ORB is a HW knock-off that did not do a great job if it. It had the idea of resources that orbited from your area into other areas that you then had to defend and protect. You have to search for resources and then build to harvest them. The ship designs are uninspired, dark, and boxy. I played through the entire single player campaign but it is even hard to remember it as it was more a push to simply "complete" the game. You will spend much time on the space map zoomed out and it ends up playing in this mode many times of Your ships represented by dots fighting the other dots on the map. It comes down to green dots fighting red dots...what fun! This game could have been so much more, but it never received the love or patches it really needed. If you love RTS games, and love space games then maybe you like me, will play through despite its flaws, but for the rest of players this a basic game that only warrants buying when it hits 50% or better 75% off.
I have waited for some time for this to arrive on gog. This is among the best turn-based games in the line of Civ games. In fact, to me it is better than early Civ games. It requires thoughtful choices, and you will spend hours exploring, gathering resources, building, and fighting. While the UI takes a bit of time to get use to, it works well, and fits the game. It is too bad I sold my strategy guide, and too bad gog does nto provide one. This is a fairly large game that will take time to learn, but in return you will have many hours of enjoyable game play. This is a game that is worth owning, and playing. Read the manual!! :o)
The Cultures series is a great addition to gog. I own all games in the series on disk. YOu have to really enjoy building games to keep at these titles. Cultures 1 is a very long (200+ hours of game play) but much of that will be babysitting your people making sure they have food (they do not fend for themselves). This is so much more needed for the Scout who will stand in place and starve to death if left alone. Building buildings, and creating an economy as well as "making" babies are all part of the day-to-day needs of the people. The interface is fair and does the job once you get use to it. Fighting in these games is clearly an after thought and is not very fun. You will need more then you think to battle to win. While the game can be a bit daunting at times, it is still one of my favorite games from the past. If you like to take your time, build, care for a tribes needs, then this is likely a great game for you. The other titles in this series are: Cultures, Cultures 2, Northland (they lost the Cultures names to second publisher), and 8th Wonder of the World. Enjoy!
Moonbase Commander is one of those games that when you play it you realize just how easy it is to play and then how difficult it is to win at the Gold level for each mission. It is a fun little game that you can invest short bursts of time in or sit for hours to gain the best score. The point of the game is to keep your base alive while seeking to destroy the other base. There are many different way to do this, but you will also realize that you have to create a pathway across the landscape in order to reach your goal. This is a simple little game that will keep you playing, time and time again. If you are not sure, add it to your Wishlist and wait for a sale; I do not think you will be disapointed.
