Galactic Civilizations 2

[adddeed]

I decided to give this one a try since i had it on my Steam list (Ultimate edition), and is it just me or is it kind of complicated? I have Imperium Galactica 2 installed as well, and it is much simpler and more straightforward. Is GalCiv2 worth it or should i just stick with IG2?

 

[Malakal]

If GC2 is complicated for you you should stick to easier games. I recommend MS Hearts. Because quite frankly I can hardly think of an easier 4X game than GC2 with its simplistic tech model, simplistic ship design, simplistic diplomacy.

 

[Raghar]

Starbases and theirs usage are complicated.

I suggest Hearts of Iron II, or III. Start as Germany, or Finland.

 

[adddeed]

If GC2 is complicated for you you should stick to easier games. I recommend MS Hearts. Because quite frankly I can hardly think of an easier 4X game than GC2 with its simplistic tech model, simplistic ship design, simplistic diplomacy.

What i mean there is much more to do and fiddle with than IG2 for example.

 

[Malakal]

If GC2 is complicated for you you should stick to easier games. I recommend MS Hearts. Because quite frankly I can hardly think of an easier 4X game than GC2 with its simplistic tech model, simplistic ship design, simplistic diplomacy.

What i mean there is much more to do and fiddle with than IG2 for example.

Really? The only semi-complicated system is budget and how funding works with production/research capacity, other than that its streamlined designs everywhere. My main complaint about GC2 actually.

 

[adddeed]

Maybe it just looks complex at first glance. Is the game worth playing? I don't mind if it's streamline or not, is it fun?

 

[Eyeball]

Play it, see for yourself. No need to taint the experience with the opinions of Kodexians WHO hate anything not PST.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Yeah, see for yourself. It's a decent game, but not nearly enough content in my opinion. The tech tree has a decent number of techs, but it's incredibly unimaginative. BIGASS LASER - BIGASS LASER MKII - BIGASS LASER MKIII with slightly better stats each time etc.

It's not as streamlined as most other recent 4x games, but still pretty streamlined.

 

[Turisas]

Yeah, see for yourself. It's a decent game, but not nearly enough content in my opinion. The tech tree has a decent number of techs, but it's incredibly unimaginative. BIGASS LASER - BIGASS LASER MKII - BIGASS LASER MKIII with slightly better stats each time etc.

Like I said in the GalCiv 3 thread, they better sort this out for GC3 - even if it means less techs overall. Takes the fun out of research if you just get Laser III instead of Multi-Positronic Polaron Beam Cannon Arrays. New tech should have an impact, not just an incremental boost to stuff you already had.

 

[whatevername]

I recommend tic-tac-toe, it's a little bit less complicated than GC2.

 

[Grimgravy]

It's not a super complex game. It can be fun, but techs do tend to be incremental. Economy seems to be the most important aspect of the game. It would be nice is there was more to build on your worlds or some reason not to super-specialize them. You can customize your ships to your heart's content and satisfy. It's mostly cosmetic though.

 

[Dayyālu]

Maybe it just looks complex at first glance. Is the game worth playing? I don't mind if it's streamline or not, is it fun?

Is GalCiv 2 fun? Great question (the standard response should be always "go play Master of Orion 2" but we will consider only the modern spawn here).

Short version: No.

Long version. Of the "recent" space 4x games that I played Gal Civ 2 is one of the most sound and proper. That's not necessarily a positive thing, however. Compared to its competitors, excluding IG2 (Sword of the Stars Prime, Space Empires V and -sigh- Sins of a Solar Empire) GalCiv 2 is more of a standard 4x- Space Empires is more complex, but quite uninspired, Sword of the Stars has a fun Real Time battle system , but awful "strategic" side and it is developed by monkeys, Sins is an abomination in Real Time.

