Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

Thousands of years ago, the highly advanced precursors split into two factions: The peace-loving Arnor and the paranoid war-like Dreadlords. They fought a great war in which the outcome was that both races disappeared from the galaxy. In the year 2225, the young Human race invents the Hyperdrive and a new age of expansion blossoms throughout the civilizations of the galaxy. Each of the various races wishes to create its own empire and bring prosperity to its people. Following the events of the first game and its expansion pack, the Humans and Altarans are united in an alliance against the Dregen Empire and The Yor Collective. Victory seems assured for the Human-Altaran fleets until information surfaces about an ancient artifact which may return the Dreadlords to this universe.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is the sequel to the 2003 game and revisits the 4X space strategy of its predecessor. In the standard game the player will choose one of the ten major races in the game (or a custom race can be created) before setting out on an unexplored randomly-generated galactic map. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses which give it bonuses in certain areas. As well, the controlling political faction of each race assigns bonuses. With planets and resources limited, the race to conquer the galaxy begins. Planets can be colonized, resources mined and fellow civilizations befriended or destroyed. Victory can be achieved through conquest (killing all other major races), diplomacy (being allied with every remaining major race), influence (influence controls 75% of the galaxy) or technology (researching Technological victory in the tech tree).

The game contains a highly customizable ship design feature allowing players to implement newly researched ship modules as they see fit. There is also a campaign mode beside the standard game, where a story of ancient Precursor civilizations unfolds mission-by-mission, and support for an online "Metaverse" where players can upload games to the website and be ranked against other players.