GameSpy: 5 out of 5!

Twilight of the Arnor gets its first review!

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/galactic-civilizations-ii-twilight-of-the-arnor/872381p1.html
from GalCiv2 Forums

The first review of Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor has arrived and it's from GameSpy.  Mega reviewer Allen Rausch has taken an extremely in-depth look at the game and put together a very detailed review.

Here's a quote:

The technology trees alone make it impossible for someone who's sampled Twilight of the Arnor to ever go back to just playing Dark Avatar. Add to that impressive customization tools, new gameplay dynamics, better AI, graphic upgrades, new ship-builder components and completely re-done flavor text and hundreds and hundreds of smaller tweaks, fixes and changes and what you have is an absolute triumph and a new standard for turn-based-strategy games. Bravo, Stardock. This is how expansion packs should be done.

Please check out the review for yourself!

39,851 views 30 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Darn it Brad! You just beat me to posting it myself. ;) Congratulations, Stardock! :CONGRATS:

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice to see TA getting the love it deserves, here's hoping many more such reviews are in its future. It certainly deserves them! :)
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Now to just let the other 5 star reviews to pile on in. :D Excellent job Stardock, you always know how make a great game.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The first perfect review for TA. The first of many, hopefully...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Congrats guys! This game is so good I'd have given it six stars out of five.Keep up the good work and don't let all the good reviews get to your heads.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The fact that the "Cons" were only "Terror stars difficult to plan around; cheesy storyline; still no true multiplayer" speaks mountains in itself. Reviewers have to come up with something - and thats all he could come up with?

Yet again the timeless principle supply maximum Value in Products, not minimum content that you can get away with, sells by the shed load.

Expand the trophy shelf - you'll need the space by year end !

Regards
Zy
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The cons, however, do speak of a problem that a growing number of people seem worried about: multiplayer!

Quite frankly, how hard would it be to make a multiplayer game? It wouldn't have to be anything fancy, maybe just something that you can get with a LAN party. I have a wife who enjoys GalCiv and we're both rather annoyed that we can't tackle an Immense galaxy together.

I read the whole thing on why MP wasn't a priority, but still, there must be enough demand to include -something- (and metaverse doesn't count as MP in my book I'm afraid). Would it be possible to pull off such a thing with a mod? I'm not the worlds most proficient coder but I DO know that a turn-based game would be easier to make MP compatible than an RTS because information would only have to pass between clients at the end of each turn. C'mon...there must be something that can be done.

Other than that, kudos on the five stars.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
C'mon...there must be something that can be done.


This has been debated long and hard many times. They came to the conclusion after extensive research that the majority do not want development diverted from Single Player to Multi Player. There is also very valid reasoning in terms of game structure and motivations on this, its not a simple matter to make it multi-player, possible of course, but its not as simple as some make out. See the multi player threads on this.

Regards
Zy
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I find it strange he missed all the bugs.
I mean Game still "worth it" even with all the bugs and I also would give 5/5 but not at least mention them ?
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Next stop:

6 out of 5. ;)
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you like GalCivII you have no other choice than cheering about TotA. GameSpy liked DA, so for us gamers it was obviuos it would get a real good review from them.

But one question - Brad, doesnt it tease you a bit they call your storyline "cheesy". If I had written the story - and not for the game but actually in private for myself as a literaric experiment i would be a bit disappointed if they give that few attention to it.


Congratulations, Stardock, you absolutely deserved this. It is a niche game but actually one of the best 4X strategy games i know. If MOO2 would not have had a sequel, your game would inofficially do the job way better.


I wish you all the best with your sales (not solely altruistic, v2.0 will be affected by sales as you stated ;) )
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In a game with the main focus on sandbox play, 'cheesy storyline' isn't really a con. So, indeed, 5 out of 5 were the minimum to be expected.

Outstanding success for one of the last true single players games, which was a majour seling point for me. I even stopped playing Sins because all the patches seem to focus on multiplayer balance...
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The first perfect review for TA. The first of many, hopefully...


So good, in fact, that they rated its multiplayer "fair", even though it doesn't have multiplayer. I guess Brad doesn't need to mow lawns anymore...


