Request for Galactic Civilizations II opinions

[Veracity]

I've been wondering about picking this up for some time, given that most of its press seems to mention overwhelmingly impressive single-player AI and decent diplomacy, both areas that are often disappointing in high-level strategy. Given the invariably obscene amount of time playing the things eats up, only for you to recognize countless hours in that you've identified and are now mindlessly exploiting AI holes, I've been steering clear of them altogether for years.

So, does the AI really live up to its hype, or is this largely reviewer exaggeration? AI that not only wrecks your game but messages you to explain specifically why you suck sounds highly entertaining, as does the fact it'll complain when you use tactics that work only because you've set it to be stupid. Once you've played for a while, though, does it devolve into the usual rote exploitation of efficient-but-possibly-slightly-indirect tactics it fails to recognize?

The other reservation I have arises from having seen it being knocked for being unacceptably buggy. Is this fair and, if so, are there significant bugs still waiting for future patches? I'm increasingly short of patience with the industry's piss-poor attitude to quality control, so several minor or a few major bugs would be enough that I'd rather avoid purchasing at least until they're addressed.

 

[Greatatlantic]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/gal ... ?id=270044

My review. However, many months later I'm not longer playing it, not even for the upgrades. The AI does have quite a few tricks up it sleeves, such as recognizing that a large armada of xeno transport ships outside a planet is probably not a good thing. Realistically, the AI makes an excellent sparring partner, and the only real exploitations are the ones you can do while making a custom civ (specializing can really help you win).

That being said, the game has its problems... things can get a little generic. Technology never really changes gameplay after the first few important techs are researched. Furthermore, civilizations are only differentiated by percent bonuses. The end result it sort of a game of baseball where you want to win by having statistical advantages.

Designing your own ships is fun, though. I can't tell you how many ways I found to make phall... I mean make gianst space dreadnaughts with lots and lots of guns and missles.

 

[Veracity]

Thanks for that. A degree of genericness I can tolerate (rather that than wild imbalances), since single campaigns in these things can take weeks - something worth leaving installed for a long time on the off-chance I want an occasional game is always nice, but I don't really look for longevity in the sense of not getting old for months at a time. The mutterings about bugginess/instability still bother me, though. Demos tend to be particularly unrepresentative for this sort of thing, but maybe I'll give that a whirl and see if it convinces either way.

Don't know if you're still following it/care, but two of the issues you mentioned look to be specific targets of the expansion - they're adding unique race specializations and overhauling the tech tree, though the latter sounds like it might be more consolidation than expansion/specialization.

Considering this will probably mean another slew of patching, I might cheapskate it out for a few months until it's as stable as it's likely to get; they may even release the inevitable 2-in-1 by then.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Hmmm... initially it was somewhat unstable for me. After the first patch that went away and now its pretty stable.

 

[Elwro]

I'm also considering buying this. In Poland GC2 costs the same as the Warlords expansion for Civ4 alone. After all those months I still play Civ4, I think it's wonderful. I just grabbed GC2 demo, I'll try if I can get into it.

I thought I'd wait for the Gold edition with the expansion, but the Dark Avatar was postponed to 2007...

 

[Oarfish]

I would happily kill and eat my own Grandmother for something like the Galciv ship designer in space empires (along with firing arc rules).

 

[Dmitron]

Galciv is well worth it.

My only small criticism is the arbitrary tech tree. Laser I, Laser II, Laser III....

 

[oherror]

its fun for awhile....i got it but i dont even have it installed anymore.

 

[NoisyKillerHPB]

Does anybody remember the game "spaceward ho" from way back? GalCiv 2 seems like that game on steroids.

 

[Dmitron]

Does anybody remember the game "spaceward ho" from way back? GalCiv 2 seems like that game on steroids.

I dont. But Spaceward Ho certainly sparks my imagination.

 

[Gambler]

GC2 is a very good game. It's one of the few titles that actually have that "advanced AI" everyone promises before release.

 

[Amasius]

Yep, GalCiv2 is the money worth. It lacks the charm of MoO, has no multiplayer and the tech tree is boring, but the AI is the best I've ever seen in an 4x-game. And it has no copy protection (but you have to register to get Patches), a good reason to support Stardock.

 

[Veracity]

It's one of the few titles that actually have that "advanced AI" everyone promises before release.

Aye, that above all else is what has me convinced it's probably worth suspending my automatic suspicion of anything along empire-sim lines. Reading some of the developer commentary, it's clear they'll refuse to implement features they're not confident they can code the AI to use competently - this may be going too far for some tastes, but to me it suggests a practically unheard-of commitment to doing a single-player game right.

1.4 has been released - they're still correcting crash to desktop and divide by zero errors, which doesn't entirely inspire confidence at that version number, but at least they are fixing them (and I know their updates are reputedly pretty good for actually extending content, not just fixing what made it in for release, which makes significant bugs this far along somewhat more reasonable). I'll probably still wait for the dust to settle on the expansion and get the whole thing at once.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

GC2 is a very good game. It's one of the few titles that actually have that "advanced AI" everyone promises before release.

[quagmire]Heh Heh Ohhh Riiiight[/quagmire]

 

[shewhomustbedeleted]

Just bought and installed this game last week. It's good, but is pretty much an extension of other games I liked better(MOO2, Alpha Centauri) from the"bc's "to the linear-graphed tech tree.
That said, it gives the same ride and with the ship designer, stimulates the same creative juices in a similar and almost as satisfying a way as those games listed above that have boldly gone before.
Worth the cash--a solid game.