Moo 1 is the best turn based space strategy game in existence. It’s a simple interface and boiled down to the absolute essentials. The tech tree has many options to get the job done. Randomized maps means endless replay ability. Impossible is so difficult that I can only win about half of my attempts. Endless hours of fun as I hatch new plots make new designs and come up with ever wilder strategies to stave off disaster. Great sense of accomplishment when you win! Moo 2 is a great game and I still play it. The only down side is that you can't deviate much from the identical tech acquisition and to a lesser extent tech progression in each game. This tends to limit the replay ability somewhat. To offset that you can play around with the racial features to vary the games. It’s a prettier game than Moo 1 but less of a hard core strategy game.
This game is not worthy of the name master of Orion. It is an insult to two of the best strategy titles ever made. It does not even rate 1 star. I bought this game at full price. I still have the ding in my wall where I threw it in disgust after just 4 hours of play on the night I bought it. To add insult to injury I was forced to keep it. I could not throw it away because you are not allowed to dump toxic waste into landfills. I couldn’t give it away because I just didn’t hate anyone that much. I am ashamed to admit I did try paying the neighborhood bully $10 to take it but he ran away screaming for his mommy. Smart little snot. On the positive side this piece of crap taught me two valuable lessons. 1) Never buy into the pre game hype. Always wait for the reviews before buying a title. 2) The words real-time and strategy should never, ever be used to describe the same game. If you need specifics: This is not a strategy game. You don’t control the tech tree and you don’t control the build queues either. If you set the build queue the planetary governor overrides you and puts some useless local defense fighter in front of the capital ship you desperately need. Sure it has lot of screens giving you lots of stats and information about the empire but you don’t really control the empire so none of it matters. The way this thing plays you might as well rest something heavy on the return key and go watch TV. Come back in 2 hours and see if you won.
