Master of Orion

The first Master of Orion game is a top-10 favorite of mine. So I was excited to learn about this new version. Overall, it's a good game, with many of the features that made the first 2 games great. This version seems much more slowly paced (at least on normal difficulty), which makes a full game a bit exhausting (up to 500 turns). However, it gets most things right. The game has a lot of research options and colony-construction options, which allow for different playing styles. Also there are different win conditions, such as conquest, economic, etc. The diplomacy part of the game is done especially well, but the combat is uninspired (I did auto-resolve almost every fight). The visuals, sound effects, and voice acting are all quite acceptable. You can customize a number of things about the game (such as difficulty, galaxy size, research paths, etc.). One thing that's new is the warp lanes that keep you from traveling anywhere you'd like, at least until you get some advanced research late in the game. I personally didn't mind this, since it allows you to play defensively by fortifying and defending choke points. Overall, a perfectly acceptable remake of a great game that should have some longevity for fans of the series and other fans of turn-based strategy games. I did not encounter in technical issues or show-stopping bug, except one that caused the game to hang if you tried to use a technology that supposedly makes a previously uninhabitable (toxic) planet amenable to colonization. Anyhow, I would recommend this game, but try to buy it and the DLCs on sale. 4/5

What's about linux release?

As someone, who plays PC games for more than a quarter of century now, I consider the new Master of Orion a good game. The presentation is outstanding: the races and sounds, the hi-res planets and ship design (especially Alkari) is superb and really good on the eyes. Game loads very fast, I never had a single crash and the turns still pass quickly even after 400. I love turn based tactics, but in here real time battles allow you to not waste time; if you want to change something the AI planned, you still can. There are some problems: special events are almost non-existing, spy missions are only very easy or very hard, "barbarians" (pirates) are a joke and I had some mouse zoom quirks; can't say anything about race balance after few games, but I don't consider it a major thing since I only play single player. What I like most however, is that the AI actually WORKS, compared to, for example, CIV games. I had Psilons asking for alliance, other computer players trading and exchanging techs, the more they liked me the less they wanted and not once had the AI done something illogical. They don't attack when unnecessary and don't send single units to you for slaughter like in oh-so-many other strategies; that thing alone makes this game better than I guess about 80% other 4x. I'm using unofficial patch which fixes some things and the games is even better thanks to it. If you have any love for space based 4x, go for it. I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised, as I was.

Decent graphics that go with the MoO theme well. The UI works fine, I have not had a problem with it. I found it easy enough to learn and navigate. Planet management is also easily understandable. Fleet management required me to look something up online(how to combine fleets), but otherwise it works well. Dipolomacy is a bit dull. The options are what we see in every 4X game and nothing more. The techs are definitely the same, for the most part , as they were in MoO 2. Warp points linking solar systems is different, but I like how it works. In MoO 2 the AI would send a bunch of different fleets all heading to one system. So you'd move ships into that system before the enemy would arrive. The enemy stops and goes somewhere else or picked a different solar system. This would repeat a lot. That was irritating. In this MoO they have to go through warp points which makes strategy more interesting and less headache. Battles. No longer turn based. You can pause combat to issue orders, but it does ruin the combat flow. So far I have been unable to figure out how the AI uses your chosen range parameters for a ships firing solution. The AI 'assistant' does not seem to pay too much attention to it. I've played three games so far. I played with a sort of leisurely approach to strategy. On hard I was killed off fairly quickly. My second attempt on difficulty normal I lost. My third game is currently on normal and I'm fairing better. As far as I can tell the AI handle its fleets well and defends the warp points connecting to its owned systems. So far I do not know how it manages its planets. Pirates are annoying pests instead of an interesting threat. You can turn them off as well as a few other options. If MoO was $40 or more I would not recommend it. At $29.99 it's a fair price.

Disclaimer: I played the game for about 30h now, but I did not play the original games. It's a nice game so far, which reminds me of lots of fun hours with FreeCiv and Ascendancy. I especially like that can win through either of combat, research, economy or diplomacy. This seems to be well balanced. The only exception is the diplomacy condition, which requires you to gather 2/3 of the votes in the galactic council. However, why would any of the other players vote for you, since it would mean he lost the game? E.g. I tried to force an AI player to vote for me by offering him a peace contract, while having my fleets at his borders.. I had 5 times the military power, still the player voted for himself. The only way to win this is by having 2/3 of the galactic population? What you should know before buying this game is that, sadly, it feels like a early Alpha-Version. I don't know why other people review (not just on GOG) this as an extraordinary polished game. The game is playable and fun, but there are lots of minor bugs. The most serious issue I found so far is that savegames do not work (sometimes?) when the tutorial is played. I was able to save once, but when I tried a second time the button was simply disabled. I have reported all of the about 20 issues I found with the in-game bug reporter. Most of them are UI glitches like the wrong research shown in the research results screen, not sorting planets correctly in the empire view, etc. There was a patch released on 1. Septemper, which fixes some more serious sounding issues I thankfully did not encounter so far. At least they are working on it :)