Imperium Galactica II

**frogbeastegg** · 05-20-2005, 11:00

Did anyone else play this? There is still nothing else quite like it about today (is there?). In many ways it was ambitious and ahead of its time, quite a classy production, even when I first played it a few years after its release. Space and land battles you could control, research, trade, diplomacy, espionage, agents, exploration, colonisation ... in some ways a bit like a space version of Total War.

It's been ages since I last played, so long I don't even remember much about the game. I think I might load it up again sometime ...

**King Edward** · 05-20-2005, 11:05

I played this (Still have it somewhere at home) it was a great game but i always suffered when the Kraken turned up, their ships were always so much more powerful than anything else, they could blow away my heavy capital ships with one or two shots before i even got my ships in range!

Id love to see a remake with a modern game engine as there is a hell of a lot of potential there!

**Ser Clegane** · 05-20-2005, 11:09

Wow - it's been some time since I played that one.

I agree, it was (and probably still is) indeed a very good game, though it could get a bit tedious at times IIRC.

Very good overall atmosphere, motivating tech-tree and main campaign structure ... plus some absolutely stunning cut-scenes.

Unfortunately when I got it, I could not really invest the time it probably deserved ... perhaps I should dig it out again...

**Krusader** · 05-20-2005, 12:26

I remember buying it at bargain bin price. I quite enjoyed the game, but I too suffered when the Kraken, or what their name was, turned up.

Unfortunlately I can't get the game to run on my Win XP

A remake of IG2 would be sweet, or a similar game.

**lancelot** · 05-20-2005, 12:31

^im sure it will work if you run the compatibility wizard..

I thought it was an ok game, until that bunch turned up with this lightning attack on their ships that made them seemingly invincible....then it got boring quick.

**el_slapper** · 05-20-2005, 13:15

I had been able to finish the easy campaign - but there was no way to survive in normal

**Monk** · 05-20-2005, 21:26

I loved that Game when i played it. The game sported a pretty good Diplomatic mode (still much better than RTW's imho), spying, trading and war areas. I felt it was a game that was easy to get imho.

The three campaign races are widely different and give unique playing experiences. Plus the random setting in the campaign map gave you a different game nearly all the time. The messages you received from your advisors; mercenaries looking for a job, rival kingdoms wanting trade agreements, Traders looking for an armed escort, Traders who are trying to rip you off, and all types of missions and such gave a great and completely immersive campaign game. Something that was a really nice touch, if you Got into an Alliance with another Race, they'd send Birthday congratulations to your Emperor every other year

. Now I don't care if they're little grey men, that's just so nice! I've always said that The tw diplomacy screen could learn something from IG2's. The Non-Agression pacts, Trade agreements and Alliances.

Not to mention you had to actually "sweet talk" the leader of rival factions. Improving relationship, lying about another Empire to make them parionoid, insulting them to coax an attack, or blame them for spies in your Empire. Add to that the abillity to trade information/technology as well as planets... it was a really good model for diplomacy i thought

And the cutscenes...

stunning put simply. Every now and then i load up the game and give it another go. Even though i've seen much better looking games since; the campaign is an element that makes me come back for more.

**AntiochusIII** · 05-20-2005, 22:30

Originally Posted by lancelot

^im sure it will work if you run the compatibility wizard..

I thought it was an ok game, until that bunch turned up with this lightning attack on their ships that made them seemingly invincible....then it got boring quick.

Play the Kra'hen. The god-emperor's fleet will come FOR you instead of against you! The best of those badarses (the battleships "Predators") have more firepower than anything else in the game. I checked the stats. (And yes, the last time I played this game - which I had it a loooong time ago when I bought it together with STW (and Pharoah...) -was only months ago.)

I explored the easy game thoroughly indeed, but, unfortunately, normal always kills me at some point - it's too hard...

The storylines are immense - the best in any space games, easily, though those who play long enough will always find one, never boring epic end: the Solarian-Kra'hen conflict escalating into a Galaxy war. Why - there's even an option when you're Solarian to inform other races (who...if anybody cares about the story, will realize that they were (except for the Shinari) just descendants of mutated humans) about the Kra'hen's military might. And when you're Shinari, you'll get an urgent (immediately called) message that let you choose your path of war: ally with the Solarians, or annihilate them and then turn (and get turned) on the Kra'hen. Most games end before that though, but I deliberately played a bit longer just to hunt the Kra'hen down.

The Kra'hen storyline got nothing but revenge, war, god-emperor's megalomaniac, seers, and occasional free or one-time-payment mercenaries from the home galaxy - enough for any warlike players to quickly dominate the entire galaxy.

I have one question for those who knows though - is "God-Emperor" a divine being or just a Kra'hen dictator?

**frogbeastegg** · 05-20-2005, 22:52

Wow! I expected this thread to die, or perhaps get a couple of posts. IG2 is one of those games I never hear about, and I had a devil of a job finding a copy to buy a few years ago. Unfortunately I got the budget version of the game, with one of those useless PDF manuals. That made learning very tough.

I got going with skirmish missions (there were some, right? Missions away from the campaign ...) and began to find my feet, take over planets, and really appreciate the depth of the game. Then I had a month of heavy university exams and had to stop playing. Once the exams finished I picked it up again, from the start, and much the same thing happened, except the gap was longer and the replacement workload after the exams was heavier. That was, rather sadly, the end of my IG2 affair; I never did get back.

There is nothing else like IG2, is there? Space strategy games have been a little more common recently, but mostly in the vain of MOO3.