User Reviews (1 - 11 of 61)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Spyware warning

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 59
Date: April 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

All other things being ignored, Stardock still has not learned from its first releases. My objection to this game and manufacturer relates to the fact that in order to get patches, updates, and expanded content, you MUST register and download software from the manufacturer. This software was identified as spyware by all 3 spyware programs I have running. The 2 spyware programs that identify 'threat levels' gave it the highest threat rating possible. The company claims that it is not spyware, but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

It is up to the individual consumer to make the choice whether they want to trust this manufacturer to install potential spyware on their system. However, I feel it is important that consumers are aware of this before they make the purchase. Since this game CLEARLY needs patching based on the sad state of its release, unless you're willing to take the spyware risk, steer clear of this title and manufacturer.

Warning: You Can't Patch Without Registering

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 44
Date: April 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Beware. If you spend you hard-earned money for this game, you cannot patch it without giving out your personal information. And also typing in an incredibly long number (which is all run together in a small font) without making any mistakes. And the game needs patching.

Stardock has a long history of no respect for privacy, and for going to ridiculous lengths to make sure you were as inconvenienced as possible after buying their games. They've really gone overboard this time, and the game is going back immediately.

Does not deserve 5 stars

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 42
Date: March 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I don't know why this game is getting such great reviews. Even the people who noted the faults in this game gave it 4 or 5 stars?! The game can sometimes crash or not scroll properly but in order for you to update the game with patches, you're forced to register the game and download an application called the "stardock." Then you're allowed to download patches for a game that should have been bug-free when you paid $40 for it.

Then there's the user-unfriendly tech tree. You can't see the entire tree at once. You have to click on one for the others to be revealed because they're off-screen. But say you want to know what you need to research to be able to build a survey ship. You research "ion drive" which is necessary along with 4 other techs. What are the 4 other techs? You have to click through every single tech (remember, you can't see most of the other techs at once) to see a description of whether it's necessary for the survey ship. There's no "civilopedia" and the manual is useless.

This is basically the same game as the first with updated graphics and some movie clips. But besides the visual there are no improvements and most of it is rehashed from the original. Remember the scenarios on the planet where you need to decide whether to move the citizens that are living a hippy way of life in the country and in the way of city growth or having to kill an indigenous species? Exactly the same.

Not recommended. Stick to Civilization 4 or wait for Galactic Civilizations 3.

Galactic Civilizations II

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 58
Date: April 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

YOU MUST READ THIS FOR YOUR OWN SAFTY
it got 1 star only cus there where no - stars to choose!
Where to start? it's to bad i spent 44.99 + tax on this game. it has been one headake after another. it's only a matter of time before your game goes black screen and xp wants to send an error message. this is not xp fault it is the game. the game forgets to count down the weeks and then it freaks out. and you can't start from the auto save cus it will make error messages again. so you say to yourself I'll find an update and it will right it and i can have some fun for the money i dished out. nope, not going to happen. cus then you got to fully register with these guys and give them your hole life history before you can download the updates. so you go threw all of that to finaly get to play the game only to find out when you enter your name and password they say you have to create an account. so you cheak and sure enough you have an acount cus they mail you your name and password so you re- enter it even though you know you had it right to begian with and they tell you once again you have to create and account to download. so you take the time to create another account cus you want the patch and they come back and say you already have an account only one account for one email. so what do you do? you sit there stareing at this cardboard box that you shelled out 44.99 + tax for, wisheing you could get your hands on one of the people that created it. then you think hey thats not constructive if you want to resolve this problem your gona have to call or write or something. so you go back to their web site and click contact and it takes you to a pages that says you have to be loged in. and you think but i can't log in you _ _ _ _ _ _. so you go to your book that came with thew game.mmmmmmmm no teliphone numbers, smart on their part, got a problem? try and find us lol. so you sit there lookeing at this cardboard 44.99 + tax paper weight being bitter and confused thinking it might be a nice game, IF I COULD PLAY IT, wondering if you could bring a suite against them for mental anguish. but i'm just blabering now. on the good side it does look realy nice holding down my papers on my desk. and if i bought two more i could realy have some nice book ends.

