Unless this game comes out with a complete edition, it feels like an endless milking for cash through continues expensive DLCs.
You already have to spend for the many game an equivalent price for a full game. Add to that a quasilion DLCs, each worth a finger with the nagging promise that one day -maybe- you will have collected the full game experience ...
As of today that is adding up to already adding 3.6 times the price of what you already payed for the main game.
I have to admit that at first I was impressed with the game. It does a lot of things right: it has a nice resource system where you store up a wide variety of materials, rich technology tree, cool spaceship customization, etc. It even has espionage (take that Stellaris). It has mercenaries implemented in a fun way. The game even looks pretty, so what went wrong? Well, the game is unpolished and unbalanced, not to mention the AI is pretty meh. Extra research points don't carry over to the next tech. Technology trading can be very frustrating because you don't want to take a technology that make you unable to research other variants of it which you would've preferred instead. In a single war, you can conquer and assimilate countless planets without much objection from the existing population. The ideology system, which is strongly related to the morality system, doesn’t make all that much sense and seems quite imbalanced. Slowdown late game even on powerful machines. And there is more but I'll stop here.
This game doesn't require much more to be a really good game but since the game is "gold" I doubt that we will see much improvement in the future if at all.
Rating: This game is a can of wormholes.
Recommendation: You can probably find something else you like more.
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I loved GalCiv2:TotA; back in the days I ranked it 10/10 as it was a perfect combinaton of gameplay, content and price. Yet it got old, GalCiv3 came out and I moved on. This one is weaker, obviously, but you can't beat perfection. Good gameplay, improved graphics, better (for the most part) mechanics, improved diplomacy, crazy race customization, ideologies and lots of minor improvements are all here.
If you never played GalCiv2, you will be overwhelmed in the first couple games, and tutorial is not really there to explain everything either. Plus, the complaints about the amount of DLC and their prices are all valid and this is also my main complaint, adding the fact that without any DLCs this game seems pretty shallow, but seriously guys? 2,5 stars for something objectively THAT good? It's insane, and even more so if you already was a fan of GalCiv2, since not all that much has changed between them.
I rate it a 7/10 without DLSs, and 9/10 when expanded. Though, if money is your prime concern and you don't mind a bit dated graphics and systems, Galactic Civilizations 2: Twilight of the Arnor is still an incredible deal at its price tag.
I own 200 games on Gog, and more on Steam.. I will not buy this as there's so many DLCs and I won't be scammed like this. release one with all DLCs at a more resonable price and perhaps I will. I've played the game before and feel this is overpriced.
Why all the DLC ?? Are they all needed in order to play the game ? I would like to play the game, but this is ridiculous. Will wait for the complete edition.