This has been debated long and hard many times.


Yep...In life, there is death and taxes - in GalCiv there is multiplayer and carriers. Debated long, debated hard, decided long ago. The majority of us are just as happy without it.

In a game with the main focus on sandbox play, 'cheesy storyline' isn't really a con.


Exactly...plus which, cheese isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lot's of people love CSI: Miami, and that's grade A cheddar, start to finish.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hehe, expect more of these positive reviews :) Well done!
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Exactly...plus which, cheese isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lot's of people love CSI: Miami, and that's grade A cheddar, start to finish.


Hell, if the Swiss can sell cheese shot full of holes - there will be no problem selling a great game like this one  :LOL: 

Regards
Zy
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Regarding multiplayer well sins of a solar empire has multiplayer, granted its a differant game but its dam awesome, heres the thing though on these forums I see people asking for multiplayer and on sins they have that, the devs have been working for ages on a content patch as well as bug fixes and because they are taking there time people are upset and some are saying just concentrate efforts on single player. (I love sins btw and I just think if I worked for stardock I would be dam confused because it seems sometime that they are dammed if they do and dammed if they dont! Still I am happy with mp or sp just so long as its done correctly, at this time I feel I have the best of both worlds!)

Just to finally say a big congratulations to SD, you folks must have concentrated on content rather than systems to diddle customers and it has paid of, what a dam great review and like I said in another thread its an epic achievement by any publishers standard to get a 5 out of 5 review, Im planning to play all the expansions and gciv 2 game in order of date but with a review like that I am seriously tempted to jump on tota! By modern standards theres only one other game I know of got a maxed review and I dont think it deserved it, however Im certain it is waranted with this game because I see gciv newbies and vets alike saying it is great. What a dam great review and I actually am starting to feel more and more loyalty towards SD for aiming to give their customers value for money and clearly they must enjoy what they do beyond just thinking of profit. I wish you every success and now finally understand why there are clans out there who only play stardock products.

A 5 of 5 review means you folks deserve all the praise you can handle and thats something comming from me because I am sick to death of short lived games.

Respect and good luck!
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Brad, and the whole team: congratulations, you've done it again.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The cons, however, do speak of a problem that a growing number of people seem worried about: multiplayer!


Twilight is the kind of game you get when development resources are not diverted to multiplayer so that the minority can be appeased at the expense of the majority. You can have the most full featured TBS with the best AI I've ever seen that's SP only, or you can have something with fewer features and less depth that's got multiplayer. The choice is easy from where I sit.
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great game, well deserved score! Good work SD and Brad.
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Congrats guys...allthough I am sure you didn't really doubt that this expansion would get great reviews, it is always nice when they do start coming in :)

Again: Congratulations to Stardock :)

Morten
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Twilight is the kind of game you get when development resources are not diverted to multiplayer so that the minority can be appeased at the expense of the majority. You can have the most full featured TBS with the best AI I've ever seen that's SP only, or you can have something with fewer features and less depth that's got multiplayer. The choice is easy from where I sit.



Wise words indeed, Vinraith!
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Why is it that I don't have a horizontal scroll bar on my browser?

Anyway...That's a good review, and congratulations Stardock for another success. I picked up the expansion yesterday but I still have to dive in. I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

But that review did have a point, that immense maps would be great for play by email or a turn server system like Laser Squad Nemesis. It reminds me of the MP games that I played in Stars!. Very memorable.

I know that this is beating a dead horse, I know that this has been debated endlessly. But you did say that further updates would be dependent on how well the expansion sells. Should TOA sell enough, could you spare one programer to put in a simple Turn Server (perferably) or play by email? I would think that minimal changes would have to be made to the game as is.

I think this game would benefit greatly from it, and expand its HDD life immensely. It could also help boost sales if it was a TOA exclusive too!

You made a choice in the beginning to focus development on the SP game, and that was a worthy choice and paid real dividends.

But now that Galciv2 is at the end of its development life, I think now you can make the game go full circle, and add multiplayer.

Either way, its been a fun ride. I wish you all success.