Galactic Civilization

[jeff]

I am thinking about buying Galactic Civilization, I have read reviews saying it is the true descendant of Master of Origin. Now I loved Master of Origin and lost many evening playing it. I even enjoyed MOO-II, but never bought MOO-III as the reviews and fan reactions were so negative. I have bought Heroes V but I do not think it will run of my laptop but will probably try if I decide to use its often promised editor, so it will for the present be loaded only on my new desktop, but I want something I can play on my laptop. It has a Pentium 2.8 GHz, 512 RAM, but uses the Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME integrated video controller. Now I have not played GC before and would probably buy GC-II, any comments?

[Ethric]

Nah, it's not a "descendant" of MoO, true or otherwise. That's just a comment from dumb reviewers who think all space TBS's are the same

It's very good nonetheless. Big selling points are the level of work that went into the AI (other companies making TBS's should sit up and take notes, though I am not holding my breath), and the constant patching and rebalancing they do.

You can design your own ships, diplomacy can be quite involved (though not perfect of course), and it's generally a good and fun game, if you are into TBS's. No multiplayer though, not even a hotseat option, that can be a bit of a detraction. The argument is that most people don't play much MP anyways so might as well make sure it's as good an SP game as possible. Still, hotseat is missed.

[DaemianLucifer]

Its quite good actually.Interesting tech tree,designing your ships,easy to learn diplomacy,and above all excelent AI.

[jeff]

The argument is that most people don't play much MP anyways so might as well make sure it's as good an SP game as possible. Still, hotseat is missed.

Well that pretty much describes me, and I won't need Hotseat, though I do see why it would be missed. Sounds like a buy to me, I'll do it through the CH link, so they can get a cut.

[ThunderTitan]

If only I had any ideea how to play it....

[DaemianLucifer]

If only I had any ideea how to play it....

The tutorials are nice,and it really isnt that hard to figure out.I dont know what the manual is like though,since I didnt read it.

[Ethric]

I read the manual, though it's not all to accurate on everything anymore. But it's not hard to figure out that game, certainly not any harder than other game of it's type.

[cornellian]

A word of warning though; the campaign gets ridiculously difficult in couple missions and you may need to restart those missions a lot.

However, the sandbox mode is excellent by itself. And yes, hotseat mode is sorely missed.

[Ethric]

Never tried the campaign in fact. Any good?

[DaemianLucifer]

I stopped it after fourth or fifth mission and started exploring the free game.I might continue the campaign these days.

[cornellian]

Never tried the campaign in fact. Any good?

It is good until those dreadful missions come, but you may beat them without too much problems of course, enjoying your way through.. You won't if you have my playing style though which is controlled expansion.. There are quite few situations you will be punished because you didn't expand like crazy, spending all your money in settlers in the first 20 turns.

[DaemianLucifer]

It is good until those dreadful missions come, but you may beat them without too much problems of course, enjoying your way through.. You won't if you have my playing style though which is controlled expansion.. There are quite few situations you will be punished because you didn't expand like crazy, spending all your money in settlers in the first 20 turns.

Good thing Ive learned this from the civilization I.Almost every strategy game is easily played if you expand like crazy.

[Pol]

So did you bought it jeff?

Actually Galactic Civilzation and Galactic Civilization II. are different games. Not much, but important is:
* in gc here's a "star council"
* gc doesn't require supercomputer
* in pure gc you cannot design your ships
* so pure gc is like galactic chess spiced about lot of diplomacy, you almost never can win it by brute force like other games (fe Heroes )

I don't feel the needs for GC2 myself, I virtually stayed on just GC from '98 - but, with ability to design your ship you can easily go through all campaigns in GC2, especially if you are not burdened with its ancestor like was Brad. (However he is forgiven as he's creator of the game). With right designed ships you can swim through the campaign with quite easiness I heard.