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Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords
Posted:
12/3/06 by Chris Stavros
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(14)
 As the 23rd century dawns, mankind is on the verge of
a long sought dream, moving out among the stars. The
old ways of using interstellar jump gates to end the
problems of distance have been replaced by an
invention of man, hyperdrive. Equipped with these new
engines mankind spreads his wings to the stars, only
to discover the galaxy has other races also looking to
expand. This is the premise of Galactic Civilization 2
Dread Lords.
Galactic Civilization 2 (GC2 for short from now on) is
a turn based strategy game about colonizing planets
and diplomatic interaction with other space faring
races. Players must explore the always different
galaxy, study important technologies, design and build
starships, colonize new worlds, as well as capturing
enemy worlds and defending their own planets. They
will also develop their own planets to produce the
tools of empire, food, money, technology and
starships.
Play begins with a few basic selections, such as
picking a race. Each race has different attributes and
bonus factors and there are a few bonus points you can
assign to gain more advantages. These are displayed
easily with drop down windows that clearly explain the
cost and what the advantage gives you. These
advantages stay with you the entire game so choose
wisely and you can tailor your game playing style to
gain the maximum effect from these choices.
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You will also be asked if you would like to change the
name of your civilization, your leader's name, as well
as your race portrait. You can also change the look
and style of your starships, as well as their colors
and also change the default color of your
civilization. The first time playing they recommend
the Terran Alliance since we know something about
being humans. You can also adjust the size of your
galaxy, how many habitable planets it may have, as
well as possible trade resources. The size of the
galaxy determines the number of alien races, and you
can pick these as well, or let the AI do that.
The game opens with a short intro movie and you can
begin to make decisions. The map is grayed over and
you can see your homeworld and the star it orbits, and
a few planets. You have one colony ship and your fleet
flagship at start so you can begin exploring and
colonization right away. You will have to set out
blindly to find new world at first and there are bonus
asteroids to uncover that also give advantages.
The game map has several viewing modes as well as nice
zoom features. If you change the view options it will
show where other races are as well as resources and
star systems but this is something like a cheat to me
as it removes the random factor. Each race has a
sphere of influence that shows on the map as colored
borders but you can move through space without
hindrance from them. As your starships travel over the
map the gray is removed and exact details are revealed
such as habitable planets, star system names and what
race if any lives on a particular planet.
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