Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition

 PC
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  • Summary: Get the complete Galactic Civilizations II saga including the acclaimed PC strategy game of the year Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, the award winning expansion pack Dark Avatar, and the newest expansion pack Twilight of the Arnor! Expand the Galactic Civilizations II universe withGet the complete Galactic Civilizations II saga including the acclaimed PC strategy game of the year Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, the award winning expansion pack Dark Avatar, and the newest expansion pack Twilight of the Arnor! Expand the Galactic Civilizations II universe with Terror Stars, unique technology trees per civilization, Map editors, Custom Scenario makers, campaign editors, new types of ships, new planetary improvements, and much more!… Expand
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  1. Positive: 4 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 2 out of 7
  1. Yazah
    Nov 21, 2011
    9
    The ultimate edition adds both expansions and the base game to make a very product. It is a great turn-based strategy game that gives you tonsThe ultimate edition adds both expansions and the base game to make a very product. It is a great turn-based strategy game that gives you tons of customization options (very powerful shipbuilding tool) as well as extensive strategy options for winning.… Expand
  2. Scritty
    Dec 10, 2013
    8
    Firstly this is NOT an RTS. If it's a game like Homeworld you want then this game is NOT FOR YOU, Comparing it to RTS's with their tool tips,Firstly this is NOT an RTS. If it's a game like Homeworld you want then this game is NOT FOR YOU, Comparing it to RTS's with their tool tips, and easy mode game play (dumbed down for those with sub 80 IQ's) are about all over the place. Go play one. Why come here and blame a game for not being something it never had any intention of being?
    It's a now aging 4X game that has good exploration, decent control and automatic combat. That's the games weakness for me, very little say in the combat. A nice turn based combat system would have made this game a 9 or 10 IMO. As it is it's like Total War on the strategic scale and has little or no tactical scale. Still intriguing and for the price (currently under $9 on Steam for the full package) worth an 8    … Expand
  4. keefbaker
    Nov 13, 2013
    8
    Pretty damn good space 4x game. Nice amounts of detail, good tech tree and races. Only real problem I have with it is you go in with noPretty damn good space 4x game. Nice amounts of detail, good tech tree and races. Only real problem I have with it is you go in with no context as to the races and technologies and as opposed to say.. endless space where the feel and ideology of each becomes clear, that doesn't seem to happen in this game. The mechanics and rules are excellent though so don't let that put you off.… Expand
  5. DarkSoul47
    Mar 6, 2014
    8
    As it's name says, it's a civilization-like game in space. Every race has it's own tech-tree, special abilities etc. Creating your own shipsAs it's name says, it's a civilization-like game in space. Every race has it's own tech-tree, special abilities etc. Creating your own ships is a great feature. And, for every different mission, there's a one ship, that makes it a deep game. Different kind of weapons, modules, defence systems makes it a lil' bit complicated at start. And AI is really brilliant in diplomacy. They're not so great in wars but when you're in diplomacy screen, it feels like you're playing against real players. I wish, there was a real-time strategy elements in this game. Space wars in Real-time would be really great. You can watch the combat of your fleets but commanding them would be really nice. Economical mechanism is stable. Mining bases and trade routes are great features.

