Our Great Escape (You think you're ready for the rabbit hole?) – Galcon 2: Galactic Conquest Review

You know, there's something about impassioned people, they do it for the fun and for the love of it. Here, that's something you will find. Galcon, this game isn't a pay to play, no advertisements, just a developer that created his own little universe and we get to populate it. If I have your attention and curiosity, I'll explain the whole game. Before I do explain, let me just say that the key to this game, the special something that it has, comes from the "community." There's a passionate group of us that consider ourselves addicts because when you really give the game a chance you'll find it scratches that itch you've been meaning to alleviate. Much like other games there is a forum where players post their suggestions and grievances, the dev responds and we get to have a discourse. But something I really enjoy being able to say is that the developer sometimes hosts a lobby or joins games to pop in and play for a while, answering questions and chatting a bit. You get the sense that he cares about the community, as he's willing to take the time to say hello and chill for a bit. I find that very special. There are a number of layers to this game, the first layer is standard gameplay. You open a lobby and choose one from a number of game types, the premise is simple, you start with a planet that builds up ships, you use those ships to attack others. Depending on the size and defense you can capture new production planets to grow your fleet. The aim is to dominate. Maps vary, the specific objective varies from FFA where you aim to kill all, to king of the hill where you aim to hold the middle long enough while others are trying to break your grip on it. This is an online game, you can practice against a Bot but everything is centered around the people. Now you can have custom ships/planets but there are no bonuses or special equipment, -we are all equal here- when you jump into a game, the map is randomized and your spawn may have given you some poor options, so you adjust your strategy. This is at its essence a real time strategy game that will put you against people all over the world ranging from extremely good, decent and novices. We all started at one point and we were all "noobs." We continued on playing to improved our mastery. In the end it's about learning to study the map, speed of reflexes and knowing the right strategies for the conditions you are facing. As you play against people, you'll see there is always a chat log when you play. You can close it, or you can talk to people..some really cool people, some not so cool and there are trolls. There are players that are really tough on new people and others that are very understanding. Try and ask a question if you don't understand something, there are many of us that would love to give some advice or help you fit in but there are also others that will yell at you for making mistakes playing when they are trying to win. It's centered around the urge to win, so some folks get rather unpleasant. The thing about the chat is, it can be really easy to make a friend. Important, in my opinion. That is why the most crucial thing in galcon is to...find a mini-community. A group of people that would gladly answer your questions, play with you, be understanding when you make mistakes and joke around while talking about anything. What I mean by mini-community is, Clans. You have a decision to make, there are a fair number of clans. If you go for the biggest powerful one you'll find it can be a bit impersonal, I don't believe these are good for new players and in my experience even when I was leading a big clan and I wanted to help new people, it was difficult. What I suggest is to join a smaller clan, there are less ambitions, it feels less like a corporation and more like a small business where everyone knows each other and smiles, is friendly, helpful and more understanding. In the end it really depends on the leaders and a fair number of us put in a good effort to support our members. I hope I haven't lost you yet =) Now this is where we begin to reference the "layers" of the game. There is something called the Galaxy Map (GM), it is a beautiful spiral galaxy that is filled with stars, each star is a piece of territory. I call it a "Battlefield For Clans". When the Galaxy map begins clans invade the map, have their spawns and try to expand from there, eating as many stars as they can, trying to crush the enemy clans while aiming to balance competing powers so someone doesn't gain too much of an advantage. Usually there are teams of clans (factions) that battle in a four way match until the two week period ends and the victor is decided by who has the most points (value of land). The way wars are powered is "hits" a clan generates hits by having their players fly to a specific star and while their ship is parked there those players win games getting them an award of hits, which is based off of a number of factors, which impacts the star, either to seize it or defend it. What's cool about this is stars have production, so as you gain more stars, you get bigger hit awards, you become more powerful as you grow. Trying to build a empire for your faction to conquer the others while they will try to balance the map and weaken you. It's a very fun game to play. Gets pretty intense because it's all real time strategy and the messy nature of clan politics. Which brings me to the other "layer" of this game, clans relationships with each other, these are dictated by clan leaders and their past experiences in dealing with each other, whether it was a personal conflict, a squabble with members, good friends, similar ethos in their ethics of gameplay, and of course their treatment in the previous Galaxy maps. The game can get fairly complex because in the end it's not the gameplay mechanics, appearances, victories or awards that make the game, it's the people.
Review by Vergilious on Galcon 2: Galactic Conquest.