Manual:Vague & Incorrect / Game Mechanics:Incomprehensible

I will never believe another GAME REVIEW ever...

I purchased this game about 2-3 week ago. This was the very first PC Game I have bought myself in nearly 3 years. Being a turn-based strategy game fan and having read a few reviews on this game I went out and bought it immediately. Am I happy about my purchase?... I'll be blunt on the two points that influenced my satisfaction level:

- The Manual is incorrect and on many important topics such as economy and bonuses it is vague and uninformative
- Upon playing this game for 2-3 week and comparing notes with friends; the game mechanics are either purposely misleading or they are totally incomprehensible

Without submiting you to a vitriol tirade I will tell you how I feel honestly : I got cheated.

I would simply be disappointed if I found out there were a few bugs or a few features that were not as they were advertised but it is not that simple. For anyone who have is a fan of turn based strategy games it is absolutely vital for players to plan tactics and strategy based on the rules of the game and the information provided by the game. This is not some big secret, it is just the dynamics of a strategy game.

How is it possible for me to play this game and enjoy it fully when I do not know the exact rules or when there is question about the information I am getting from the game. Furthermore, when my friends opened the files to: a) try to mod it, and

try to deduce how the game determined some of the statistics; they discovered vital information was either hidden/unmodifiable or downright incorrect based on the manual.

Maybe I am demanding too much as a strategy gamer but I MUST KNOW how the economy works, and I MUST KNOW how bonuses work and it seems to me either the developers didn't think it mattered (in that case we have a simple case of design differences) or there seemed to be a conscious effort to conceal that information because they know something is either broken or unworkable. The fact is some of the problems may not seem apparent after one or two games on a small map, but after a few bigger games with more turns it becomes obvious there are major problems.

All this talk about the brilliant AI makes me lose all confidence in game reviewers and game review sites. The AI in this game has no idea how to handle their military properly and their decision making when to wage war and when to surrender is just plain wrong. The building they choose, the diplomacy/trading they involve themselves in reflect no understanding of the current in-game situation. I have played on every difficulty level and 90% of their decisions are just plain senseless while 9% could be consider somewhat intelligent and 1% quite brilliant but that doesn't equal the type of hype surrounding the AI.

The only redeemable thing I can think of is that this company seems to pump out patches quickly and, to some degree, answer to the community. Ultimately I am disappointed by GalCiv2 and I'm not sure I will stick around and wait for the patches because in all honesty I do not think the AI is capable of handling the changes that have to be made to the game without a major overhaul. If it is already this disfunctional with the orginal game they released how can I expect the AI to adapt to all these new and drastic changes they have to make in order for the game to play in a reasonable manner?

People will flame this post but this isn't for the fanboys, this is for the developers and people who are considering this game. Given what I know now I would not have purchased this game to begin with and I don't blame the developers, I blame the current way the PC game industry is conducting business. The reason I stopped buying PC games was because for whatever reason the industry felt it was alright to release games with inadequete testing, frequently with showstopping bugs that need to be patched and sometimes immediately after release, and shortsighted or not fully realized game design (almost like they rushed a good idea turning it into a bad idea).

I was pretty jaded about PC games and this game only reinforced my negativity toward the industry. There is no excuse for release a product that is clearly not functioning properly, there is no excuse for releasing incomplete documentation, I understand that this has become the status quo but that does not make it right. I will be returning/exchanging GalCiv2, I didn't write this to threaten anyone. There is no shortage of GREAT IDEAS in this game and I commend the developers on that, but I had to write this as a consumer because companies must know there are people who will not stand for the practice of release games in that state GalCiv2 was when I bought it.

PantlessOne

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