    sum: If you're a fan of civilization and if you like space theme, that's a great game for you.    … Expand
  6. Blackhammer_18
    Jul 28, 2012
    5
    This game is obviously aimed to hardcore fans of X4 genre. I don't really enjoy X4 games but I enjoyed for example Endless Space a lot.
    I    This game is obviously aimed to hardcore fans of X4 genre. I don't really enjoy X4 games but I enjoyed for example Endless Space a lot.
    I bought it on steam for 4,50 euroes.
    It's extremely complicated, and that would be perfectly okay.
    BUT it's very hard to learn anything about this game, there is no decent tutorial and managing your empire is extremely non-intuitive forcing you to read manuals and instructions from the internet for hours. Seriously I consider this the biggest flaw of the game that made me decide to trash it. It kills the fun from playing it, however it may help if you are a maniac of X4 genre.
    The graphics are UGLY. Yeah, it's an old game and I shouldnt whine about the graphics. Maybe, but this graphics is just so extremely bad looking that it crosses the line between ugly sh.t and bad yet acceptable graphics. They could have at least make race portraits look decent. Also there is no any form of showing how your fleets fight, there is only a battle-report. However with so repulsing graphics this is actually a good thing o_O .
    Audio is annoying and I prefer to play music from youtube during playing.
    Another major flaw is that game works terribly on windows 7. I had to restart it a few times because it didn't allow me to click things, dunno why. Also after a little tampering with sound in settings they got bugged and I can't get them working properly. This is ridiculous for a game that you pay for.
    This may be a classic loved by fanboys, but I just feel like I wasted my money.
    I don't recommend this to anyone but X4 genre lovers, they should enjoy GC 2 a lot.
    + Complicated which is fun
    + Some mechanics are retarted
    - Graphics are repulsing
    - Very glitchy on newer systems like windows 7
    - Audio is a joke
    - No tutorials or in-game tooltips, prepare for tearing through wall of texts on the internet if you want to understand anything more than the basics of this game and actually have fun
    Just buy Endless Space or Legend of Pegasus when it will be relased.    … Expand
  7. Bobchillingwort
    Jul 22, 2013
    3
    In what seems to be a running theme for Stardock, this game is frustratingly opaque. I love a good 4X game. I've spent hours playing Civs 3In what seems to be a running theme for Stardock, this game is frustratingly opaque. I love a good 4X game. I've spent hours playing Civs 3 & 4 (plus assorted mods), and have gotten a bit of enjoyment out of Endless Space (after hacking through a number of ill-explained systems).

    Perhaps Galactic Civ II is indeed like Endless Space, and you have to spend hours either learning about the game online or having a friend explain it to you to get anywhere. Sadly I just don't have the patience for that sort of nonsense anymore. Want to know what the buildings a future tech will unlock do? No mousing-over for you, you have to instead right-click on the tech and read about it in a confusing menu. The game frequently fails to recognize when you click to select a tech, and uses a bizarre, confusing color scheme to show what you've researched or have selected. Does Stardock have a chronic condition which prevents them from telling me where my production is coming from, using a simple mouse-over? I ran into this issue in Fallen Enchantress and it's present here as well. Another recurrent issue is the game not saying how many turns a certain go-to order will take a unit to execute. I'm not even sure how you automatically resolve go-to orders without first ending your turn. Every other game just carries them out once you've given orders to every unit awaiting a manual move, but not here.

    Other issues abound. There are like eight different sliders for tech, money, happiness and production. I'm not even sure what bonuses my approval rating was giving me, since of course there was no mouse-over explaining the statistics behind my production and income figures. Perhaps it was buried under some sub-menu. Starting racial unique traits are very poorly explained, all something like "easily forms coalitions against enemies" is telling me is that I have to go onto some forum to find out what sort of modifier is actually in effect. Some starting civs have outrageously good starting attributes, but are apparently genocidal brutes and don't have a diplomacy modifier listed. Does this mean they can't conduct effective diplomacy at all, or just don't get a bonus? Are the "Extreme Isolationists" actually forced to play as isolationists?
    I guess I could figure all this out after six hours of internet research or whatever, but at this point I'm just sick of 4X games tossing me in a sea of incomprehensible data and expecting me to to visit their official forums or whatever to learn how to play the game. Curse you Stardock for releasing expansions to this game for years without giving it even basic user-friendly menus. If I wanted to play around with confusing spreadsheets I'd open up Excel while blindfolded.    … Expand
  8. edgil215
    Oct 17, 2013
    1
    I don't understand at all why anyone likes these games from Stardock entertainment sins of a solar empire and galactic civilizations bothI don't understand at all why anyone likes these games from Stardock entertainment sins of a solar empire and galactic civilizations both included. They feel like a student project and not a polished retail product, the gameplay and interfaces are so ridiculously clunky and there is never any synergy or flow to the commands. There are way too many extra wasted units and features that don't even feel like they have any use because of the abundance. More content is not always a good thing when the content is piss poor. You can't even land on any of the planets that you encounter even once you have taken them over an "settled" them. The only thing you can do is move along an unrealistic 2-Dimensional plane fixated in space. WHICH ISN"T EVEN HOW SPACETIME LOOKS!!?!?!...it curves more intensely at points of greater mass. This game is a crappy version in "Space" of all it's Strategy/RTS predecessors that brings absolutely nothing new to the table and has a completely bland feel with no characters, story line or anything of any importance that is tangible to relate to.

    If you think these ridiculously terrible games are good then please look at all of the Wing Commander games and Homeworld and the years that they came out. Games that still today are even more entertaining than this complete waste of time hunk of crap. AVOID at all costs!    … Expand

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