GalCiv2 received a huge graphical overhaul, moving to a full 3D engine for everything from ships to planets. Regardless of the victory path chosen, the game looks and plays beautifully. And finally, races can gain superiority through an insidious culture war, influencing the galaxy through brand-name items and entertainment. Diplomatic victories are also possible, allowing civilizations to wheedle and cajole their way to ruling. Or a civilization can choose the long, difficult technological road, eventually learning enough of the universe’s secrets that they shed the physical shell and move on to a higher plane of existence. Victory can be achieved through military might, simply crushing the rest of the galaxy under one’s heel. Of course, violence is quite an effective path toward ruling the galaxy. Like the original, there are many roads to victory, and it’s possible (although difficult) to emerge victorious without ever resorting to violence. From there, they must research, build, explore, and conquer or ally with their neighbors until victory is achieved. Here’s where I have a minor quibble-I would have liked to see a “random” setting, making the galactic neighbors a mystery until they were encountered.Įach race begins the game with a single homeworld, a colony ship, and a survey ship. Once a Civilization is chosen, it’s time to choose the other inhabitants of the galaxy, along with their relative intelligence. And if that isn’t enough, a completely customized race can be built from the ground up. In addition, each of the races can be further tweaked with a host of skills and bonuses. After the galaxy is designed, players are presented with 9 Civilizations to chose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. From galaxy size to number and quality of planets, a game is available for each and every taste and play style. Once this technology spread to the rest of the galactic empires, the race was on to conquer or control the galaxy through warfare, diplomacy, or technological or cultural superiority.Įven when setting up the first sandbox galaxy, one discovers that there is an immense amount of customizability to GalCiv2. Humans, never ones to leave “good enough” alone, started tinkering with a nearby stargate, and from their experimentation discovered gate-independent hyperspace engines, thus allowing for the exploration and colonization of the un-gated portions of the galaxy.
For all the “known” spacefaring races, interstellar travel was restricted to a series of hyperspace stargate devices, severely limiting exploration. Galactic Civilizations 2 carries over the same basic premise as the original. I shouldn’t have fretted, as Stardock has delivered another amazing 4X strategy title, and once again hours are melting away in turn-based galactic conquest. Given my feelings for the original title, I was a little worried about what would be done in a sequel-a fine line needed to be walked in order to maintain the balance and flavor of the rich GalCiv universe while bolstering the weak points of the game. The original Galactic Civilizations was quite easily one of my favorite games of all time, and although it was far from perfect, I spent a great many hours conquering the galaxy. I have been closely following the development of Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords ever since its announcement a few years ago.