After the disappointment of 2003's Master of Orion III, the Galactic Civilizations series has become the new standard for turn-based strategy gaming. Though it originally debuted for IBM's OS/2 operating system a decade ago, Galactic Civilizations made the leap to Windows in 2003 and introduced gamers to its blend of solid gameplay and multithreaded artificial intelligence. After that game's success, developer Stardock is hard at work on the follow-up, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. Stardock recently launched the beta test of the game, though we should note that the beta still represents very early code. Quite frankly, there are a lot of missing pieces thus far in Dread Lords, and much of the game is incomplete and buggy. For example, there is a distinct lack of texturing on ships in the game, and most interface buttons are nonfunctional placeholders at this point. Still, there's enough to get an idea of where Stardock is taking the next game in the series.

　　Dread Lords introduces a whole new 3D galaxy to explore and conquer.

　　Dread Lords promises to open things up a bit for the franchise. The original game restricted you to playing as the Terran Empire (humanity) as it jockeyed for galactic supremacy, but the sequel will let you choose from one of 10 premade races. Humanity is still there, but now you'll find other playable races, such as the robotic Yor Collective, the reptilian Drath Legion, and the insectlike Thalan Empire. You even have the option of creating a custom race, choosing an appearance, and distributing racial bonus points. If this sounds a bit like the custom race mechanic in Master of Orion II, that's because it and other portions of the game feel very much like they're drawn from that classic turn-based space strategy game.

　　Once you choose a race, you're dropped into the main game, which takes place on a galactic map. Like in other space strategy games, you'll start out with a homeworld, a colony ship, and a scout vessel. And in typical turn-based strategy form, you have to explore the unknown universe, expand onto and exploit new worlds, and, if you must, exterminate your rivals. The most obvious new feature in Dread Lords is the 3D graphics engine, which is a step up from the old-school 2D graphics of the original game. Zoom all the way in, and you can see each planet and ship modeled in 3D; zoom all the way out, and planets and ships are replaced by symbols, giving you the ability to select your preferred viewing range. The galaxy itself is divided into star clusters and solar systems, with resource nodes floating in the vast expanses of space.

　　If you played the original Galactic Civilizations, or any other turn-based, empire-building strategy game, then you'll be able to pick up Dread Lords fairly quickly. First you'll want to dispatch your colony ship to colonize the nearest hospitable planet, begin research on a vast array of new technologies, start construction on new vessels, and commence upgrades to your homeworld. While this remains par for the course, Stardock has reworked the interface quite a bit. In particular, the developers have borrowed interface elements from other games, most notably Rome: Total War, which should make the galactic conquest aspect a bit easier to manage.

　　The new planetary building system in Dread Lords won't let you build every improvement on each world, like you did in the original Galactic Civilizations game or the Master of Orion games. Instead, each planet has only a limited number of building slots, which can be increased assuming that you research the correct terraforming technology. This means that you will probably eventually have to optimize different planets for different purposes. For example, one will become your empire's "breadbasket," another will provide all scientific research, while another will churn out warships. When you're getting started, though, you'll need to concentrate all those facilities on your homeworld, which means building a mix of farms, research labs, and factories, not to mention entertainment networks to keep your population happy.

　　Research ion drives, miniballs, and more in the race for the ultimate tech.

　　One of the hallmarks of the original game was the strong artificial intelligence, which itself was a byproduct of the game's multithreaded nature. Basically, what multithreaded means is that while you're taking your turn, the computer is busy calculating its turn, so it's spending a lot of time analyzing what to do next. Dread Lords looks to keep the impressive AI, but don't worry, because the game will have eight levels of difficulty, and you can rate AI opponents from "fool" to "incredible." This is good news, since Dread Lords won't introduce multiplayer to the series, though there is buzz that it will be added on at a later date, possibly through an upgrade or expansion.

　　Unfortunately, it's far too early to get a feel for the actual gameplay of Galactic Civilizations II. All we can get so far are pieces. For example, trying to load saved games makes the beta crash, so it's a bit difficult to get far into a single game. Still, the pieces of the game that we've played with so far should get fans of the series excited. And the fact that there are new layers of depth in ship design, combat mechanics, logistics, and more promises a better Galactic Civilizations experience. Dread Lords is slowly coming together, and the game is still on track for a release by the end of the year.