Galactic Civilizations® II: Ultimate Edition
Get the complete Galactic Civilizations II saga including the acclaimed PC strategy game of the year Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, the award winning expansion pack Dark Avatar, and the newest expansion pack Twilight of the Arnor!
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords: Galactic Civilizations II is the sequel to 2003’s hit turn-based strategy game of the same name. The player takes on the role of the leader of a space-faring civilization and must guide its expansion in a hostile galaxy. Gamers must balance their economic, technological, diplomatic, cultural, and military power to forge alliances, fight wars, and ultimately dominate the galaxy. The game is single-player and allows the player to play randomly generated galactic maps or play through a multi-mission campaign that tells the story of an ancient enemy called the Dread Lords.
Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar: The expansion pack for Stardock’s award-winning hit strategy game, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. This expansion pack not only adds the usual content that expansion packs tend to do such as new opponents, new units and a new campaign. It also greatly expands the game play of Galactic Civilizations II. New features include asteroid belts on the map that can be mined for resources, unique planets that require special technologies to colonize, spies to conduct sabotage and destabilization (or used to protect your worlds from the same), new types of diplomatic treaties, an enhanced artificial intelligence engine, and much more!
Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor: The year is 2227 and the fire of war is consuming the galaxy thanks to the manipulations of the evil Dread Lords. But the remaining factions, led by the humans, have a plan to rid the galaxy of the Dread Lords once and for all.
Expand the Galactic Civilizations II universe with Terror Stars, unique technology trees per civilization, Map editors, Custom Scenario makers, campaign editors, new types of ships, new planetary improvements, and much more!
Key features:
- Beautiful 3D engine brings planets, stars, asteroids and ship battles to life.
- Create custom 3D ships piece-by-piece with your Shipyard.
- Play as any of a dozen unique civilizations or create your own.
- Multiple paths to victory: Military conquest, cultural domination, political alliance, technological supremacy or ascension.
- Addictive gameplay: Dynamic galaxies ranging from tiny to gigantic.
- Superior multi-threaded artificial intelligence enables computer players to provide a challenge without having to cheat.
- Put your scores online via the Metaverse and compete with players from around the world.
- Fully moddable design enables players to create unique opponents, graphics and scenarios.
- Advanced diplomacy enables players to trade, make treaties, alliances and more.
Game Discussion
Steam User 9
Few 100s hours on GOG and then some before that. I've tried GC3, they went too far with micromanagement, I refunded GC4 due to worse UI experience, ship designer and important features being behind DLC paywall. GC2 while being an old game now gets straight to the point with its features, ship designer is amazing and there's no unnecessary micromanagement. It's showing its age a bit but it's still THE 4X space turn based game.
Steam User 5
One of the best civ-esque 4X games in a space setting that in some aspects has still not been surpassed in 2025.
Pros:
+ All 12 races have unique tech trees, AI personalities, diplomacy text and more.
+ Chess-engine type dynamic AI that has not been surpassed in any other 4X game and plays by the same rules as you.
+ Truly impactful galactic event system that keeps each game fresh.
+ Lots of different strategies to excel in, from influence, economy, diplomacy to war.
+ Actually really nice soundtrack for a 4X game.
+ Ability to create and download custom races and ship styles. (You can totally set up all Star Trek races).
+ A lot of content after 3 expansions, both in mechanics and in campaigns.
+ Well balanced and bug free after many years of community patches.
+ Runs on any computer and looks alright if you max everything out.
Cons:
- it's a game from 2008, expect some really shitty CGI and a lot of videos and UI elements to look a little low-res on modern resolutions.
- No in-game encyclopedia leaves you looking through the included manual, "Community Edition Guide" and old forum threads to figure out the intricacies of gameplay mechanics as the game came out before community game wikis became commonplace.
- Default ship designs are lacking, you are forced to use the ship builder to make optimized ship designs, this can be a chore and will lead to ugly designs if you can't bother to take the time to artfully place the modules.
- Ship designer does not let you modify the auto-generated designs.
- Suffers from the common "Space is empty" curse. No actual terrain, lots of uncolonizable planets and just deep space that is not fun or very distinctive either visually or strategically.
- Compared to stuff like Stellaris, planets are mostly samey as well.
- Civ4 style stacked combat system that does not really care for positioning outside of starbases.
Overall I would recommend it just for the very tight gameplay loop and good AI leading to very interesting gameplay.
Steam User 4
The entire game is incredible.
Its sandbox like game customizations means anyone at any skill level may be able to have significant fun and or challenge.
based off of the original galactic civilizations and has slight added content
Steam User 4
It was easy to learn and understand and very fun to play if you like SciFi games.
Steam User 2
Good game play, good interface, enjoyable and something you can play over and over with no loss of enjoyment.
Steam User 2
It's a great 4x game, but you should probably play the GOG version which runs better on modern systems.
Steam User 5
Reviewing every game I've played in my Steam Library. Game 21
Fun and an interesting 4x strategy game, I did not play much but what i did, i enjoyed.
Probably suited to those interested in futuristic 4x strategy.
Maybe one day i'll play some more but until then this one is good on sale, if you don't have a powerful computer and want this type of game in this setting.