The mark of a great strategy game expansion pack is whether it enhances the player's strategic options without making the game significantly more complex or difficult to play. A lot of strategy expansions collapse due to new units that require too much player attention or mechanics that slow the game down without much benefit. That's the major reason that Twilight of the Arnor, the latest expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations II, has us so excited.
Twilight of the Arnor has a laundry list of new stuff to play with, including world-destroying Terror Stars, new customization options, new music, a new campaign, and much more. Despite that, when we sat down to play the "beta 6" version of Twilight of the Arnor we found all our play time consumed with digging into the implications of a feature we've covered before -- unique racial technology trees.
Spiffy:
-Unique technology trees
-Vastly expanded strategic options
-New ascension feature
Iffy:
-AI seems a bit passive
-Ascension victory not yet implemented
Stardock has announced a new bundle, Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate Edition, which will be released on Steam and GameStop's freshly acquired Impulse, and includes the original game as well as the Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor expansions.
Stardock has released Impulse's top ten sellers list for the week ending on January 16.
Stardock has released Impulse's top ten weekly sales chart for the week ending on November 28.
