From PS3 to PSVR to PC I've been playing NMS for 9 years. Stop asking me to repeat my review every 12 months. If you haven't realised by now that I enjoy the game, you never will realise.
There have been many changes since this game first came out.
The remake is missing several features that were an important part of the original MoO & MoO2. * No automatic routing of ships. You cannot manufacture ships on several worlds & have them automatically fly to a rallying point. * No capturing of enemy ships. Because of this there is also no scrapping of captured ships to reverse engineer their technology. * No manufacturing option to repeat a build order although this is minor. * No option to refit a single ship. If you just want one ship with a Stellar Converter you have to create an entire class of ship. * Cannot click through repetitive invasion animations. (the interface on the bombing/invasion screen is also poorly laid out) * Ships only travel via warp corridors instead of open space. Once you have the technology to redirect ships in flight you still have to wait for them to reach a star system before they can follow your order even if it is just to return to their starting point. * Fewer options for controlling GNN reports. * No transport of essentials between planets. If a planet cannot produce sufficient food to support its population they will starve even with every agricultural boost in the game. If MoO2 or even MoO were able to take advantage of the technology of modern PCs either would be a much superior game to this.
The graphics might look primitive but many modern games cannot match its story and depth of gameplay.
I played Wiz6 on Amiga, I remember the audio being much better than the DOS version I played later so I could create a party of characters to import into Wiz7. I played these games across operating systems, mapped every square of the grid based map and just played it until I could navigate vast sections without paying attention to the screen. Nearly all the puzzles are logical & can be figured out sensibly, but there were a couple where you just had to experiment with the objects in your inventory (Ah! So that's what that stick is for!). You might not be impressed by the graphics or sound now but there is still a depth of gameplay that shames a lot of modern games.