GalCiv 2 can be fun for a game or two. Even with the last expansion (Twilight of the Arnor) all the races have similar techs and play mostly the same, with some little differences in bonuses and whatever. Economy and wartech is the same bar some specialized weapons, and it gets stale pretty quickly. There is no direct control of ship combat and most of the political stuff (elections, both "factional" and "galactic senate") seems quite useless and without any weight. The only complex thing is maybe slider optimization, and starbases.

The AI is decent - it seems not to cheat too much. A big nail on the coffin is that GalCiv fluffwise is mightily bland. Races are bland. Techs are bland. Development is bland. Superweapons are bland. Strategies and tactics are bland.

Final words? If you want a simple game, get Sword of the Stars Prime. It gets boring after 1-2 games like GalCiv 2, but at least those two games have fun combat. I've read in the Bundle thread that it is now in a offer. Maybe it's worth 1 or 2 shekels.

 

[adddeed]

So how do you explain the 92 ranking on metacritic? A game which isn't fun surely isn't worth that much praise.

 

[DakaSha]

adddeed ignored

 

[Carceri]

So how do you explain the 92 ranking on metacritic? A game which isn't fun surely isn't worth that much praise.

Lol, this guy.

 

[whatevername]

So how do you explain the 92 ranking on metacritic? A game which isn't fun surely isn't worth that much praise.

How do you explain 88 metascore for Diablo III on metacritic?

 

[spectre]

So how do you explain the 92 ranking on metacritic? A game which isn't fun surely isn't worth that much praise.

It means it's better than New Vegas.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Ass Effect 3:Buttans & Sploshuns got 93% (at least the PS3 version did).

Suck it, good games, ME3 is way awesomer.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

galciv2? complex and complicated?

try aurora, but please take a video while you do it.

 

[Storyfag]

Maybe it just looks complex at first glance. Is the game worth playing? I don't mind if it's streamline or not, is it fun?

Is GalCiv 2 fun? Great question (the standard response should be always "go play Master of Orion 2"

This. Compared to MoO, GalCiv2 is bland and uninspired. Why, oh why can't there be a proper MoO4?

Space Empires is more complex, but quite uninspired

I found SEV to be quite entertaining, especially the challenge in managing a fleet's supply lines. Plus, the warp-point system screams of David Weber's excellent Starfire novels. I want to be an Antonov.

 

[Dragula]

Is there any 4x game with a proper and intricate colonization system? AKA do more than right click with colony ship. Even Spore demanded more than that with terraforming.

 

[adddeed]

More intricate to create or to manage? IG2 has you building your colony like a mini-simicity, which is pretty cool.

And not strictly 4x, but the Anno seires have great colony management (the focus of these games actually). I actually prefer playing Anno than most other 4x, the fact that it's focused on building up your colonies and esatblishing trade routes and supply chains is more appealing than just fighting.

 

[Dragula]

As in exploring, terraforming, building, all of it. Best would be if it also allowed colonies to break free and create new civs.

 

[Ashery]

Is there any 4x game with a proper and intricate colonization system? AKA do more than right click with colony ship. Even Spore demanded more than that with terraforming.

Aurora is (Or was, back when I last played a year and a half ago) setup such that it takes a substantial amount of effort on the player's part to move a large number of people to a new colony. There's a generic good called "infrastructure" that needs to be shipped to planets outside the habitable range of your civilization, with the exact amount (ratio, technically) depending on how far outside the range you are. Terraforming was also a bit more involved, but there was some amusing behavior at the extremes due to the mathematics behind it (Venus being substantially more difficult to terraform than Mercury as the excess atmospheric pressure could only be drained at a fix rate, but pumping only a few tenths of an atm worth of anti-greenhouse gases on Mercury could bring it within the proper range as that relied on the ratio between present gases. It was even possible to drop below absolute zero quite easily).

 

[whatevername]

Is there any 4x game with a proper and intricate colonization system? AKA do more than right click with colony ship. Even Spore demanded more than that with terraforming.

Colonizing planets just adds a lot to micromanagement. That's why I try to play space TBS's with just 1 planet/system and enjoy planetary bombardments... because I've watched too much Babylon 5 during my childhood.