This has always been such a great balance of long-term planning (bases, research, funding) and dramatic tactics (missions), highly playable, great graphics, music that still holds up, a slowly unravelling mystery with a solid conclusion. One of the best games I've played over many years.
A great space 4X game, still highly playable. Although MMO2 improved on planets, races, and customisation, I actually prefer MOO1 because of the simplicity of planet management (no tedious list of buildings to complete) and ship battles (limited to 6 types, which you can continually redesign, each type is controlled as a single mass of spaceships - awesome to see 800 medium ships fire a blast of plasma torpedoes...). These 2 features are something that almost all later strategies of this type got wrong. In short, more isn't always better!
I'm sure a lot of reviews can explain why this is a very well made and enjoyable game - also a difficult one to complete and with plenty of achievements to try to go for in subsequent runs.
I've played Tyrian as a boy and as an adult and enjoyed it a lot. It's also great that it includes a 2-player option on one computer (though only in "arcade" mode without the out-of-mission upgrades of the standard game).
I was drawn in by the amazing ink art, and I really love the style. The simple yet clever game mechanics are also superb (the various skills and their limitations), and this is a great game to play for a short break - complete 2 or 3 missions to refresh your mind, pause anytime, and then get back to work. The art and mechanics give this a strong 5/5 potential - this could have been one of those unforgettable gems. Unfortunately, it is let down by an uninventive story with almost zero plot, zero dynamic, zero interesting characters to meet. It's such a pity because it would not have been hard to create a more dramatic storyline, with information revealed by characters on the way, hunting down and saving specific people etc., thus giving the main character more distinctiveness and human relatability. The second problem is related to the first - the level design is repetitive. The mechanics make every mission fun even so, but it would not have been that hard to design more varied missions, with different challenges based on the space, the position of monsters and of people to be saved - and with just a few more art assets, to give them a more different look as well. The difficulty is relaxed, which is mostly a good thing (there are many ways to solve most levels), but I would have wanted more exacting optional challenges. As it is, only a few levels required multiple attempts and inspired solutions to get the full number of stars and skulls. So also a pity. If an editor was added to allow the community to create and share their own levels/chapters, that could remedy these problems a lot and could be very cool, as the mechanics really have the potential of a sudoku-like puzzle for endless enjoyment. With the right community, this could catapult the game into legendary status.