Who likes this game?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 15
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I too bought this game for its rave reviews...but its god awfull! Despite the 3D engine(is that really a big deal these days?)this game is cruder than any PC game I ever played even in the 1990's. In Civilization or any other turn based or real time strategy game you scroll through your units or groups of units each turn to see what's happening in the world or galaxy around them..."Hey there's an enemy armada heading my way in sector Q24!-I better prepare!" In this game you can't scroll thru your ships(unless they are out of moves), not with tab, not with any shortcut or icon, but have to pick them one by one off a menu (which is mind-numbingly tedious) and then maybe you'll see that enemy armada, or maybe you won't before it attacks your home world. This is just one of dozens of complaints I have about this sham called Galactic Civilizations 2.

I agree whole heartedly with the reviewer who said this game is no "Master of Orion 2". It is also no "Pax Imperium" which was a another great space strategy game, even though it was inexplicably not well reviewed when it came out 8 years ago or so.

Already on Version 1.4 and it seems to be getting worse..

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 18
Date: November 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Seems like this game is beyond the programming skills of the authors. Initially, it was really buggy, and the first update seemed to get better. However, it has been getting worse, and is most buggy with the latest update. Ships stop en-route and just do nothing. Often, when ships are supposed to automatically go to a rally point from a planet upon completion, they just stay next to the planet. Many, many crashes. They have some serious issues managing a software project.

The interface is very pretty, but very clumsy. Things that you'd think would take a few seconds take several minutes of tedium. This game will give you carpal tunnel.

Overall, an OK concept, with lots of nice customization features. I like the look and the focus of the gameplay. But I don't think there's much in the way of reality in the way space combat takes place. Seems to me that a ship travelling in hyperspace (or faster) wouldn't be able to be intercepted by a ship travelling even faster in the opposite direction. Besides, it's just too damned buggy. I wouldn't count on this situation getting better anytime soon.

Disappointed.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 35
Date: May 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

While the graphics are superb and it has the potential to be an awesome game, the internal workings are so obscure that the game was simply not fun.
In fairness I tried and tried it again and no matter what level of play I tried it was an hour long non-event that would climax in my utter destruction without explanation.
The lack of instruction (unless you count the biblically large instruction manual that seconds as an anesthetic) and the suprisingly intelligent enemy which will bypass all logical tactics to directly ruin your game make this game as fun as it is action packed.
Sorry, this had potential but will only disappoint.

Runs Bad and the AI kinda stinks

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 22
Date: June 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I like the overall setup of this game, but it has two big problems which make me hate it.

1) The AI is annoying. The biggest problem I have is: Anytime your troop transports get anywhere near a computer opponent's planets, they declare war on you. It doesn't matter if the planet is adjacent to an enemy planet you're at war with, or if the planet is right next to one of yours, and sometimes it does it when your transports are kinda far away. If the makers of the game wanted you to be careful about moving your transports next to computer AI players, they should have an option on the diplomatic screen where you can negotiate passage of your transports or something....because otherwise you have friendly races declaring war on you for no reason.

2)like everyone else says, the game runs like [...]. It's ok on my computer for about an hour, but any longer than that, my system gets bogged down. And I meet the system recommendations.

If they fix those two things, I'd give it a 4 or a 5, but as it is now, I get little enjoyment playing it.

Disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 38
Date: June 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this expecting an imaginative fictional version of the Civilization series. This game does not live up to any Civilization title in depth or playability. The races are functionally indistinguishable from one another except by colors, and the technology tree is woefully shallow and limited. I would not reccommend this game to anyone.

I want my money back!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 25
Date: November 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

DON'T BUY THIS GAME. Whoever said that this was a worthy successor to Masters of Orion II should be killed. This game is awful! You don't get to DO anything. Neither the fleet combats nor the ground combats are interactive--all you get to do is watch. The micromanagement gets old if you have more than a few planets and the technology-tree is difficult to use. Considering how little you get to do, you might as well go watch T.V. instead. This game is garbage. I wish I could get my money back.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next 

Actions