I've been around since Galciv1, and I don't think so. However, Galciv2 is the better game. I went to Galciv3 simply because I got tired of playing Galciv2 (that, and I didn't know Galciv3 was going to be so buggy). The story line isn't that confusing either way--it follows the same boiler plate as every other game out there: "blah blah blah blah blah....WAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!".