Master of Orion

I’m going to focus on the single player aspects of this games, as I usually don’t bother with multiplayer. Over all I have a very mixed opinion of this game. This game is very hit or miss. First let’s start with game play. For the most part it’s alright. It does get tedious when playing longer games. Second this game needs more customization options when comes to map settings. The choices are very bare-bones and it’s difficult to set up the map for short small map matches. Finally if you do happen to really want this game the DLC is a must or the game feel incomplete especially when compared to previous entries. The other big thing I got to focus is the game’s presentation. It is very hit or miss. Some aspects like the narration and some of the races like the humans are done quite well. Some of the other races like the Mershan and the Bulwratithi are just cartoonish and annoying. Plus the soundtrack the game is so generic and doesn’t help with making the game enjoyable. Finally the game lacks immersion. The atmosphere feels so generic and lackluster. These hold the game back on being any fun as the lack polish shows. Honestly I would just pass this up.

after reading other reviews and the TOS.... I have decided not to purchase this game, love the cast and consider it to be stellar, but the other issues in multiplayer and installation practices have changed my mind. Will not be getting this game. Sometimes you just have to say no, no matter how much the cast impresses you....

This Master of Orion is a fun game, but really comes off as Civilization V wearing an Orion disguise. The UI borrows very heavily from Civ5 and turn-by-turn gameplay flow will feel very familar to Civ5 players, for better or worse. A lot from MoO2 failed to make it over to this one and the crown jewels of the Orion series, custom ships and combat, are massively simplified here. Available slots for storing ship designs (blueprints, in the game) are limited to a measely four and equipment has been scaled down considerably. Offensive equipment is rated by DPS and defensive equipment rated by its ability to negate DPS, either by "dodging" it (ECM) or "absorbing" it (Shields). Utility combat equipment like Tractor Beams or Emissions Guidance Units are completely gone, as is ship boarding/capture, marine contingents, and hireable ship/colony leaders. Now it's a game of DPS and the fleet with the most will pretty much automatically win. Is it a bad game? No, it isn't. But at the same time it's not a terribly good one either. Much like Civilization V you'll find yourseslf sinking into a turn-by-turn rut, dealing with the occasional completely production queue, a fleet needing new orders, and occasionally, a battle. All of this is presented as a To-Do list at the beginning of every turn, again, much the same as Civilization V. I spent $30 on this game. I don't regret it. There's a decent game here, but not a great one. My recommendation? Wait for a sale to drop the price to $15, then jump on it. Maybe by then we'll see some more features to differentiate this game from its terrestial

Got this game for free during one of the GOG giveaways. I'm not really huge on the 4x genre but I do play Civ so some of the base mechanics were fairly familiar to me. It's a pretty typical representation of the genre, with my favorite variation within it being the goofy alien leaders you can meet and interact with. They're pretty well animated and voiced, so it's actually a treat to see those. I like them better than the leaders in Civ games. The game's tutorial is pretty bare bones. It's basically just a standard battle-map set up with pop-up tips, and they don't explain some mechanics, like invading planets. Or if they do I wasn't sure how to activate it. The game does everything pretty well, but nothing really extraordinarily. I can't really say anything bad about it though, as I got it for free and I felt like that was fine for it's value. Maybe the game shouldn't retail for $30 as is, but on sale or as a giveaway it can be a fun diversion for fans of the genre.

If graphics was all it took to make a game great, this game would probably be great, i played it a bit when it got into beta and i really hoped they could get their act together later as it got a lot of serious charm from the different races, the gnn and a lot of other, the music is decent and the game does have a very charming feel overall to it... but what ever happened to make the original two great games was discarded for this game, introducing hyperlanes as the "only" way to get around narrows the strategic options down in a serious clusterfuck attritional warfare without any of the options in the first two great games, no longer are there any hard choices to be made in research or how each race can focus on different aspects to suit their own playstyles and give some actual choices, making every race feel the exact same, play the same and feel the same despite any bonus or malus they have from the race setup. i would write more but this game does not deserve it, this game feels like it killed the originals, only to wear their corpses and walk around like a zombie on crack without any of the aspects that made the much better games better games