It's without a doubt the best game of it's kind. MOO 1 as unquestioned predecessor of whole kind and MOO 2 as crowned achievement are "must have" positions on gamers' hard drive.
If you like science fiction and aren't averse to turn-based strategy, you should be playing Master Of Orion 2 right now. I first got this game as an extra on a magazine's CD. I played it on Windows 95 for a long, long time.
At some point you get tired of every game, so at some point I uninstalled the game, just to reinstall it about a year later and every year since. At some point the CD got scratched, so I bought another version. With each new Windows, it became harder to get the game to work and I finally found it (to my delight) here on GOG.com.
I bought this game on a weekend sale because it seemed a really nice deal for a game I only heard praise about, but never really had the chance to try out. While I started my gaming career with with titles coming out in the 1994-1998, this was one that slipped,and you can imagine my curiosity. Now, typically, while I enjoy playing older titles A LOT, most of the there's always the "meh" factor coming from the fact that with age, and having been spoiled at times by newer games that bring improvements in their respective fields, I usually find some areas of the game lacking...something. I can safely say this was not the case with MOO. I did not feel like a single thing was lacking, and it took no more than two turns to hook me in for what seems like a really long time to come. The research, tactical, political and economic layers of the game blend perfectly, and the graphics, while old, are by no means dated, and serve the overall experience perfectly. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the games that is worth the standard price for any game that came out in the 2008-2011 time frame. And you can grab it for 5.99. You have no excuse to miss this fantastic strategy game.
MOO1 was the highlight of my trips to my grandparents home. Running on an old mac, it was the source of countless hours of wasted time. Though the dos version isn't as good as the mac one (I especially liked the ability to enlarge the freaking screen), it's still well worth playing.
MOO2 was the first video game I bought with my own money, it was the best 10 bucks I ever spent. It plays quite differently from MOO1, requiring more time spent each turn running your colonies, but has nearly infinite replay value thanks to its custom race and ship design options. I still play a game every few weeks.
If you're gonna buy any game here, this is it.
A classic ! The grandfather of all 4x games ! I played this game at 90´s and today I have a special space in my HD for him. Mus t have, must play and obrigatory for all old school gamers/designers.