It's turned into a decidedly space game themed week now, hasn't it. On Monday I discussed one of the first, and most influential 4X space games ever, Master of Orion 2, and that got me itching to play some more of what many consider to be its best spiritual successor in the modern day: Galactic Civilizations 2. The game does a great job of taking what made MoO 2 so good, and beefing up those features ten fold.
As I've mentioned before, I really like going a research route when marching to victory in these sorts of games. It's probably my absolute favorite non-violent way of trying to rule the universe. GC2 gives players a lot to chew on if they go this route. There are all sorts of things for your species of choice to try and improve from terraforming to propulsion systems to entertainment to diplomacy to sub-sections of arms development. The list of options is just massive, and it can be a real challenge deciding what to research next much of the time. Then there's the entire Xeno Research branch which players need to go into in order to achieve a technological victory. Early on you get some good stuff to help hasten your civilization's research abilities, but by the end it's almost obnoxious how long it takes to research each new step in that branch with no rewards in terms of new tech to play with. The only way I find that route even remotely fun now is if I crank up the difficulty because at least then the game will give me plenty of other stuff to do in the meantime while I wait for all that research to be done. I'm actually thinking I should just try ascending instead. Sure, it'll piss off all the other races in the game, but at least a good war while I'm working on that will keep me busy, and my species will still reach a higher level of thought in the process, albeit through far bloodier means.
My other preferred path to victory is to gain enough influence in the galaxy that everyone wants me to be their ruler. This one can be interesting on a big map that can fit every race in the game. I say this because there are some species that are really tough to win over, the Yor, Drengin, and Korath Clan. I've found myself having to work a lot harder to get these groups to even stay neutral with me, let alone win them over. I can't even bribe them with technology all that often, as they'll tell me to stop sucking up, take the tech anyway, and barely be any happier with my civilization afterward. Cranking up diplomacy and influence seems the best way to go in these situations while trying not to step on any toes.
Like a number of others, I have a tendency of playing as the Terrans. They have a nice mix of base abilities, and I really like their diplomacy super ability. For people like myself who want to win through influence, they're a nice choice for species. I also like how the game gives players more points to spread into other abilities after we pick our race so that we can tweak them a little more to our liking. I usually try and augment the Terrans' ability to get along with others by adding a few more of these traits while tossing in a few other things like creativity and luck. I like the randomness those two abilities can toss into the game. It makes things a little more interesting.
GC2 feels like such a beefed up 4X space game, and there aren't a lot of turn based alternatives out there nowadays. Sins of a Solar Empire, Sword of the Stars, and so forth have plenty of 4X features in them, but they're all real-time. Sometimes it's nice to be able to relax and take my time in taking over the galaxy, which is a big plus for GC2. I have a hand free at all times for sipping tea, stroking my beard deep in thought, or for angry fist waving when things aren't going my way, which are all essential for this sort of game.
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