Master of Orion

The graphics are nice, and I love the feature that allows you to go back to any turn you wish (which saves you the trouble of having to save the game regularly), but I was otherwise disappointed with the game. There were some features of MOO2 that may have been a bit overpowered, but they were fun. This game has significantly reduced the effect of those features. That may make for a more balanced game, but it also makes it less fun. Remember the joy you had at discovering an Artifacts planet, knowing you'd get +2 research for every scientist after you colonized it? Well, Artifacts now grant a measly flat +2 research for the whole planet. Remember the awesome planets you'd be able to settle after beating a space monster? Well, the planets guarded by space monsters are now barely above average. Remember how awesome automated factories were (+5 production and +1 production per worker)? Well, they're now a flat +2 production for the whole planet. I could go on, but it's too depressing. Space battles in tactical view were nice looking, but frustrating. My ships often refused to follow my orders because the settings I chose for them would inexplicably go back to the defaults. Failing to use the tactical view, however, isn't a good idea, because the game's appraisal of fleet strengths is sometimes way off (it told me I had virtually no chance of winning a battle I easily won). I also had problems with the game locking up, usually right before a fight. I had to crash out of the game and restart it several times. The way the game was coded is also apparently causing problems for modders, because there are virtually no mods available yet. Failing to take advantage of the huge, highly-skilled, and highly-motivated modding community is a big mistake, in my opinion. The game has a lot of potential, and I hope future patches will help to realize it.

After the horrible MOO3, it seemed like the classic MOO franchise was doomed as a gaming history footnote. Fortunately, the IP was rescued and given the AAA treatment it deserves. The biggest take away is the quality that shines throughout the game. The visuals, UI, sound, CG, etc… is all top notch and may even be the new benchmark in strategy games. The little details are amazing too, like how the mannerisms and speech of the other leaders will change according to how they feel about your empire. Granted, that in of itself is not new, but it is just done so well, that the devs deserve mad props for it. I can’t count how many times I’ll purposely ease up or even give extra aid to the Mrrshan, as I could not bare seeing their queen being so submissive and fearful of me. Granted, her claws come back out as-soon-as an opportunity arises, but I never learn…. <damn you super moe space cat waifu!!!> ...Anyway, all the beloved races from MOO1 are given the respect they deserve and all are very entertaining to play as or against. The dev’s really knocked the races out of the park with this release. The expressive races just gives the game so much personality that you really feel connected in a living universe, instead of just number crunching like in some other massive but soulless strategy games. While the MOO2/3 races aren’t in yet, I’m sure they will pop up in an expansion at some point as Wargaming is very good about supporting their games long term. The game has respectable amounts of customization for the ships and races both. While not as high as a GAL CIV3, it is still sufficient to keep the gameplay interesting and it does seem like they’ve built in the foundation to support further customization at some point too. Ground combat is typical 4x, so it works but nothing special. Space combat is done pretty well at this point though. You have a lot of options to tailor the tactical combat to your liking, such as how fast combat is (can make it essentially turn base if you want), formations, setting weapon engagement distances, individual ship speeds, etc… It’s kinda similar to the Star Wars: Empire at War games, except no subsystem targeting, but with much better battle flow controls. AI is good by strategy game standards, as it improved with every alpha/beta update as you’d expect. Still may be possible to exploit the AI in some circumstances, but I was getting some challenging games my last few play throughs which is something I can’t say about many games out there. The UI is well thought out and I never had any problem finding something or having to perform an excessive number of clicks to perform an action. Very top notch design. Finally, this game is just full of heart. You can really tell how much love went into it, as it seemed to be almost a passion project. Essentially some old fans of MOO got the opportunity to resurrect a game they loved due to the huge success of their other games. While their vision of a perfect MOO may not be exactly what some others wanted (fat chance having everybody wanting the same thing to begin with), what can’t be denied is how much went into this game. This is not some simple cash grab done by some soulless corporate entity who cared nothing about the original classics, that unfortunately happens far too often (...wipes away a tear for HOMM...). This is a tribute to a beloved classic, being given the support it deserves. That alone makes this a worthy buy in this gamers eyes. ……… well… that and our Mrrshan overlords :)

No way, no how. Time honored name but terrible implementation of game. Can't direct connect OR LAN? No way I play, for fee or free. Despicable

I haven't played the original Master of Orion games, so I couldn't say how this compares to the original games, but I can say that after a few tries to get into the genre, this is the game that finally got me into the 4X strategy genre. The presentation is slick and polished, with vibrant personality bubbling to the surface in a hundred small ways. The menus, while complex, are rarely cluttered and are easy to navigate. I get the feeling that to a seasoned strategy player this game might seem overly simplistic and unremarkable, but I have found it to be an admirable compromise between complexity and user-friendliness. As I'm writing this, my game is about to finish its latest update, and I can't wait to jump back in.

The premise of rebooting Master of Orion was interesting. Of course a lot of people were afraid it would tarnish their memories of one of their beloved franchises but as I have never played those when they came out I can not pass judgement over that. I can however judge this game on its own. There are some excellent things, such as beutifull graphicss and clean but stylish UI. Some great music and sound effects and in general the core gameplay loop is addictive and major design issues were resolved. It seems highly polished. It seems because that is just the visible surface of the game when you'd play it for e.g. an hour. Unfortunately there are also many problems. The games Early Access stage was quite interesting and you can expect a lot of changes, unfortunately this game released a bit prematurely. It seems the habit of changing things around a lot by the developer continued after release. It is good to have active support on a title post release but when the developer does not communicate their intentions clearly those changes appear very willy nilly and will upset customers. Failing to manage expectations will make any change a failure in the eyes of some users. Most irritatingly, even after release they regularly broke savegames without warning (and no option to roll back to at least finish your games). Obviously, talking about customers, Wargaming does not consider GOG as an actual important store front. On the one hand it is understandable that Steam is ginourmous. On the other hand, the 'meh' for witholding the Linux build and essentially forcing GOG to link up GOG accounts to Wargamings DRM system are a bit of a spit in the face. GOG used to care about the quality of their release, technically and in player experience as they were carefully restoring historical gaming artifacts, but now with the brand new releases it is clear GOG will sell it as long as they can make their cut. (At least most consumer laws requires them to have a refund policy.) With this attitude this game is essentially unplayable. It is impossible to play through a full game as stuff continously and sometimes intentionally breaks or they throw you a game design/balance curveball out of the dark because they feel like it. :(