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Nikolai
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Bergen, Norway
Oct 2000
time: 06:37
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If you think the thought of ruling solar systems and planets sounds interesting, you should perhaps check out Galactic Civilizations II.
Galactic Civilizations II is a game for those who have dictatorial aspirations. Those who really have dictatorial aspirations. For some of us who walks
around with a ruler in our stomach, games like SimCity, Children of the Nile and Medieval Lords is more than enough. To get the responsibility for a whole
city, whether it's a modern city, an old-Egyptian city among the Nile or a typical European Medieaval city, should for most of us be enough responsibility.
However, some of us has larger aspirations - these powerhungry lunatics wishes to take control of a whole country and lead it to world dominance, and uses
games like Civilizations to satisfy their lusts. But that is nothing compared to the role Galactic Civilizations gives you. Here, it's not enough to rule a
planet or your own little solar system. No, here you must think large.
The King of Cosmos
Galactic Civilizations 2 is, like it's name suggests, the successor to the successful Galactic Civilizations from 2003, which itself is a remake of an older
game with the same name. The predecessor can very well be described as Civilization in space, and despite this description being a little unfair, as this game
is not a direct clone of Sid Meier's classic, it gives a good impression for people who have not seen the game. The successor builds on this solid fundament,
but at the same time it adds some elements that brings the game more in direct competition with games like Space Empires (which will get a fifth installment
later this year) and Master of Orion 3.
One of the improvements since the original (if we neglect the downloadable expansion Altarian Prohesy) is the campaign modus. This is where the subtitle "The
Dread Lords" comes from. The race behind this scary name lived long before the younger races(like the humans) learned to travel in space. The evil Dread Lords
fought an intence war with the honourable Arnor, who was in the process of winning when they both suddenly disappeared. The disappearance resulted in space for
the other races to develop, and the two ancient races was after a while forgotten by everybody but bearded scientists(and not so bearded female scientists and
robotic scientists).
You probably have already guessed what happens - yeah, the several younger races, right in the middle of colonization of the galaxy and infighting, suddenly
experiences the return of the evil Dread Lords. This is, to put it mildly, no pleasant experience. What happens next is mainly your decision. The main campaign
is non-linear, and even if you fail a mission, you can go on. The game will develop after how you do it, so that the progression of the campaign feels natural
at the same time that you feel you have control. By the way, you are not locked to play humans, all races are available.
Are there any intelligent life out there?
These races all have their own stenghts - some are good at diplomacy, others to keep their people in check, others are experts in warfare in space. In addition
to the old races from Galactiv Civilizations we get to know several new races, including the thalians, the proud and little nice iconians, who is the race
behind the warrior robots in the Yor collective. If you should happen to not like any of the races, you are free to make your own race from scratch. Here you
can choose their strenghts, how their ships should be and so on.
Of course it's still possible to play freely as in Galactic Civilizatons 1. When you start a new game outside the campaign you'll gett full control of how the
galaxy should be, what races to include, etc. When this is done you are free to conquer the galaxy. The basic gameplay in Galactic Civilizations II is the same
as in the predesessor. You starts with control over a highly developed planet, a small combat ship and a colony ship, and a galaxy full of virgin worlds.
Colony race
The first you should do is to colonize as many planets as possible before your enemies does it. After a while you'll hopefully become friends with some of the
other races and enemy of other. Here is where the game's strong diplomacy part comes into play, and you'll get plenty of opportunity to try to get the other
races to see it your way. But sooner or later you'll have to use weapons, and then it would pay off to have used some money on research, so that your lasers
hurt your enemies' shields and not the other way around.
Now is the time to take a look on one of the main changes since the predesessor, namely how to make space ships. While you in Galactic Civilizations got a
number of premade ships, you'll have to design your own now. You start with choosing the size of the ship, then different components (as weapons, shields and
such) that each influence the ship's output in some way. Therefore you can design ships that suits your needs, but be aware that the components costs mcuh
money and the better the more costly.
When you're satisfied, you can save your design and use it as much as you want. You can also change it later, if you for instance have researched a new and
better engine that you want to use, or have found out that another weapon is better than another. Contrary to the predesessor, the game now has three distinct
veapon types( beam weapons, mass drivers and missile weapons) and three kinds of defence that each are designed with one of the three weapon types in mind.
That means that if you fight an enemy that has specialized in mass driver weapons, and you have used all your resources to defend against beam weapons, you are
in big trouble.
Stars and planets
While you only could see the stars in the pre3desessor, you can now also see the planets. That means that two races can both colonize the same solar system if
they find suitable planets. Each planet is unique and have a worth between 0 and 30(where 30 is best) that tells you how much land that is suitable on the
planet. When you build new things, you'll get a simple map over the planet surface where you can place the buildings. Some planets are rich on minerals, other
have lots of ruins your researchers can play with.
Galactic Civilizations II uses 3D graphics, and so far it seems totally OK, even though the developrs have lots of room for improvements before this becomes a
game that can compete with other 3D based space games out there. In our beta version both the ships and the planet surfaces were very simple, and the design of
the ships was not very interesting. Graphics is not particulary important for these kind of games to suck you into them, but with titles like Haegemonia and
Nexus on the market it's easy to become spoiled. A fun detail is that the game can be played in any resolution and if you want 3000x2000 to get full control
there's nothing that can stop you(if your machine can handle it). The graphics are also very easy to scale, so that it actually works better on old computers
than it's 2D graphical predecessor.
The game is still far from finished, something the beta we got shows. In addition to lack several important functions, it also had lots of small bugs (which
probable will be fixed before sale) and it was therefore a little bit difficult to get a proper feel of how the game will be to play. The predecessor was at
least very fun, and the new functions looks like they work good together with the game's solid fundament, so Galactic Civilizations II has the potential to
become a snack for old and new fans of the genre. With improved AI, a non-linear campaign and powerful modding support it also seems like it will last a while.
The gam will be released at the end of the year or early next year.
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11-08-2005 21:26
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