Interstellar Space Genesis (ISG) is made with loving care to detail. Sure, the graphics are not cutting-edge but who cares? IMHO the game projects a wonderful charm and it's fun to play. One aspect of the game that I really appreciated was the detailed in-game tutorial for every screen. It's so good that you probably won't ever have to go to the manual for help. Also, the developers took great care in providing pop-ups explaining the drivers of production, income, research etc. You'll always know where you stand against the other empires and what you need to do to improve your numbers. The research tree is pretty deep and provides varied paths to success or failure. If you're a hardcore 4X gamer then this may not be the title for you, but if you like a game that has innovative and varied mechanics, not too much micro management, is challenging, gives you that one more turn feeling and is pleasing to the eye - then give ISG a try.

As they say, inspired by Master of Orion 2. And look, I don't want to spout heresy, but MoO2 was made a very long time ago. This game is much better, much more. It's what MoO2 might have dreamed of becoming. Turns are thoughtful and decisions matter. You can screw up while learning the mechanics. But with a little time, the gameplay, mechanics, strategy, the whole is experience is top notch. There are no annoyances that come to mind and lots of pleasant surprises. Extensive tooltips make the mechanics transparent. After a few games, you'll notice some good strategies that will win fairly easily on normal difficulty. But the higher difficulty is still the same gameplay. It isn't a matter of exploits or choosing the same thing every time. It's just being careful and slowly sculpting your empire. Stellaris has lots of atmosphere, but honestly I think ISG has better gameplay on a much lower budget. Terrific turn-based space 4x.

Not as grandiose as Stellaris (so if you are looking for a lot of micromanaging, you better stay with that), but a worthy spiritual successor to Master of Orion. I have space for both on my library. There are some things that still need to be improved (read Master BLB one star review for a harsh criticism), like a few reviews have pointed out. In the forum you'll find some more, like better "alien mixing". I'll add that I'd like to see even more roleplaying options, although I admire the relaxed pacing of the game in comparison to Stellaris or even GC3. So, if I agree with some criticism, why am I giving it 5 stars? First, the game is good (as already mentioned on several reviews, so I'm not going to bother with another one telling you the same things. I'll tell you to check KharnDeBuilde one, we're pretty much on the same page - 4 stars), I'd say it is 4 stars right now. Then I'm adding another one because I trust the devs, I just listened to Explorminate podcast and I'm confident that if you are reading this in a year or two, most things being criticized in the reviews will have been addressed. Lastly, right now you are not seeing a "Verified Owner" because I bought the game on Steam last sale there (yeah, how I wish GOG would inform us in advance which games it intends to add to its catalogue...) but I do intend to buy it here as well when either the base game is at an even higher discount than it is right now (it's 50% now but no discount on the expansion or the soundtrack - meaning I'd have to keep playing the Steam version) or if everything has the same discount (say, everything is 50% or more discounted). It highly probable that, if you are seen this two years from now, I'm already a "Verified Owner". P.S.: By the way, why am I not allowed to buy the Soundtrack without buying the base game first? It would be the cheapest way for people that already own the game elsewhere - like myself - to show some support. Come on, GOG, allow us to. Do it!

I must confess that I'm highly disapointed with the piece of work. I has waaay fewer capabilities compared to the 1996 Orion 2. That was 26 years ago! The list my problems: 1. The game is slow. I takes couply of seconds to End Turn, while in MOO2 it touk less than a half a sec. 2. Galactic map is noisy: too many bright spots it's hard to distinguish them from explorable stars. 3. Exploration is messy. (We have 3 ways, but no real reason to use anything else than a - cheap- survayor ship. It was way better in the old ways, not complicating something that's doesn't add too much to the game anyway. 4. Planet development is primitive: just a couple of buldings (compared to the ~40 in MOO2). 5. Space combat is extremely primitive, and ugly. In 2022 I would require that -at the very least. ships look different when weapons/systems are added to them, and explosions also look different based on what I target. (Or at least there are more than just one type of ship explosion). 6. Diplomacy/spying are primitive. 7. Winning screens look the same no matter which victory I achieve.

Good strategy game, in the vein of the classic Master of Orion, but different enough that I wouldn't quite call it a spiritual successor (maybe more like a close sibling). The management feels more complex and less streamlined than MOO, which might be good or bad depending on how much you like to micromanage things. Personally, I enjoyed it overall though at this point it is my 4th game and I still feel like I need to grasp even more things if I want to beat the game at the hardest difficulty settings (beat it on easy on my first game and average on my third). The combat is fun (with a fair amount of customization for your ships), though I must say that while the 3D graphics are serviceable, they don't look as good as finely crafted 2D and the closeup on each big enemy ship you blow up gets old pretty quickly (and takes your focus away from the fight). I should probably try to see if you can disable that. The ship movement is rich, though it takes a little bit getting used to. Having a losing enemy empire surrender to you as a vassal empire felt neat and more satisfying than fighting to the last planet or surrendering to on of your opponents as a final up yours. Like MOO, you need to pay close attention to your research. You are always a couple of tech aways from being outmanaged economically or badly outgunned in battles. The techs feel a bit less distinctive than MOO, but it could be just my getting used to them. The races are cool so far. I played Palacean where I could enlist space monsters and Sulak where I could build a very strong fleet of small ships (seriously, they'll steamroll titan ships). It felt a bit overpowered, but it is an interesting change to have that option to have a viable fleet of small ships. Usually, the winning tactic always seem to build fewer huge ships. So overall, a very decent and welcome 4x space strategy game. I'm not sure if it will be one of the most remembered games of that genre, but it has a lot to offer.