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Binding: Video Game Brand: Take 2 EAN: 0708192010516 ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+ Format: CD Label: Take 2 Manufacturer: Take 2 Platform: Windows XP Publisher: Take 2 Release Date: February 05, 2007 Sales Rank: 1520 Studio: Take 2
Features:
Direct your people's military as you battle to control the galaxy
Deep strategic elements as you establish your place - Colonize planets, establish trade routes, fight wars, research new technologies and sign treaties
Build up a planet's industry & economy
Research and design new ships -- full customization lets players create completely unique ships
Create entire fleets and develop them strategically
Product Description: Galactic Civilizations II Gold gives you the chance to fight for humanity. The reckless humans have formed an alliance, for their mutual defense against the rising power of the evil Drengin Empire. Meanwhile, the Drengins gather an alliance of their own and begin exploring the furthest corners of the galaxy for ancient weapons. As both sides look for an upper hand, a deadly threat is waiting in the darkness. Make strategic use of planets, asteroid fields and other interstellar objects State of the art 3D engine with vastly improved graphics and visual effects than the original. Multiple planets to explore and colonize - pick and choose what your planets will be used for
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - ok
ok, not as good as I had hoped, nothing really new, missing things I had enjoyed in older games, however, good AI.
Rating: - Great game but GOLD pack missing latest expansion
This is a really cool turn-based space strategy game. Like many others, I've been loving this type of game for a long time (Reach for the Stars, Master of Orion, Master of Orion 2), and really have not found an adequate improvement upon MOO2, released way back in 1996. Pretty amazing hole in an otherwise saturated industry. I guess those of us who like turn based games are in the minority these days, but then again Civ seems to do very well so that says there are plenty of us. There have been numerous horrible attempts at succeeding MOO2 but they have all failed.
Anyway, I've not played this game enough yet to be sure its better than MOO2 but it had a good chance at it. I'll defer to the many reviews by more experienced players saying how great this game is.
What I can say is that after playing the demo of this gold pack for awhile, and deciding it is good enough to buy, the situation becomes annoying. Even though the last expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, was released ~6 months ago, there is no package that contains the full set of GalCiv2. In fact, Amazon doesn't even sell Twilight of the Arnor. Apparently Stargate only distributes it electronically or directly from them? Weird.
I want to buy a boxed combo pack containing the complete game. Especially in a case like this where the expansions are less about adding plot and more about expanding/fixing the rules. I want a nice professionally printed manual that I won't get if I buy the electronic download directly from Stargate (for the same price as if it was a printed, boxed version). Maybe this is too old school and I need to get with the times?
Anyway, cool game, 4 star instead of 5 for not having a good, easy to buy single package product.
Rating: - Solid Concept, Terrible Execution
Just like many, MANY other video games, it has a solid concept and poor execution. It's fun building your own intergalactic civilization- if you know how. It really is fun to command fleets and trade technologies, but there are problems.
If you're new to the game, like I was, you'll soon discover the tutorials cover perhaps 15% of what you need to know to play the game effectively. The campaign mode doesn't teach you anything either, in fact, the first thing it does is shove a couple windows in your face with no explanation. The formula for your planetary population's happiness isn't explained, so you won't find out why building a three multimedia centers, which should raise your population's morale by 60%, has raised morale by less than 30%.
The plot of the campaign mode is boring and transparent, with 95% of it revealed in the opening cinematic. The ending is also completely anticlimactic, with no CG scene or anything, just TEXT.
The best part of the game is multiplayer or skirmish mode. You can design your own race, determine the conditions of victory, so on and so forth. In every mode you can design your own ships, which is cool. Bribing people for friendship, only to attack them later is hilarious. It really is worth getting this game if you don't mind a worthless campaign mode and a steep learning curve.
Rating: - Great game, lots of hours of play
It gives as much hours of fun as Civilization 4, it is hard to stop and go to sleep. Very addictive.
And even more, it doesn't have any kind of DRM, one can install it on desktop, laptop and play on both. One of the few games that are really bought ant not just rented.
Stardock keep up the good work.
Rating: - There's still wonder out there
I've been playing computer strategy games for a long time, and by now my attitude could be better. I wanted something new, but had drifted away from playing games and nothing seemed to impress anymore. I longed for the days of X Com: UFO Defense and the like, but nothing out there seemed to measure up, including the present day supposed greats. Then Galactic Civilizations II came along and made me stay up till dawn twice in a week and till 3 a.m. twice too. When I begin saying, "This has got to stop!", I know I've found something special.
GalCiv2 is loaded with personality and, unlike some of the best-regarded competition, does not substitute complexity for depth. The decisions you make feel like they are really impacting your results rather than just wasting your time on not just endless but, worse, ultimately nearly pointless micromanagement. This turns continuously learning ever more about the game so you can play it just that little bit better into something fun rather than a burden. That's quite a design accomplishment, and one of the things that gives this game a very long potential life span.
Players expand their empires and conquer the universe in about as many ways as they can dream up. The game is very customizable. You can play on random maps from tiny to immense, creating games that last a few hours to weeks or months, against almost no opponents or quite a few. You can even make up custom races of your own, and, within limitations, balance their strengths and weaknesses yourself. You can go for victories via war, diplomacy, alliance, influence, research superiority, and more. You can be a bully or a peacenik or a shrewd financier. You can fight less or more, with premade ship styles or ones you design yourself. But all the while, an AI widely recognized in the gaming world as of superior quality is making plans of its own for you, and you had better be ready. If you're not, well ... you can dial its capabilities up or down next time! Or go find a saved game and see if you can figure out or avoid your mistakes.
There are campaigns, but the game really opens up in "sandbox" mode, the design and playing of your own size, pace, and style of game. The game is a wonderful puzzle to figure out. And once you think you have, you can do it again by playing a different alien race and learning from the ground up.
This is all the more mesmerizing with the next expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, which requires this package to run. TOA makes the research trees of each alien race markedly different, which lends the races a distinctness that improves replay value even more.
If you have any love for single-player strategy games, GalCiv2 is not a gamble. It's definitely the prize among its peers, and the best game I've played in many years.
- ok
- Great game but GOLD pack missing latest expansion
- Solid Concept, Terrible Execution
- Great game, lots of hours of play
