Now that GC2 has reached the "1.10 Beta 4" version, it seems possible to make an assessment. For sure there will be other tweaks and changes, but it is not realistic to expect any substantial modification of the game’s mechanics and concept.
I don’t know if GC2 was ever intended by the developers to be a 4X game: I am not been able to find such an explicit declaration from them in the material of the game’s site. Anyway, for the pupose of this (long) post, it matters little (besides, I’ve ever had no passion for that "eXterminate" – the fourth X – after the thread "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit", as if you can’t play at living in peace with your neighbour); so, let’s focus on the other 3 Xs, which certainly pertain to GC2.
Explore.
As you explore the galaxy, you eventually stumble across:
1) anomalies
2) resources
3) planets
4) other races and their related achievements (colonized planets, starbases and starships).
So far, so good. Those are the things you can realistically expect to find in the universe if space travels were possible. But this is a strategy game, not a simulation (like Simearth), and a sci-fi one, so the player is entitled to expect also all the oddities which science-fiction films and serials have long accustomed us to. And here starts the complain.
Anomalies turn out to be either nothing, wormholes or bonuses of sort.
As for the wormholes, I frankly admit I do not understand their purpose. They were useful, especially in the larger galaxies, if they would stay in place after the discovering: it would be a way to travel to distant place in a blink; but they disappear once explored.
They were still useful, even if non-permanent, if your survey ship was able to explore other anomalies found on the journey home: it would be a way to acquire bonuses otherwise unreachable early in the game; but, in my experience, those anomalies were simply ignored, for the survey ship limited its activity to head toward the ones located in the space comprised in its original range (i.e.: before the "jump").
Finally, on a more realistic side, the wormholes were at least justyfied if they acted as a real black hole (I know that the wormhole is not properly a black hole, but the "main" that relocates in another time-space the matter sucked in the black hole, as Ludwig Flamm realised, but this would be too difficult to implement in a game, I imagine, so let it pass), destroying the ship; but not even that happens.
All in all, then, the wormholes, as implemented in the game, seem to me pretty senseless.
Bonuses from the anomalies and resources are, in my humble opinion, far too easy to obtain. In a strategy game it seems reasonable that the player must undertake a challenge in order to earn at least the greater bonuses. In GC2 you get every bonuses by the mere fact you move your survey ship onto the anomaly (or your constructor onto the resource, commanding it to construct a starbase): in the end, the only challenge I see is the races’ race (pardon the cacophony) to build increasingly fast ships. On that point I won’t be misunderstood: the type of resources and bonuses crowding the galaxy are all appropriate for a strategic sci-fi game (aside from the mysterious bonus related to the tech tree growth, which seems to have no effects). What is disappointing is the total lack of pathos, so that this part of the exploring aspect becomes quickly a boring routine.
Lastly, minor races don’t add to the fun: they act generally all in the same manner (by the way, how can you direct your espionage towards them?).
Expand.
Someone will for certain call me a nostalgic, but there have been older game in which your colonizing possibilities were limited by factors such as the atmosphere and the environment of the planet, so that what was an hell for a race might be a paradise for another: this seems to me more realistic and, above all, would add complexity to your strategic choices.
Exploit.
In a game which allows the player to choose enormous galaxies with a lot of planet micromanagement is a factor that can turn into a nightmere. But implement only two options for the governors (automatic upgrade of buildings and terraforming/soil improvement) is an oversimplification.
Besides, why you can’t set the focus of each planet (research, military or social production) directly from the Civilization Manager screen? When you have over 50 colonized planets it is a tremendous waste of time having to browse every planet screen to reset the focus.
I shall end here, even if there are far more bad implemented things (for instance, the management of ships and fleets), and shall not mention the still numerous bugs, because my purpose was to remark how, in my humble opinion, despite the efforts of the developers to achieve a real intelligent AI (which is only one aspect, albeit a very important one, of 3X or 4X games), GC2 may be the best strategic sci-fi game at this moment on the market, but it is neither the best ever produced, nor can I call it a successful one, to be honest.
Let’s hope in future upgrades; but I fear that only GC3 (if it will ever see the light) will have a chance to stand as the real successor of MOO2 and Pax Imperia.
A last thing: my humble apologies for every orthography or grammar error you may find. I’m Italian, after all.
