Thousands of years ago, the highly advanced precursors split into two factions: The peace-loving Arnor and the paranoid war-like Dreadlords. They fought a great war in which the outcome was that both races disappeared from the galaxy. In the year 2225, the young Human race invents the Hyperdrive and a new age of expansion blossoms throughout the civilizations of the galaxy. Each of the various races wishes to create it's own empire and bring prosperity to it's people. Following the events of the first game and it's expansion pack, the Humans and Altarans are united in an alliance against the Dregen Empire and The Yor Collective. Victory seems assured for the Human-Altaran fleets until information surfaces about an ancient artifact which may return the Dreadlords to this universe.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is the sequel to the 2003 game and revisits the 4X space strategy of its predecessor. In the standard game the player will choose one of the ten major races in the game (or a custom race can be created) before setting out on an unexplored randomly-generated galactic map. Each race has it's own strengths and weaknesses which give it bonuses in certain areas. As well, the controlling political faction of each race assigns bonuses. With planets and resources limited, the race to conquer the galaxy begins.Planets can be colonized, resources mined and fellow civilizations befriended or destroyed. Victory can be achieved through conquest (killing all other major races), diplomacy (being allied with every remaining major race), influence (influence controls 75% of the galaxy) or technology (researching Technological victory in the tech tree).

The game contains a highly customizable ship design feature allowing players to implement newly researched ship modules as they see fit. There is also a campaign mode beside the standard game, where a story of ancient Precursor civilizations unfolds mission-by-mission, and support for an online "Metaverse" where players can upload games to the website and be ranked against other players.

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Alternate Titles

"银河文明II：恐惧之王" -- Chinese title (simplified)
"Космическая Федерация 2" -- Russian title
"Gal Civ II" -- Informal name
"Galactic Civilizations II: Władcy Strachu" -- Polish title
"Galactic Civilizations II" -- German title

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title
	Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
	Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords
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User Reviews

An Excellent 4X Game, an Excellent Way to Rule the Galaxy!	Tom Cross (31)
An average copy-cat of Master of Orion that can't "meow" very well...	Indra Depari of 'da Clan Depari (12749)
Phenomenal!	D Michael (221)

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The Press Says

Absolute Games (AG.ru)	Mar 14, 2006	94 out of 99	95
GameSpot (Belgium/Netherlands)	Mar 19, 2006	90 out of 100	90
GameSpy	Mar 03, 2006		90
JeuxVideoPC.com	Mar 17, 2006	17 out of 20	85
Gameslave UK	Mar 18, 2006	8.5 out of 10	85
GamingExcellence	Jun 14, 2006	8.3 out of 10	83
Game Informer Magazine	Apr, 2006	8 out of 10	80
PC Gameplay (Benelux)	Apr, 2006	79 out of 100	79
PC Powerplay	Mar 29, 2006	69 out of 100	69
PC Games (Germany)	Mar 27, 2006	64 out of 100	64