Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of Arnor (PC)

The universe expands at a constant rate of excellence
5/16/2008 10:47 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 2

There's a nice shine on things, too. The ships look sharper, and there are new bits to add to your custom designed vessels. GalCiv has never trafficked in impressive visuals, as can still be seen in the retro look of the land battle screen, but it looks much better than it once did. There is more color, more light and consequently more detail and variation in the universe.

You do get the third chapter in what is, frankly, an uninteresting space story. You get a new Immense size galaxy option, a size that is probably a step or two beyond my own patience. And, for the first time that I can recall, you get stability problems that lead to random crashes and prevent you from alt-tabbing. New ship options and Terror Stars add some new things to consider in warfare, and Stardock has added greater user customization through advanced editing tools -- tools that will lead inexorably to "Star Trek" and "Babylon 5" mods before anything truly original.

But Arnor is not about novelty so much as it is about completeness, and the added depth to the GalCiv universe brings it alive in a way reminiscent of the cosmology of Master of Orion or Star Control 2. What was once merely a great strategy game with all the appropriate resource collection and fleet management is now a universe where one race can trade secret unique technologies to give allies a leg up on the competition, where you can use the ability customization to either accent or balance your race's strengths, where you eventually develop irrational hatreds of specific AI-controlled powers for no other reason than that they are a constant pain in your side game after game after game.

If you missed Galactic Civilizations II the first time around, you will want to start with the most up-to-date version, of course. If you've lapsed in your pursuit of Drengin Manifest Destiny, Twilight of the Arnor has enough new stuff to bring you back and keep you for a while. While it was always good, Galactic Civilizations II now feels complete.

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.