| Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Stardock |
| Publisher(s) | Stardock Paradox Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Brad Wardell Scott Tykoski |
| Programmer(s) | Cari Begle |
| Writer(s) | Brad Wardell |
| Composer(s) | Paul Kerchen Mason Fischer Eric Heberling |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy, 4X |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is a 4X turn-based strategy by Stardock for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to the 2003 game, Galactic Civilizations, and was released at retail and on Stardock's online subscription service, TotalGaming.net, on February 21, 2006. An expansion, Dark Avatar, was released in February 2007. A second expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, was released in April 2008.
Dread Lords is set in the 23rd century, when multiple alien civilizations, including Terrans, scramble to conquer the galaxy, planet by planet, by force, diplomacy, influence (culture), or technology. Dread Lords focuses on the single player experience that consists of a Campaign mode and a "Sandbox" mode, and omits multiplayer. The game is notable for its artificial intelligence, which is challenging without being given resources and abilities not available to the player, as is common in the majority of strategy games. The game was a modest commercial success, and it was received favorably by critics, winning multiple Editor's Choice awards. Stardock also opted for a rather unusual distribution strategy that lacks copy prevention, and allowed for extensive modding by the community.
A sequel, titled Galactic Civilizations III, was announced by Stardock on October 15, 2013. A pre-release version was made available through Steam in March 2014, which allowed customers to play the game while it is still in development. The sequel was the first game in the series to feature multiplayer and used hex-based game tiles. The full version of the game was released in May 2015.