AI War 2

AI War 2 reverses many conventions of grand strategy and RTS. You've already lost the war. The entire galaxy belongs to other factions, mostly the AI. You start with one small planet in a sea of hostile territory, and your job is to expand strategically without drawing too much notice from the dominant AI, building your empire just enough to run your fleets and defensive networks before striking at the AI's heart when you're ready.

The AI evolves every year, and many optional factions create a living galaxy each with their own goals and strategies. Fleets organize cleanly, science upgrades are simple but offer many approaches, hacking provides limited but extremely powerful options to recruit, weaken, or steal. Warden, Hunter, and Praetorian Guard sub-fleets of the AI create new challenges and opportunities depending on how you provoke them.

Multithreading lets your framerate decouple from simulation performance, so a friend at 30fps stays in sync with you at 120fps in heavy battles. Multiplayer (beta) is self-repairing for OS and hardware differences. Map variety, mod support shipped directly in XML, and 1.5 hours of new music on top of the original 4.5-hour score round out a sequel that streamlines without dumbing down.