New Review: Adrenaline Vault gives GalCiv only 3.5/5 !

from Stardock Forums
Adrenaline Vault has now posted their review of GalCiv, presently to be found at:


They only give the game 3.5/5 in overall grade, and among their categories, especially 'Gameplay' (3.5/5) and 'Intelligence & Difficulty' (2/5) stand out to me as surprisingly and undeservedly low.

Some quotes from the review:
(In the 'Intelligence & Difficulty section, the AI more or less gets straight out accused of cheating)
"As a reviewer, it is seldom prudent to accuse the AI of a game of cheating; I will say, however, that the alien races of Galactic Civilizations seem to be fairly adroit at making something out of nothing [...] Because of these seemingly free constructor units, AI races are better able to exploit the resources of the galaxy"

And from their summary:
"As a result of its timing, Galactic Civilizations is in the rare position of being able to capitalize on the failings of Master of Orion 3. Unfortunately, out of the box, it is hard to recommend due to its own failings — although it is equally hard not to be optimistic about its potential given both current and future patches, as Stardock has a strong record of staying committed to their projects."

All in all, I am surprised at such a comparatively negative review from Avault.

/unic
7,637 views 134 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Ooops, forgot to paste the actual link. Here it is:

GalCiv review at Avault: http://www.avault.com/reviews/review_temp.asp?game=galciv&page=1

/unic
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
To be fair to the reviewer, who, trying to stay objective, probably did not look through pre-release hype, it often seems like the computer is cheating heavily in the early game (colonization etc). Not that it makes it true, but I could easily see why he could think that. I still haven't beaten sub-normal AIs and it's tempting to think that they are cheating when they expand so fast.

~SDC~
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm a bit surprised myself. Based on another post from Frogboy it would seem as if the Adrenaline Vault has a history of giving Stardock games low reviews. I have a feeling that the other good reviews out there plus word of mouth will outweigh it. :)

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Aye, very true. After you get the hang of the game however you can easily see how you can expand so fast yourself.

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I've also wondered how some races get so many ships so quickly until I noticed that my enemy keep buying them from the same race where I buy them ;)
Can we say "three dogs and a bone?"


~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I find it really sad that a lot of people here, but also reviewers are accusing the AI of cheating, just because they cannot match the AI right from the beginning.

When reviewing Chessmaster 9000 playing it on the medium level, would this reviewer accuse Chessmaster from cheating too? I think not.

This just shows incompetence. The reviewer should have played more games before accusing the AI of cheating.

It just seems that people aren't ready to believe what this AI is capable off. Sad but true...

The AOW2 AI for instance is cheating like mad. But since it's beatable on even the highest level nobody complains about this. Same with the Civ3 AI. But as soon as people actually get beaten by an AI, the only conclusion is that is cheats. Again sad... but true.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Would be interesting to know what actually happened in his case, though. He makes a relatively convincing argument for the opposing race to not be able to afford 2 ships in a short time.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
LTR: it didn't sound like a baseless accusation, and it was a relatively well-written review. I doubt the AI actually -is- cheating, but I'm sure the situation seemed pretty mystifying at the time. Maybe an opposing race gifted it with a constructor or something.

~SDC~
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Geo:

He was talking about the homeworld of the Yor. They could have easily had two planets in that system. If you purchase a ship on both planets, there you go. Sure it's a desperate measure by the Yor, but they were in a desperate position so what else could they have done.

The reviewer might have not expected this to be possible, thus accusing the AI of cheating. As a reviewer I think you can only accuse AI of this when you have proof and not when you think you have proof.

The review is written pretty well, but he didn't convince me about the playing time he spent with GalCiv and he only played on beginner level.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
This is a higher score than they gave MOO3 (3.0). This is a complex game. Not everybody it going to be thrilled with any title. I believe the reviewer gave it his best shot and saw as much and as little as his personal perspective would allow. Not to mention play time. With a game this complex I was expecting much tougher scores than Gal Civ has pulled from the pro press to date. I would of thought it would even get slammed by one or two by now. But quality does often out shine quanity even to the blood shot eyes of game reviewers.

~SDC~
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
True, but this is not about the total score.

