Master of Orion is a 4x turn-based space strategy game set in the same universe as the 1993 classic of the same name. Tested on an i7 gaming rig with 32GB RAM + 8GB VRAM. The good: -Graphics are supurb for the genre, with attention paid to small details. -Ship design is far less of a chore than in previous titles. -Modding community is vibrant and supported. -Smooth loading and short transitional times. -Nice animation & sound details for diplomatic interaction. -Tongue-in-cheek humour during "news snippets". The bad: -Game is pretty much a remake of Master of Orion 2, adding no new story to the mix. -Oversimplified AI reduces the challenge of both strategy & tactical combat. -"Star lanes" limit options for stellar travel, though alleviated by later tech. -Game has infrequent CTD bugs. The ugly: -Fleet balance for story-based invading forces can be overwhelming by force of numbers. -"Suprise" DRM and EULA for multiplayer connectivity limits online player base. -Oh hey, DLC. The summary: A major improvement over MoO 3, placing slightly lower than MoO 2 for development, though the addition of full animation and sound will definitely appeal to a wide player base. The score: 8/10 for single player 6/10 for multiplayer (DLC, EULA surprises)
Foundation review. "Tens of thousands of worlds" is a huge achievement, by any standard. Procedurally-generated planets, just as much of one. The issue seems to be that Hello Games took a factory approach to the production: Make it all the same. This is Ireverend Opinions in No Man's Sky: Foundation - TL;DR - 2.5/5 stars. Amazing technology, poor game. - The Short - No Man's Sky is a space adventure/exploration survival game that starts you stranded, crashed on a hostile world and needing to not only battle the elements but the local inhabitants to survive and repair your ship. Boasting more planets and planetary systems than can be explored in a human lifetime, and methods of generating alien species and entirely destructible terrain, even the ability to establish your own base for personal building. - The Good - There literally are thousands of stars and even more planets. All manner of exploratory goodness* at your fingertips, with seamless* transition and the ability to make a living by trade* or piracy*. Base building is as described*, with hundreds of building options* to choose from. - The Bad - * Technically. The exploration is present, but with low scripting options and few planetary design choices, the procedural generation is almost identical per world, with the only differences being a different coat of paint, and a different coloured "environmental bar"; red for hot planets, blue/white for cold, green for toxic, etc. The design team could have spent time increasing the range of worlds, to include gas giants, barren rocky craters, barren ice balls, you name it, and increased the variability of planet generation. Transitional elements are blended in to make it seem 'seamless', but phasing in graphics tends to stand out. Trade and piracy lacking. Base building is pretty much one type of building with decorations unlockable. - The Ugly - The plot is either slow as hell or doesn't exist. Once you leave a star, you can't go back.
Terribly implemented- right from the mixup with the media release ("KangaMOO"), the game was a fiasco, and not even completed on release, with a plethora of bugs and horrible game design. It's a micromanagement hell, with fewer features than would make it worthwhile. Great if sorting through 200+ accounting sheets a turn to make sure that your tax settings were actually being listened to per world. And the story wasn't even original. AI was terrible, prone to making predictable decisions based on faulty logic process and pre-determined alliance factors (Cynoids always attack humans, for example). And the fleet/planet invasion screens were so bad that the planet invasion screen is (if you need to) a zerg-rush-and-hope-it-works, or (at best) a bomb-the-planet-from-space-for-twenty-turns-so-the-last-200-inhabitants-finally-die. The ONLY saving grace was that the game designers made it modable. If you can have patience, and have a knowledge of various code types, you can actually (with time) salvage a half-decent game out of this. For people who want to play a game, instead of a design project, or people who have no idea about programming, steer clear.
