QJ.NET’s Galactic Civilizations 2: Twilight of the Arnor beta review
The year 2007 ends with a big bang of memorable titles for all the consoles and genres. And for the more intellectual gamers among us, one thing to look forward to as this year ends is the upcoming Twilight of the Arnor expansion for Stardock‘s Galactic Civilizations II.
Wondering how the beta version of the game looks so far? Check out our review at the full article and find out!
The year 2007 ends with a big bang of memorable titles for all the consoles and genres, and while many gamers are enjoying the release of high-profile games like Call of Duty 4 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) or even Halo 3, the more intellectual gamers among us are just warming up for next year’s choice pick: The Twilight of the Arnor expansion for Stardock‘s Galactic Civilizations II.
We figured we’d have a go with the game’s beta release, and see what sort of goodies this new expansion adds to the franchise. Given the vastness of the title’s changes, however, we’ll be focusing our attention on three things: The new Terror Star, the new tech trees, and the new visuals. We’ll also be offering some bare-bones basic hints on how you’ll want to start out.
Getting started:
As a general rule, you’ll want to start the first 50 turns laying your future empire’s foundations. This means focusing your resources into expansion and economics – make sure to build plenty of market centers at the campaign’s onset, and to crank out colony ships at a steady pace for new inhabitable planets you come across.
With regards to the colonies, you’ll probably notice that you’ve already got an inhabitable world close by, just waiting to be used by your first freebie colony ship. Avoid it – spend a couple of turns looking around for larger class planets. It’ll take a little longer, but the superior resources these worlds offer will pay off big time in the long run. You can always come back for the small fry later.
Also be sure to grab any artifacts you can find. Most will contain racial bonuses that won’t make that big an impact at the start of the game, but some artifacts will give free BC which goes a long way to fund your activities.
As for research, resist the temptation to boost your war-based branches and focus instead on either ship propulsion, or getting a universal translator. You’ll need propulsion for exploring further out of your own system without taking too much time, and is probably better fit for the larger galaxies.
The universal translator, on the other hand, ensures that you’ll understand what other alien races say when you make first contact. This is important when you start streamlining your research later on – you can opt to trade for whatever tech branches you haven’t been covering as well as the other races have. Doubly important considering that each race gets new technology trees, which we’ll discuss a little later.
As you have noticed, I didn’t say anything specific here, such as what race to pick, or what sort of trees to invest in aside from the first two. There are no hard and fast rules when you’re playing Twilight of the Arnor – you simply adapt to whatever perks you’ve got working for you. Remember: Victory goes to the warrior who is willing to learn from his adversaries.
Moving on, let’s take a closer look at the new features that Arnor‘s got offered up.
The Terror Star:
Three words: Shock and Awe. Twilight of the Arnor introduces the Terror Star, a frightening new weapon that becomes available to you after spending considerable – or maybe the word we’re looking for is horrendous – amounts of time going into the starbase tech tree. Much like another empire’s over-sized WMD, the Terror Star allows you to shatter planets into asteroid chunks.
More than just some new toy for some malevolent asthmatic Sith lord, however, the Terror Star has a more benevolent use: The Arnor race granted this technology to the sole surviving Terran ship escaping the massive civil war that erupted amongst the Drengins. It is their hope that you, the player, use this to destroy the crystals the Dread Lords use to power their armies.
Of course that didn’t stop us from using this behemoth for other less story-canon roles. A hundred or so weeks of research and a further ten weeks of build time later, and we had this puppy up and ready for operation.
Or at least we thought we did. While the Terror Star’s one square-per-turn move rate ensured we could parade it at our empire’s frontier just to let the neighboring races know we had one, we found out the thing couldn’t fire a shot. A beta bug perhaps? We don’t know, but we’re hoping this issue gets fixed by the game’s full release is up and about, or we’ll be looking at one obscenely expensive paper tiger.
New tech trees:
Not quite as apparent as the Terror Star, but no less if not more important for the Twilight of the Arnor are each race’s new tech trees. Don’t get off thinking this is just some lazy palette swap either – a quick tour of some of the races indicates that Stardock has gone the extra mile to ensure that each race’s developments properly interlace with their core culture.
We’ll be using the Terrans (humans) and the Drengin as examples. Both races may have concepts of diplomacy and warfare, though Terrans show a deeper understanding of its mechanics – they have Majesty and Counter-Espionage as subsets. For the warmongering Drengin, who are given to shows of force rather than “mere talk,” the diplomacy tree is rudimentary, and branches off into simple trade and straight-out intimidation.
Then there’s the matter of their military. While Terrans simply start off a generic “space militarization” tag, the Drengin are up-front with their intentions, starting off with “Interstellar Conquest” instead.
Needless to say that players will want to use these characteristics to their advantage without becoming too overspecialized. In the case of the Terrans, while they’re not as well-developed as the other races with regards to military strength, their above-average diplomacy skills allow them to avoid otherwise inevitable conflicts. That, and it makes it easier for them to wheel and deal with other races for any tech they may not have at the moment.
Improved visuals:
What’s a new expansion without makeovers? Twilight of the Arnor introduces higher levels of detailing on your individual ships. This means that what were once blank panels in the previous games are now chock-full of subtle details such as antennas, fins, and other paraphernalia that give your vessels that extra bit of character to make them more distinctive.
And let’s not forget customizability.
The introduction of moving parts is bound to catch the attention of the more hardcore players out there. And as fellow blogger Charles D., just trying to accessorize your fleet’s ships lends itself to a whole new pastime within Galactic Civilizations that’s just as immersive as the actual game. Plus points since we don’t have to spend for stuff like acrylics, airbrushes, sandpaper, or all that other modelling paraphernalia.
Conclusion:
Where do we even begin to wrap this up? Stardock’s latest expansion to the Galactic Civilizations franchise is an overwhelming package that’s sure to tickle the fancy of longtime fans. And while the Terror Star is certainly one of the more visible features we encountered, we soon found ourselves just as immersed in the new tech trees.
Playing as a Terran alone already took weeks to figure out, and could probably end up taking longer if we decided to go overboard pimpin’ out our ships with all the new movable parts, and step into the aptly-named Immense class galaxy. That’s just one race – imagine the possibilities with 12 at your disposal.
Not to say that we hit a foreseeable snag. Newcomers to this sort of gaming experience are definitely going to be in for a steep learning curve, and the unique tech trees, while a turn-on for veteran conquerors, could very well discourage neophytes from giving Twilight of the Arnor a spin.
A word of advice: Take your time viewing the video tutorials and pop-up hints. They’ll give you all the info you need to get your basics jotted down, and you’ll have your own little empire going in no time. We look forward to the eventual release of Galactic Civilization II: Twilight of the Arnor. If this review indicates anything, even a peek at a partial build was already a doozy.