The main argument is about the 2 stars he gave for intelligence and difficulty and for accusing the AI of cheating, while obviously it doesn't cheat.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Gamers (and reviewers) have been so trained to accept cheating in games, it's the first assumption going in to a game. I know I've had to totally revamp my style of play for GalCiv becase it is not cheating- it's a very different experience and a relief after so many years of putting up with cheating and imbalance in the name of "balance."

~SDC~
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
It's the reviewers job to research the game and play it. To blatently accuse the game of cheating, without any research or PROOF is in extremely poor taste, especially for a reviewer. He should not be allowed to review games on that site if that's what he's going to do.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Dearmad, that's what I'm looking forward to in GCiv. I hate the way that AI cheating removes tactics.

Like in MOO games the AI would cheat to gain free missile/star bases or Civ would cheat to quick build defensive units. It meant that hit and runs and multi stage attacks were pointless. You always had to go for an all-or-nothing attack in the shortes time possible.
Empire Earth is the worst, since the AI got free resources, so to win you HAD to take out his base buildings ASAP. There was no point in peasant-hunting or resource-starving.

In GalCiv at least I know that whatever damage I do to the AI, the AI will have to pay to rebuild it.
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
The author actually half-published his review in the AVault forums a couple weeks ago, noting that particular example of ships popping up from planets undersiege. Perhaps someone should remind him that the AI can obtain cash diplomatically and continue to purchase ships for quite a while even after its coffers are seemingly empty.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
OK, Guys Try This Instead. . .

Why not write this guy a "Polite" and "Respectful" mail telling him where you think he is misinformed about the game and ask him to reconsider looking at it again.

Personally, I think if he would have contacted Stardock, Brad would have been pleased to tell him what he would like to know about the game.

So, take you thoughts and direct them to the reviewer in a Polite and Constructive way.


Here is the link that has his email at the top. http://www.avault.com/aboutus/bio.asp?name=richard

Toothy
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
I couldn't resist and made a post on this topic in their forum:

http://forums.avault.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001071

Let's all try to remain civil though. The author is usually a pretty nice guy I think. I except him to update his review if he is presented with new facts.
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm sorry but Avault is just out of touch.

Plenty of people are winning the game at higher levels. I can win at AI set to intelligent on a regular basis And yet because this guy can't manage to win at lower levels the AI is cheating? That's just sad. "It can't be me, it's the AI!"

pathetic
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Hamster why don't you post your games to the metaverse. Looks to me you should get high up if you beat the AI on intelligent at a regular basis.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm not even slightly surprised that there will be reviews that claim the AI is cheating. If I hadn't known better from reading these forums, I would have assumed the AI was cheating when I first started playing.

Considering that every other 4X AI out there cheats like a bandit, and that the average gamer will be rapidly outproduced by the AI, and that the methods the AI uses (while perfectly legit) are non-obvious, a cheating AI is a natural assumption.

Unfortunately, I suspect we'll see more reviews like this, and probably not as politely worded, either.
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
You are right Iskabis, but I have never seen cheating AI (CIV3, MOO2, AOK you name them) mentioned as a problem in a review.

And for the first time in years we have a BRILLIANT non-cheating AI and bam... they mention that it cheats >:(
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
Other than the cheat comment, the only thing he missed was "Ctrl-N" which isn't documented anywhere but here, so if anyone is talking to him, you might want to pass that on as well.
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
I received zero emails from the reviewer. To be blunt, I found this review highly unprofessional. To make such an accusation without having emailed for clarification was, in my opinion, highly unethical.

As many of the higher ranked players can tell you, it is not terribly difficult to out expand the AI and control more of the galactic resources than the AI even at higher levels. It's a matter of knowing how to use the leases and trading for money.

But that's not even the worst part. Let's say the AI did cheat. Let's say the AI got free money or something. That would make it like every other 4X game out there.

For instance, Avault gave Heroes of Might and Magic IV a 4.5 star review in the AI area:

http://www.avault.com/reviews/review_temp.asp?game=homm4&page=3

It claims the AI in that game was "remarkable". HOMM IV is a lot of things but the developers will tell you that the AI does not play by the same rules as the human player and cheats flagrantly.

Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
Brad W. has responded to the review. Go get 'em Brad. Nicely done. (See the like that ZaH just posted.)
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Oops, I should have said (See the LINK that Za H just posted.) I also most have been responding at the same time Brad was, so its not quite that big of a news item anyway. I say again, good job on defending a good product Brad.
:D