Stardock's got the right brew for a Sci-fi TBS. The gameplay's good but it's the feature set that sets it apart
So what's so good in Gal Civ 2 that has this effect? Almost everything, excluding its share of pitfalls. The gameplay may be quite slow but is addictive; after all it is a turn-based strategy game. There are features that I feel, are lacking in functionality and purpose, but the sum of its parts far outweigh its individual failings. More importantly, it possesses a good share of customizability and replayability that I have not seen in Civilization or any other TBS, for the matter.
As far as customizability goes, it's the RPG of the genre... Not really, but I can compare it to one. There are a lot of options that can be tweaked, right from picking the race to the map selection. Customizing your universe with options like the number of star systems, number of habitable planets, victory conditions and so on on the scenario selection menu can take some time and in itself, boosts the replay value considerably.
If you think that had a lot of decision making involved, wait till you come to race selection. Select from among the pre-defined races. There are so many parameters to consider here like starting techs, race bonuses and political bonuses. If you're not satisfied with what is offered to you, you can always create your custom race, which is fun too.
Customizability doesn't stop here. The most important aspect of customizability and perhaps, the entire game itself in terms of the fun factor is the Ship design. The game provides some pre-built ships which are unlocked the further you research down the tech tree, but you're always welcomed to create your own spaceship. Creating one to suit your current technological standing and the intended purpose takes a sufficient amount of time and every moment of it is to be savored. And you'll be doing this often too. Enjoyment multiplied, enough to overshadow a number of negative points of the game. Watching YOUR custom-built ship is indeed very satisfying.
As I've said earlier, the gameplay is rather slow, especially in the early stages of the game as all researches and constructions take time and with few settled planets, there is little to do other than click the 'End Turn' button repeatedly. However, as you progress colonizing more planets, building more research centres and factories, both research and construction times come down. By that time you'll have a lot of micromanagement and foreign interactions to do.
Inspite of being an uneventful period, the early game is crucial to your strategy and attaining victory, especially if you're the aggressive type. During this period, strategy is basically confined to colonial rush, where you have to colonize as many planets as possible before they're all occupied by rival races. This only makes early game even more unattractive.
Further down the timeline, the strategy options broaden allowing you to pursue a diplomatic, military or technological victory. Even then some form of military intervention is needed as a race without a military arm is a sweet target for other civilizations. You can easily juggle between your objectives, projecting your military might on weaker races but forging strong diplomatic relations others, to attain victory. There's a lot to be done here.
Talking about victory without a mention of AI is like food without flavor. The AI is consistent and varies in 'intelligence' with the difficulty level selected. The most appreciable aspect of the AI is the fact that you never feel that you're you're being singled out or treated unfairly. The AI does not seem to differentiate a human player from one of its own. It will fight another AI opponent as much as it would fight you, and the major criteria are your Good-Evil standing(which I shall deal with later) and your relation with the other race. With increasing difficulty the AI adapts and optimizes its strategy accordingly.
As much as it is given importance in the game, warfare should have been a more engaging affair. The 'Design your own ship' is truly brilliant and makes up a major part of the fun in warfare, which is a standard TBS issue. The only diversity is that there are ship encounters and planet invasions, with the latter being more interesting since there is more than one way to invade a planet. There is an option to view ship battles, but it is unimpressive and could have been made more exciting. This was a major letdown for me, as I had expected a lot more from this feature. You can also view planetary invasions, but it is just as bad as ship battles.
The other areas where the game was left wanting were the tech tree and planetary construction. The tech tree is elementary and is basically the same for all races. The techs also lack details and their effects are sometimes not very clear. Construction also suffers along the same lines. The variety of buildings is limited and once again it is not race-specific, which would have added to the diversity and ultimately to its replay value.
The other features including Finances and Citizen happiness are standard TBS fare, akin to Civilizations. In other words, keep an eye on them from time to time and make sure they don't go into the red too much.
The other interesting features included in Gal Civ 2 are the Good-Evil scale and United Planets Council. From time to time when you settle new planets, you are prompted to make a decision, which offers you certain benefits and affects the scale. For example, the planet might have an artifact that provides certain bonuses if harnessed but needs human sacrifice. Your decision may be Good, Neutral or Evil. That moves the scale towards one of the ends and also gives you certain benefits or demands certain sacrifices. Depending on your alignment, races with similar alignment may ally with you while of the opposite alignment may declare war on you.
The United Planets Council convenes regularly and always comes with an election on a certain issue. It is always something to look forward to it as it brings something new to the table.
Lastly, there are two modes - the campaign mode and the scenario mode. The campaign is essentially the same as the latter, but with fixed starting conditions, restricted features and a storyline with objectives thrown in. This mode is not very compelling and storyline, while interesting on its own, feels like a namesake when played in the game. Also, there is no multiplayer but I feel that the game does not need one at all.
The graphics have nothing to be specifically commented on and are just good enough for a clear unadulterated gameplay. There are no sound effects to speak of. There is a background music which has an eerily tranquilizing feel to it. But it is gets too repetitive later on.
VERDICT:
There are several lackadaisical features, as I've mentioned above, but those that work, work exceedingly well and combined with a favorable gameplay, there is a lot to be enjoyed. This genre has produced few top class games and Galactic Civilizations is definitely one of them.