Master of Orion

In all honesty I'm not bothered about the issues people have with the multi-player. I loved the original 2 games and was so let down by MOO3. This feels more like a remake of the original format, quite simple Civ in Space. Great voice acting too. Love a bit of Micheal Dorn!

I have enjoyed may of hours playing single player games, but wasted hours trying to get multiplayer working with friends.

I almost passed on this title due to the other reviews. I'm so glad I decided to get it though, I can't stop playing it now. I bought every MoO game 2x in the past, even the admittedly bad MoO 3, and I feel this one is the best. It is not a pretty version of MoO 2, if that's what you like. There are those dang star lanes between planets, and your ship can travel across the entire map without a single engine upgrade. The star lanes don't bother me too much, they do add to the strategy in the game, but I generally do not like them. This version of MoO has the definite feel of a Master of Orion game, with modern graphics and a wonderful new interface. The new UI is really one of this games strong points, and you can manage a huge empire very easily with just one button basically. There are not as many races, but they are very well done, with great voice acting and animated sequences. It does get repetitive though, to be expected. The diplomacy in this game is as good as the older titles, and you will be put in difficult positions trying to keep your trading partners happy enough to do business with you. They will constantly expect you to wage war on your other allies, so you will have to choose which "friends" to please at the moment. The one thing I do not like about this game are the victory conditions. After a couple of disappointing games where I either won or lost very unexpectedly, out of the blue, I had to disable several victory conditions in the game options. This always happens just when it is getting interesting. You can choose to play on if you wish, but the game is really over at that point, so it is not as much fun. This is a fine strategy game with many factors to consider. You will have to balance planet upgrades, ship building, research, espionage, (and counter espionage) and your relations with the other races. The games UI makes it easy to manage but it is still up to you to decide how to run your empire.

This review includes the presumtion - in accordance with the development schedule - that they add leaders, new factions and new victory conditions in December partly as paid, partly as free DLCs. If not, I will update this two stars minus. Leaders are very important and new victory conditions too =) Till then, let the 5 stars be a motivation for the dev =) As of 2016, this is the best looking space 4x tbs not in early access that has espionage without DLC or anything extra purchase - maybe Endless Space 1 is on par as for the looks, but I know many misunderstand that game being not difficult or deep =) The visuals being this much better than in Stellaris or GalCiv III made me wonder =) I thought Stellaris would win, but no. Not at all. Updates come quite frequently, fixing bugs and soon adding new content. I hope the dev will not abandon the game as long as it is not on par with MOO2. Leaders will be a most important, free addition I am very much expecting to see. Without that, the complete orion feel will not transfer. Let me express my opition as for the DRM stuff. I think that since DRM applies only for multiplayer, it is not a serious issue, and also required if you think about it, because you get into one game territory with those having purchased this game in a full DRM environment. I think this is a requirement so that devs can protect the online environment and the users themselves. This is of course the naive and optimistic view =) Game is easy to get into but there are enormous depths to it so I hope the dev gets the support and the positive attitude it needs so that this can be one of the best 4x tbss. I think Endless Space 2 will eventually win the 4x battle this year but we will see =) Today it is a tendency that no matter if a game bears a name of full release or early access, it is almost always early access. Look at galciv III. Early access and expensive like hell and I do not feel it gives a greater experience without the really expensive DLCs than this. I personally think that this has a much greater personality than GCIII out of the box without additions.

When I first heard of this game through GOG I was excited, as I've tried many MOO-type games recently but none have left me satisfied. I was also dismayed by some of the reviews. But my curiousity got the better of me so I gave it a shot... ... and I'm glad I did! Pros: - Immaculate presentation, from voice acting to sound to music to graphics to UI - Easy to learn and pick up (but still offers a decent amount of depth, enough to be fun but not tedious, AI can assist in micromanagement both strategically and tactically) - Real time tactical combat with ships (some may see this as a minus but I see it as a HUGE plus, especially comparing with other recent titles in its genre) - AI races have personalities - Civ5 style (which makes diplomacy very fun). - Very stable as of this date, haven't encountered any technical issues. Cons: - Ground combat is auto-resolved and a simple numbers calculation (To be fair, no one else in the genre is doing proper ground combat either, which is a shame) - Ship design is limited compared to some of its competitors - Factions semi-identical in terms of gameplay, either than a few stat bonuses (To be fair, it's a common, unfortunate trend nowadays with many 4x games) - Diplomacy - although fun - also lacks the depth found in other games like Civilisation or Alpha Centauri) All in all, this is a good game and I highly recommend trying it out. For me personally it's my current favorite out of all the recent space 4x games. It's not perfect, but I rate it 5 stars in terms of how much fun I'm getting out of it. I bought the standard edition, but now own the collector's edition, so that's saying something too =)