AI War 2 is one of the finest strategy games I have played- and I have played a lot! I would be surprised if one could find a game with more options for play. The developer seems like a really cool dude as well, along with keeping up on needed improvements and bugs, he has even donated one of the proceeds of an earlier dlc to a children’s charity. It plays exceptionally well, due to great optimization, on my rather (ahem’) limited system. If you are into space strategy games- although it has a very unique play style- this is a really impressive achievement!
This game defines HUGE! It took me about two months to complete it playing on an average of about two hours a day- and I never really finished a number of optional quests. Jeff Vogel, the developer, obviously spent a lot of time making this and it shows- it is truly a labor of love! I love building up my characters' skills melee and magic (two priests, two mages, with the priests also specializing in melee and the mages, archery- works great). There are a few minor areas of imbalance, where a one way ticket to Erika a mage for a "chat" led me to the most difficult battle thus far, requiring the use of cheats to survive (I hate that!). Also, the simplistic graphics do sometimes get repetitive- it's no Baldur's Gate. But, besides what I might find to be a few annoying flaws, all in all, it is a great epic game, one of the most fun and engaging I have ever played!
Fun, creative, thought provoking and more fun! As has been said hundreds of times before, Jeff Vogel's (the creator of Geneforge) games, won't win any awards for eye-candy. But like a really great book that doesn't need lots of glossy pictures to tell a tale, the Geneforge and Avernum series (along with the outstanding Nethergate and other titles that will hopefully be available on GOG soon!) are some of the most engrossing and enjoyable RPG games out there. Playing video games between work is probably my most engrossing hobby, and these games from Spiderweb have probably taken about half of my game playing time over the last three years! PS Also, considering that each of the Geneforge games went for $25.00 a piece not long ago- this price for the whole series borders on shoplifting!!!
The mechanics of the game may seem rather primitive by today's standards. The campaigns are tough and the Tutorial due to some bug is incompleteable(is that a word?). However, the music is good, the sound effects (especially of the long range cannons) is incredible. And the graphcs, OMG, the graphics, are like 17th century paintings of the various European cities come to life!!! And then of course, its fun to set the long range cannons off to blow them up!!! Very popular in its day in Europe- more so than in the states- A unique and beautiful game!
