Longest post ever? Or a new game review

It usually takes me several weeks, and sometimes up to a month to decide on purchasing a new game. I go through a rigorous selection process which involves selecting a genre, scanning reviews, looking at previews, watching game trailers, searching message boards, looking at the box art, consultation with friends and price comparison. The purchase of a game for me is more akin to buying a house or car then a simple purchase. That’s why I was so surprised with myself that I bought my most recent game on the relative drop of a hat. As you know Ive recently quit WoW and needed something to keep me busy. I reinstalled Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat to give me some mindless killing, which was nice, but I needed something that I hadn’t played in a while. So it was very fortunate that I saw Gamespot’s review of Galactic Civilizations II (from here on out referred to as GalCiv just to save me some typing)on the front page of their site. The game scored very well and was touted as the next great thing in 4X (space strategy games for you n00bs) gaming.

Well I was getting ready to head out the door to my local Best Buy (yes I admit I buy from them….Im not proud of it but the big stores and shiny electronics draw me in like a rat to a trap), when I noticed on the website for GalCiv the ever so convenient “Purchase and Download” link. Well what do you know I didn’t even have to leave the house! The site gave 2 options. Purchase for download only for $45 or purchase and download and get the CD’s and manual in the mail for $45 + shipping and handling. I figured for an extra $5 worth of shipping the manual would be nice to have. So I went from no game to downloading and installing in the span of about 4 minutes. Beat that Best Buy!

This leads me to a preface of my actual game review. I would like to say a few words about the developers of GalCiv as it may easily be the most impressive part of this whole game. The game was developed by a small company known as StarDock (SD) which has developed several games over the last few years, some of which you may have heard of, most if which you haven’t. The first thing I noticed on the game’s site was that it’s essentially a Blog. The developers post updates and allows people to comment on them. Also the message boards are filled with developer posts. Most game developers only post on the message boards of their games when something really bad has happened (delays, cancellations, major design changes) or something really good has happened (beta testing, release dates). SD on the other hand has dozens of developer posts every week, they genuinely seemed to be interested in what the community has to say about the game.

The next thing about the company is that they have NO copy protection on the game. The CD and downloaded version can be loaded on as many computers as you want. You are given a serial number so you can get updates and download new races, ships, scenarios etc. And that’s where the magic of the system comes into play. SD releases SO MANY updates that if you don’t have the serial number its almost not worth having the game. Sure you could pirate it super easy but with all the new stuff its like getting free vanilla when you could pay a little bit and get 30 more flavors of ice creamy goodness. Between the progressive copy protection methods, full game purchase downloads, and developer interactivity I must say that SD ranks at the very top of my short list of “Game developers who don’t suck and don’t piss me off”.

After having said all the game review will be pretty short and sweet because Ive only played the game for a couple hours. Like most space empire building games you all the usual features, 9 different races, a huge fully customizable galaxy to explore and conqueror, and a vast branching technology tree. Unlike a lot of other space strategy games GalCiv has great graphics and an interesting story line. One thing I noticed right away was the amazing AI of the computer opponents. Every different race has unique tactics which changes depending on which race you play. I started with the humans just for the hell of it and the Dregin instantly tried to blast me out of the sky which the Altari wanted to trade technology. Whoever when I tried a different race the Altari ignored me completely while the Dregin…well they still tried to blast me out of the sky. Anyway the AI is freaking brilliant. Ill have to put up a more in depth game play review when I get a few more hours put into it but I have the feeling this thing will suck down a lot of my time in the near future.