and a few that are fit for colonizing. Not all planets are plush lands of opportunity, and some may only be able to support a few million people, but every planet contributes to your empire.Exploring in GalCiv2 can be slow at times, especially in the beginning of a game. The larger the galaxy, the more you can find and explore, but the harder it will be to conquer. The speed at which you develop your engine technology will probably be impacted by the size of the galaxy you have chosen to play.
Battle Logistics
The battle system in GalCiv2 is better balanced then some turn based strategy games. Masters of Orion could be beaten using a large military force of small ships that all contained one large gun: the death ray. GalCiv2 irons out the wrinkles in a basic battle system with the logistics method. Logistics is a researchable technology that increases fleet command sizes as you research deeper into this technology branch. A civilization with extremely devastating military power is only as good as its commanding officer. You may have five hundred small ships with a single powerful weapon, and an almighty shield system, but without logistics, you can only group your fleet in small sets, perhaps only two or three ships for early logistics technology. Two ships against an opponent with half the power but four times the logistics will get you into some serious trouble.In many ways, the battle system is simplified compared to Masters of Orion. Battles can be displayed in full length while on the “Battle Screen”, which allows you to watch the battle and monitor how your ships handle the enemy on a 3d playing field, but you cannot alter the outcome. This battle screen allows you to replay the battle “VCR style” with video controls to stop, rewind, forward, and play out the battle. There are no strategic moves to how a ship attacks another ship; this is determined by the game engine itself. You click on the enemy fleet and attack it. The battle is resolved and the results are posted. You win or you lose. The loser’s fleet is destroyed.
Ground battles can be extremely expensive to fund. To attack a colony, you must first have the technology known as “planetary invasion.” Without the required technology, you can hold ships in orbit but cannot take the colony. A colony ship that holds five hundred people will have a difficult time destroying a million colonists. You can spend additional funds to increase your odds, or you can pay a small fee to cause massive damage to the planet. There are benefits and hindrances to all methods, so your specific goals must be thought out first. If you wish to keep the colony in perfect quality, to become a contributing member to your own civilization, you will be spending a good deal of money in order to protect it during your invasions. If you want to make sure it can no longer be a threat, then larger substantial bombing attacks can make that occur quickly and cheaply.
Battles may or may not be a large part of GalCiv2, depending on how you wish to play the game. However, it is a way to win, and your enemy knows it as well.
Ship Design
The ship design system is amazing. You can customize the look and feel of your ship, and supply it with all the weapons you’ve researched. As your technology increases, you can design new ships or re-design old models with new parts. Once you have new designs or re-designs, you can upgrade your fleet ship by ship or all at once (which can become very expensive for large fleets).The amount of cosmetic ship design is over the top. You can add lights, wings, blade-like attachments, extensions, and so many additional cosmetics that every ship in your fleet can look unique. Granted, this does not affect its battle abilities, but it does make the ships look great and gives you a sense of ownership.
Ships can be uploaded to galciv2.com to share with other players. This means you can also download new custom ships if you find yourself lacking creativity or you do not see ship building as your forte.
The Stardock team obviously spent a great deal of time with the ship design system and they should be praised for their efforts. The fact that you can upgrade ships in the field, means you do not have to spend time and energy finding them all and decommissioning them, throwing out the design, rebuilding, and re-flying them to their old position. You can upgrade a ship, or your entire fleet where it sits, and be done with it.
Politics and Trade
There are many governments to choose from and as you advance, new governments become available. A government that gives increases to technology may be a good idea for those players that are big into research. A government based more on a militant way of life can be great for those that want to conquer all and leave no prisoners.The other civilizations use politics to their advantage, just like a human would. They build alliances, wage wars, and conduct espionage to get whatever they need. Trade routes will be setup between civilizations, so both can benefit, which may also benefit you in war time. If you attack an enemy colony that has a very lucrative trade route to another civilization, they may ask you to cease your attack. If you ignore them you may have more on your plate then you are ready to handle.
Political technologies also affect your political skill. You may make many demands and have blunt requests that send you to war if you do not have the skill to handle your neighbors. A civilization with high political technologies has the advantage when it comes to stopping wars, gaining new technologies, and receiving gifts of praise.
The political system is probably one of the more difficult areas to master in GalCiv2. Military might is fairly straightforward, but when it comes to being the nice guy, you have to tread water lightly. You must also take the time to research political technologies. It is hard to choose a ten week political technology when you can get advanced missiles in only three weeks. You must realize the value of politics, or end up with many empires hunting you down.
The reason you must own Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
This game is fun for all ages and contains minimal violence,, while requiring constant brain power. It is similar to a space chess game, where you must understand there are many paths you can take and many reactions to your actions.Being a turn based game with minimal system requirements can be great for adults with kids. You can sneak in an hour here and there, maybe a bit before dinner, and a bit before you go to bed. You must control your urges to click the “turn” button when it gets late, because there are no drugs you can take to get you off this addiction.
If you were a fan of Masters of Orion or loved any of Sid Meier’s strategy games, you may want to go out and buy this today. The price is almost $20.00 less then an Xbox 360 game, so it won’t burn a hole in your wallet. You will also find a great support message forum, where you can talk directly with members of the team (yes, even the lead developer), and get feedback on any issues you may be having with the game.
Graphics: 7
Sound: 6
Game play: 10
Replay value: 10
References:
http://www.stardock.com
http://www.galciv2.com
