Master of Orion

I was playing some Civ 5 one day when I decided to purchase this new MOO game when there was a sale. But was immediately struck by how similar parts of the game are to Civ 5. The diplomacy screen is like a carbon copy of the Civ 5 screen with the two boxes to put in what you wish to barter for alongside the backdrop that has a fully animated character responding to your proposals. The game even feels like it rolls out at a similar pace to Civ 5. You no longer have to research greater travel distances so you can jet around the galaxy at will. This is like your scouts from Civ and similarly you spend much of your early turns just roaming around. The things you research and build are very similar to MOO 2. Every MOO game has some big annoyances (like food/freighter fleets of MOO 2). This one comes from money. It seems that you are always having trouble with your cash flow, so much that I would not even build all my structures on planets to counter the constant cost they have. The computer also has this problem. Forming trading and research deals is many times impossible because they are broke. The game is not bad but it can be difficult to recommend in the end when people have easy access to MOO 1 & 2. Both still play perfectly fine. This game also has something I don't like from Civ 5 and that is how much the game slows down as you play. Managing a large galaxy can become annoying and turns can take forever. After playing for a couple hours I do not expect to load it up again for my MOO fix.

If I am controlling the battle, and the admiral assistance is off, I expect a ship to go where I tell it to go, Not hang around and ignore my orders while getting pummeled with torpedoes

Most of the reviews comparing this to the previous MOO games appear to be driven more by nostalgia than anything else. In almost every aspect MOO4 is at least as good as the earlier games, if not better. Obviously this especially applies to things like graphics, sound and interface, in which the earlier games simply can't compare. That said, there are a few flaws which really shouldn't be present this time around. Things like requiring far too many clicks to perform simple tasks like exploring a system (early on you need to visit each planet individually, but can't set up waypoints so you have to click on one every turn), or presenting exactly the same unskippable screen with the same annoying quote every time you research a new technology. The big point people talk about is character, saying that MOO2 in particular had it while this game feels bland. However, the problem is not that it's lacking in character; MOO2 only gained character through the visuals and voices of the alien rulers, and those are actually better here. The problem is that it's exactly the same character - the same aliens with the same look and the same personalities. MOO3, for all its flaws, at least tried to bring something new to the table, and that was especially the case with a large number of new species all with meaningful backgrounds and interactions with each. There's nothing actually wrong with the character of MOO4, it's just that we saw it all 20 years ago. As for the parts that are new, they're actually not new at all. The major differences from MOO2 are movement along lanes and real-time combat. However, both were in MOO3 and have been used in many other games since. Both are improvements, the turn-based combat in particular was incredibly repetitive, and restricted movement allows actual strategy involving choke-points. It's a decent game that holds up well next to other recent 4X games, it just doesn't even try to bring anything new or interesting the table.

I set 2 starts for nice ghaphics, but if you are a former player from master of orion 2 like me do not expect and improbement of, at least from my point of view is lest playable, lest adictive....I expendt an upgrade of moo2 (master of orion 2)...even only in graphics and bugs could be fine...but not found it.

This game has taken the too familiar route of making the UI for combat nearly incomprehensible. It's fun to build until war breaks out, but after war I just start another game. The combat is ui is an idiotic mess.