The reviews of Galactic Civilizations II are starting to come in.

One of the first out of the gate it the UGO review which reviewed 1.0D of the game.

It gives a pretty thorough run down of the pluses and minuses of the game and concludes with:

Simply put, Galactic Civilizations II is easily the best turn-based strategy game set in space we've had in years, and deserves mention with the big names in its category as a must-have for anyone who's dreamt of taking over the universe.