Still amazing fun to play today. It is a bit iffy the first hour getting used to the old "2d but still 3d spatial dogfighting" of old, but once your brain activates your imagination to comprehend what's going on, something we've not needed in many decades of gaming, things become beautiful. I must be crazy, but I actually think that the graphics are quite remarkable for that day and age. It's a very very strange graphics style that feels like it could be scaled up indefinetly (Privateer HD, please?). The ships, stations and planets are only limited by the resolution of the game, while a more recent 3d game like Privateer 2 in my opinion actually looks more basic than this does. There's an elegant sophistication in the aesthetics in this game where each and every single pixel fulfills a purpose. I'd take this over the early 3d for 3d's sake games anyday. Almost makes me wonder what kind of graphics (with no slowdowns at all due to high numbers on screen) we could have today if someone was to make a 2d space sim.
I'll be honest, I had actually never played MOO1 or MOO2 despite being a space 4x / strategy game nut all my life, digesting every space game i could find. I gave this a go, so many years after its release, and it still blows me away. It has such intricate well designed elements to it that even the great games of today (Galciv2 etc) failed to capture. I truly can not believe that I never played this game before, even after all this time it still gives one hell of a first impression! I'll be playing this more than Galciv2 this summer.
