Metachronos overall score = 9.0 / 10
Positive
- Extremely customizable gameplay provides superb replayability
- The best AI in strategy gaming
- Very cool ship designer that significantly contributes to gameplay
- Truly viable variable victory conditions
- Will keep you up all night playing "just one more turn"
Negative
- No multiplayer
- Tech tree could use more information on new techs
Great games are always more than the sum of their feature sets, and Galactic Civilizations II is a great game. Galactic Civilizations II does indeed boast a very impressive list of cool features, but it also has that extra "something" that separates pretty good games from Hall of Fame material. In the case of Galactic Civilizations II, an epic spacestrategy game set in space, that extra element is a design that is clearly focused on catering to the desires of the player, rather than on trying to stuff the designer's preferences down your throat. From installation to end game, it is clear that this is not only one of the best turn-based strategy games to grace a PC, but one in which the player is treated like royalty.
While some games of this type purport to allow you flexibility in how you achieve a victory while ultimately forcing you to win by force, it is not only possible to win a game in Galactic Civilizations II without fighting, it is a fascinating and viable approach that feels like a completely different game than one in which you win via conflict. While good old military domination is certainly a path to success, you can win by achieving the ultimate technology, culturally assimilating the majority of the galaxy, or forging alliances with all remaining races. In addition to playing with the default ships included with the game, there's a very cool ship designer that'll let you make your own. And you don't have to use the various ships included in the game; you can design your own from scratch, using any combination of technologies that you have currently developed. There's also a large set of purely cosmetic parts you can use to create the ship of your dreams; users have posted screenshots of incredibly detailed and complex new ships that they have designed. Staying consistent with the theme of letting players play in their own way, you can successfully take the approach of designing fleets of small, fast, and pesky fighters that may be effective against larger capital ships if you choose your weapons wisely (defenses are effective only against specific weaponry). Conversely, you may prefer fighting with huge space dreadnoughts, or perhaps mixed fleets. Prudent investment in espionage can give you a crucial advantage in discovering what weapons system the enemy is building, so you can design the most effective weapons and shields to counter them. But be aware that the AI is likely doing some spying of his own.
There are, as in any game, some nits to pick: The technology tree could use beefier data on future techs; it would be nice to have the ability to select random races on startup; and there is no multiplayer (yet). But Galactic Civilizations II is a game that provides that "just one more turn" compulsion, and that appears to have the ability to stay fresh, surprising, and replayable for a long time. One of the greatest compliments is the comparison to Civilization IV that many people are making. Suffice it to say that Galactic Civilizations II is different in many ways than Civ IV, but stands next to it as one of the all-time best 4X strategy games.