I’m one of those people who always read the instructions before beginning any project, unlike you other people who prefer to dive right in and to heck with the consequences. Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition Dark Avatar, the expansion to Galactic Civilizations II, intrigued me, especially after reading the great reviews of GC II Dread Lords. I’m a big strategy fan, but somehow I missed this title from last year, probably because I was busy with Heroes of Might and Magic VI and Civilizations IV Warlords. As this was my first experience with GC, I had no clue on the play mechanics other than the general strategy norms. Couple this with my natural dependency on manuals, and you could say that I desperately needed direction.

Imagine my frustration when I soon discovered that while the manual was big and pretty, it offered no help whatsoever on how to actually play the game. Instead, each separate function of the game had a description, but there wasn’t a cohesive “what to do during the first turn” instruction list. In desperation I turned to the Internet and voila! Hallelujah! A walkthrough offered a “First Turn” description, and I was on my way…..

In a galaxy far, far away, oh sorry, wrong game. In a galaxy somewhere, there is a massive struggle over the final outcome of a war that was fought previously in GC II Dread Lords. The Drengin won, but now there is a conflict inside the empire over what to do with the vanquished.  Annihilate them? Or just enslave them? As the player, you decide.

The expansion pack Dark Avatar brings us a new campaign that is centered on the governance of the subdued. There are two choices between the merely bad and the downright evil factions, who proceed to bicker over the fate of the various races scattered throughout the galaxy. This campaign is sufficiently deep and interesting enough to warrant the existence of the expansion, but luckily for us, there is a wealth of new game features that make this expansion a must-have for any owner of the original.

The Dark Avatar campaign begins with the Drengin and the Korath (evil Drengin) involved in a battle over an inhabited planet. The natives have asked for help from the Drengin against the Korath, even though they know that slavery awaits them in the end.  But, hey, it’s better than certain death! This first mission is very easy, and gives players a good introduction to the new additions to the game and also to the general philosophy behind the campaign.  Soon, the missions ratchet up the difficulty. The main idea behind the campaign is wrapped around the political necessity of alignments and partnerships, made complex by the utter lack of trust between any of the races. The conquered races know that their allies will enslave them in the end, so they try their best to maneuver in such a manner so that they have the best deal available in the end. The new feature of espionage really fits in well with this.

As intriguing as the campaign is, though, the sandbox mode offers the best action and is where all the new additions and features really shine. I usually eschew the sandbox mode for the campaign, but the customization and depth of gameplay in the scenarios truly make this mode one of the most satisfying and enjoyable game experiences I’ve experienced lately in a turn-based strategy game.

As in GC II Dread Lords, in Dark Avatar players start by choosing the size and type of galaxy they want, with choices of size, star density, the number of stars, planets and anomalies, and game victory conditions. The technology rate can also be set. Dark Avatar has added two new features that can be set initially, Mega Events and Super Abilities. Mega Events are random events that can change the course of the game, and Super Abilities are special abilities that are race specific, as the Super Diplomacy ability of the Terrans. These can be enabled or disabled. Then, it’s time to customize the races.

New to Dark Avatar is the ability to design the opposing races. Here, players can choose and customize their opponents just as they can themselves. Characteristics, abilities, political parties and appearance can all be designated. The intelligence level of each opponent can also be set, besides the general difficulty settings for the opponents. There is a good amount of choice included, but no “face designer” as in Tiger Woods or the Hoyle games. That would have been a hoot!

Once the races have been tweaked and the style and color of ships chosen, the technology screen pops up and players choose which technology they want to research first. While there have been some minor changes to the layout of this from the original game, it’s not enough of a change to make anyone take notice.  It’s still crowded, and it’s still confusing.

Part of the problem is the smallness of the window that actually displays the tech tree at the bottom of the screen. The top of the screen is half the screen and is redundant in nature, as it has a list of the same techs from the bottom of the screen listed in a scrollable list. A better layout would be to have the entire screen devoted to the actual tech tree, which could be collapsed or expanded. The new abilities and components of each tech could be listed in a small menu to the side, along with the descriptions. (Reviewer's note: Actually, the Tech tree menu can be resized to full screen with just the tech tree showing, by clicking the "More" button at the bottom of the screen. This reviewer missed that option previously. However, even with the larger screen, which does make things a little easier to read, there is still a need for collapsible menus which include descriptions and the added abilities.)

A much-needed inclusion is the listing of each tech and the corresponding abilities and added components in the manual.  For instance, I wanted to build a survey ship in one game. I found one tech that listed a survey ship as a new component, but it stated that there were a total of four techs required. Ok, which other three? It took a lot of time scrolling around the small half screen clicking around on all the techs before I found all the ones, which weren’t connected to each other, either.

In another game, I wanted to build a freighter to make a trade route. I figured that I would need some type of trade tech, but again, it took me awhile to find the needed tech, as the trade tech had the new ship listing of freighter toward the bottom of the new ability list and I missed it the first time I clicked on the trade tech. Later, I found the freighter/trade information in the manual, but it was listed as a single listing of information, and not with any other techs or tech descriptions.

Once a tech has been chosen, the planet screen pops up. Players choose what, if any, buildings to place on their home planet. When that is done, the main screen is viewable and players can begin to really play. This is where the “first turn” instruction is vital, as there is no indication on what players should do in each successive turn.  The only indicator that the turn is over is when the “Turn” button is lit, and unfortunately, this lights up when all the ships have moved, regardless of whether any other actions can occur. This leaves out all the planet building and any additional research that players may want to choose if they’ve not chosen a tech to research immediately after one has finished.

