These titles are classics that all game collectors and affectionates should have in their collection. Master of Orion was THE father of all 4x (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) games. It combined empire management with tactical combat and spruced it up with a comprehensive diplomacy and spying system. As all great games, it was easy to play, hard to master. For its time it had good (now laughable basic) graphics, but the design is still exemplary and something that many games designers can only dream of living up to. As one of the first games to support sound cards the music and sound effect are basic, but hold immense nostalgia value. Master of Orion 2 took a good game, and added a little twist - a bit more history, more races, more options, more involved combat. All in all a game just a tad more complex. It also has (a know also outdated) but excellent hand-drawn SVGA graphics with more detailed designs. Opinions differ as to which is the *purest* 4x game (both of them were so good), yet everyone agrees that these *ARE* the etalons to which each and every other game are measured. If you think an old, game with "basic" graphics can't hold your attention... ...well maybe not. It's not flashy, it takes time and effort to win a game and the game definitely *won't* hold your hand. On the other hand, so much effort has went to these games, there is so much detail and finicky tuning that you might miss on your first play through that once hooked you'll be a orion fanatic for life.
AquaNox is actually the second game in the Aqua series, another franchise that was ever "dumbed down" in each epoch to pander to mainstream sensibilities (...or more likely corporate mismanagement). The first and less known game of the franchise was Archimedean Dynasty in 1996. It was a complex TIE-fighter clone with small and fast submarines in the underwater dystopia of Aqua. (Earth after the surface has been nuked into a big pile of slag). Players assumed the role of Emerald "Deadeye" Flint, mercenary for hire and unrepentant womanizer. You could travel between various stations in each area and take side-missions beside plot-critical ones or just chat up another girl in town - which could lead to important info every once in a while. Fast forward a couple of years. 3D accelerator cards have overtaken graphics and GPUs became the standard. Riding on this new wave of graphical perfomance was the second installment of the Aqua series. In the name of accessibility several things changed: The complex in combat sub management of the 1st game abolished in favor of FPS controls. The graphics were gorgeous (the game was NVidia's showman piece). The plot was strictly linear, you could no longer take side-missions. Is the game good? I think good enough is an understatement, but the best I could come up with. Thankfully the game's also somewhat hard, so action fans will be delighted to cut their teeth on it. Though a strict by the book point-and-shoot game (without the varied environment, events or physics gimmicks that has become the staple of FPS-es) it can hold its own, by giving varied objectives or just plain 'ol keeping you on the edge of your seat with fast and furious action. However fans of the earlier game are disappointed and new "fans" might also be put off by the mishmash of how the game tries to build ambiance and story between action. In the old game - strictly in text, as a CD could hold only so much - you read evocative prose both mundane and heroic on how people perceived the world around them. This hard-boiled, over the top writing is also present in Aquanox. Some of the time it hits the mark. The people of Aqua are just a bit insane, maniacal lot and the style lends itself well to convey this. However without the context of less over the top conversations - like how Flint took some mundane missions or a situation based on good old extortion - the acting can be tacky and will leave new fans exasperated while old fans would just shrug in embarrassment. All in all, Aquanox is a good action game with some good story elements to go with it, even if the execution is hampered by the linear and dumbed down delivery. Recommended for Aqua fans and check out Archimedean Dynasty to get the whole picture.
