PC Critic Reviews

Dark Avatar does much more than just add new units or new maps, it revisits the very underpinnings the game itself and adjusts them to make the whole experience richer.

It makes a great game that much greater, and unquestionably deserves a long-term, dedicated spot on any fan of this genre’s hard drive.

A nearly flawless expansion to an already great game.

Dark Avatar is a great expansion to a fantastic franchise. This is the highest score I’ve given, and Dark Avatar earns every point. This is 4X strategy at its finest.

Stardock has managed to make a great game even better.

This is what every expansion pack should be. Nothing seems arbitrary, and you feel like the folks at Stardock really get what 4X gamers want.

What can I say, this game is massive, and the expansion adds on even more to the title.

The new features in Dark Avatar elevate the already superb Galactic Civilizations II to the title of undisputed best turn-based space strategy game on the PC.

The A.I. is the most intelligent opposition I have ever seen in a strategy title, and the tech tree is vast enough to offer a plethora of various strategies to employ. The lack of multiplayer is ameliorated by the fact that there are so many options and ways to play the single-player portions.

The inclusion of tech-prerequisites for colonization of certain environments is probably the most significant change here but there are plenty of other new features here that force the player into new and interesting situations. That you get some ample improvements in graphics and AI is just icing on the cake.