Imperium Galactica II

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Review: Imperium Galactica II: Alliances

IG2's foremost achievement is to breathe life into a dying genre-the space conquest game-by kicking key elements into 3D. As the research-oriented humanoid Solarians, the diplomatic Shinari, or the warlike Kra'hen, you start with a small cluster of planets and try to build an empire. You'll visit planet surfaces to erect structures in a 3D SimCity-like module, or supervise their defense using conventional real-time strategy controls. You'll conduct research into an apparently endless stream of new equipment and in the design module either manually assign ordinance to your units (though you can't design them from the ground up) or automatically update a whole class to the current state of the art.

Along the way, you'll receive messages embodying missions-most useful, but some fruitless-while trading and trying to keep your neighbors happy. And, invariably, you'll go to war with those same neighbors-with space battles played out in a fashion similar to Starfleet Command (i.e. in 3D, but within a 2D plane). Zoom in the view here, and the ships take on an impressive mass. It's not Homeworld, but the graphics in these segments are particularly crisp.

Moreover, the developers haven't repeated old mistakes. The individual components are better integrated than in 1994's Reunion-they don't feel separate from one another-and no component is notably weaker than the others, as the combat was in 1997's Imperium Galactica. Gone are the latter's weird full-motion video sequences and gimmicky approach, and the inclusion of three races and random elements make less onerous the linearity that comes with a story-based game.

In short, IG2 will keep you busy with lots of little tasks, it's clean enough that you'll slip between the pieces seamlessly, and it's familiar enough that you'll pick them up quickly. It's right on the edge of being really fun.

And yet, in places, IG2 seems distinctly under-done. The game never takes that defining extra step. For instance, the intro looks great, but I have no idea what it's about. The colonies offer no sense of activity beyond the funereal flame that burns at the center of parks, the glow from power plants, and smoke from the odd factory. To be sure, you'll get text complaints about taxes and requests for new structures, but who's sending them? There's no evidence of people going about their business, and the surface structures seem purely representational. They don't feel as though they matter.

The three peoples may have distinct story lines, but they're too similar in terms of buildings and equipment. The space battles look great (especially if you zoom in the view) but too often are resolved in simple stand-offs where the units close to within a certain distance of each other and open fire. Diplomatic contacts never make clear what exactly is getting under your neighbor's skin, and you may find yourself at war without knowing why. The included IRC client is a nice touch-the last thing we need is another multiplayer game with no built-in means to meet and greet other players-but here the game simulates battles instead of allowing players the option to fight them out in detail, and that's not much fun.

IG2 also had a tendency to pause on a PII450 with 128MB of RAM and to stop responding entirely after the second CD was inserted. (It's also kind of obnoxious that you can't load a saved game using the relevant civilization CD. The installation CD is always required first.)

In short, Imperium Galactica II has a lot of potential, and what's here is creditable. But even as the best game in the series, it seems more a framework on which to hang a great game than a great game itself.-- Peter Olafson / GamePro