So, to any GC II newbies out there, this is the deal on your first turn. First, choose the planet/ship button from the bottom menu, which will display the planets and ships that you own. Display the planets, visit them, and decide on which buildings if any to build. Decide on whether to build a ship, or launch an existing ship in orbit. Then, display the ships and move each of them to a desired location on the map. Then, hit the “Turn” button. Do the same again. This is pretty much what you’ll be doing the entire game.

Of course, there are a lot of management details to be considered between turns. What future ships are needed? Are defenses and weapons necessary? What about trade? Espionage? Where to place those spies? Each of these decisions will require a lot of planning, as several techs will have to be researched in combination to open up these new items and abilities. Speaking of spies, this is a really cool new feature. Spies can be placed on opponent’s planets and disable buildings while there!

New to Dark Avatar is the inclusion of mine fields and conditionally inhabitable planets. The minefields are resources that can be mined by space mining ships to send back resources to the planets. This is similar in concept to the resource mines in Heroes of Might and Magic and really adds to the game. Approximately half of the available planets in Dark Avatar can only be colonized after a certain research is completed, like the Aquatic World Colonization ability for a watery world. This pretty much eliminates the “grab all the planets as quickly as you can” method of playing the game.

Another new feature of Dark Avatar is the greater number of ship design elements and components. Truthfully, this doesn’t matter to me all that much, but lots of other players will get a tremendous kick out of the large amount of things to design in the shipyard.

While GC II Dread Lords was an attractive game to play, it wasn’t state of the art in graphic detail. Dark Avatar has really improved the graphics and added much more detail to the ships and starbases, especially. This adds to the general enjoyment of the game while playing. Space is deep, and it is dark.

The music was great before, and is still great. Classical!

Some of the best features of GC II are the smooth camera scrolling and camera views. It’s a piece of cake to scroll around the universe and move the ships, and the zoom works particularly well. The map can be shown as a grid or not in the options screen, which is handy to see how many moves a ship has left, as the ships move so many squares per move. The menus are easily accessible and all the needed information is just a click away!

Once the initial possible confusion over the first turn is over, most of the ensuing game questions are adequately addressed in the manual.  However, there is still a wealth of unanswered questions, at least for me: Just how, exactly, do the production and other resources directly affect the overall economy? Call me stupid, but I still haven’t quite figured that out.  More farms mean more population which means more tax dollars, that I understand; but how does each added factory, market, etc. add to the money coming in? Part of my confusion lies in the fact that there is direct tax revenue from the population which is added to the income, but the other items earn items/points other than monetary units. How these points add to the overall mullah perplexes me.

However, minor grousing about techs and manuals aside, I can honestly say this game has been wonderfully fun!  This is what Star Trek Legacy should have been, and wasn’t. The gameplay is deep and challenging, because of the superb AI design. Instead of cheating by giving more resources to computer opponents in the harder levels, the computer opponents actually “think”, due to complex logarithms for tons of different situations. And, for those suicidal-minded among us, there are some optional extremely powerful logarithms that also require extremely powerful computers.

Part of the fun is the sheer amount of customization available.  The game can be short, long, easy or hard, or anywhere in between. Maps can be tiny or huge. Races can be all types. Ships galore! Even the amount of things visible on the game screen is customizable, as in displaying the planets, opponents’ territories, anomalies, etc. To be frank, while I love Sci Fi TV, I have always preferred my strategy computer games with fantasy or historical settings, but playing in space in GC II has been just as fun. Much of the appeal is the ability to avoid battles until later in the game when I’ve had plenty of time to prepare, and to pace the game in any manner seen fit. That’s the beauty of GC II; turtleing or hurtling can both occur depending on the player’s preference.

Thanks Stardock, for opening my mind to the possibilities of space games. And thanks for the funny comments in the manual, the Ceti Alpha 5 one was too funny, and I gotta try out that chili recipe.

Gameplay: 9
It’s really fun playing in deep space! The atmosphere is spot on for a space setting, and the wealth of things to do keeps players truly playing that “one more turn”. The humongous amount of things that can be customized make this game absolutely accessible for everyone, even with the shortcomings of the manual.

Graphics: 8 
The graphics are very nice and do a great job of presenting a believable picture of space.

Sound: 8
I loved the music, and was heartily glad it wasn’t some type of techno.

Difficulty: Medium
The difficulty is of a medium level with a large amount of range. The campaign begins with an easy level, and progresses to more difficult settings. The sandbox mode can be any level from extremely easy to extremely difficult. The learning curve is steep due to a lack of information on general gameplay principles, but more information can be found via walkthroughs and user forums.

Concept: 8 
The additions in this expansion are cool, and are different from most other space strategy games. The espionage element is especially fun.

Overall: 8.5
Dark Avatar is a great expansion and well worth the money, whether bought as just the expansion online for $30 or in the Gold Edition, which combines the original and the expansion for $45. Any fan of Galactic Civilization II Dread Lords should pick this up, definitely. For players new to the series, the learning curve is steep and cruel, but once learned, the game itself isn’t hard to manage. The addition of the minefields add to the fun, but I wish there were more things to place on the planets. I like micromanagement in these types of games, and more things to do while waiting for the techs to finish researching would have been nice.

I highly recommend this game, and it’s a great way to while away these dark winter nights!