Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares

The Good
After the magnificent failure of Master of Orion III I re-installed this game to see was the Master of Orion franchise really all that I remembered it to be.

It's nearly a decade since this game was first released and after all that time I still can be out-witted, out-classed and out-played by Master of Orion II.

Every few games I find myself immersed in a galactic struggle as I rush ship production in order to get my fleet ready for the inevitable war, or I'm putting the squeeze on scientists to get that vital bit of research done so I can construct a ship capable of exploiting the enemy's weakness.

Master of Orion II is immense. Playing it you'll be dealing with everything from basic colonial management and supply, to research and development, ship design, fleet logistics, tactical combat, diplomacy, espionage and racial assimilation.

While this aspect of the game frightens many potential players, personally I think it's the games greatest strength. One can take up to ten minutes planning, massing resources and micro-managing everything before hitting that turn button. Fast paced this game is not.

Tense, deep and immersing Master of Orion is.

The Bad
While Master of Orion II, in my opinion, is still one of the greatest games ever made it is not without its flaws.

Let's face it; the music is far from inspired. The same tune looping endlessly? It's a petty criticism I'll admit but something that defiantly could have been improved upon.

Some of the alien races attributes are laughable in comparison to others. The advantages of an Gnolam compared to a Sakkara are an example of this. The weaker races rarely present any threat to the player when computer controlled however they pose an immense challenge for the player to use, especially on the higher difficulty levels.

Many feel that the games fails to sufficiently improve on Master of Orion and in the process of adding greater detail and depth to the game the developers made the game too complex for beginners to enjoy. It's a valid point, for anybody starting with this game it will take weeks just to understand what's going on and months for them to know what they should be doing!

The Bottom Line
Master of Orion II makes my list. Anyone who has ever played computer games has one. Ok so it might not be written down, but it's a list of the few computer games you have good memories playing.

For those who love detail and the joy out beating an opponent fifty times stronger than you by tactics, technology and a little bit of luck; play a bit of great gaming history.

The Good
Ship design, AI, heroes, races and music. The good sides of the game. I've been always fan of SimTex strategy, and I must say that no space strategy game has yet taken MOO II its domination of turn-based scifi-strategy games. And that's damn well, this game is four years old! Master of Orion III will possibly be the heir to throne, but that's not certain. I personally love this game. So much that I sold it, and bought a new one after six months. This has never happened to me before and won't happen again, this Orion I won't sell!

The Bad
Nothing is perfect. Not even Master of Orion II. Worst thing is that some races never prosper, and some prosper always. Like in the middle of a game, usually Humans, Alkari, Bulrathi etc. have been eliminated. Almost always. And Sakkra, Klackon, Silicoid and Psilon exist. Always. But that's about it. With a bit of balance between the races, this game would have been a lot better. But, as I said before, nothing is perfect.

The Bottom Line
Civilization style turn-based Sci-Fi strategy. With Master of Magic engine. SimTex has upgraded the original Master of Orion idea much. Though now there is more micromanagement, but I like it. You can design your own warships, colonize new worlds and deal with alien races. You choose between war and diplomacy. There are also some random events, like antaran attacks or space dragon plundering your colonies. Yeah, and then there's my favorite, when you complete the game, cool ending demo finishes with these words: Your fleets patrol the skies of every planet in galaxy. This galaxy. But other challenges await, Master of Orion!

The Good
This is probably one of my favorite games of all time, most enjoyable. It's nothing amazing to look at, the graphics are from way back when and the sound is almost 16 bit. But when I comes to retro PC oldies you can't beat Master of Orion 2.

For those of you who have never heard of MOO2, it is a game where you play the emperor of a space empire that starts small and you have to build it and defend your worlds, and become the greatest empire in the galaxy. However unlike some games, it's not needlessly complicated. It all starts with the race selection screen where you can choose to do what you like, pick a race based on your play style...or create your own race (a feature I much prefer).

Hidden under the visual facade of the 16 bit graphics is a really well built ecosystem/economic system. The AI battles with each other, sometimes your blamed for the actions of other races in a very under the table spies and cloak-and-dagger kind of way.

It's turn-based, each turn is about 10 years, allowing enough time for you to justify a planet being able to develop without it seeming a little daft.

The graphics are beautiful in their design, compared to today's standards they're rubbish, but really well drawn and your scientists move in a two frame animation, which I always find quite funny.

The thing that makes this game great is game play, for a space-strat-sim it's got something for everyone:

Science, a very deep research tree with benefits that actually have an impact when you get them. You can beat the game using science and your mind instead of brute force.

Terraforming, Genetic manipulation, Chemical weapons, Mass-destruction or BFGs that would make Doom pee itself.

The micromanaging of planets is fantastic, certain buildings will give you bonuses and certain races will have innate benefits you can take advantage of. You divvy out your possible working masses on each planet in to three piles:

1: Farmers
2: Workers
3 Scientists
A simple system that really makes it easy to get on with running the galaxy at large.

Building, buildings that benefit your people anything from theatres to hospitals can be built and most of them have upgrades; every little helps. You are able to customize ships, the way they look, what the fire power is even what kind of soldiers are onboard.

The ship builder is detailed, fun and easy to use, build the kind of ship you want, make 'Death Stars' that can destroy an entire planet, (but be warned destroying entire planets can really piss of those bug-eyed ETs) All ships have there place in the game, with the Deathstars (correctly equipped) being the be all and end all.

Fight, blow planets up (really cool animation for this), attack ships, take over planets and enslave the people, bombard planets and start afresh with your own people. Genocide is, at least in MOO2, kind of cool.

The fight system is based on a grid in a 2D plane, the space version is really fun to use, cool animations, little missile that takes a few turns to reach your target it's all about tactics and tactics are rewarded (which is always nice) . There is a 'calculate battle' button, which when your going through the universe taking over each system, ironically systematically, is really useful. The planetside version of this I will get to in a minute.

Peace is an option, you could always just make peace with everyone and become head of the council, thus winning. I really like that this was an option truly a open-minded game indeed. Really at odds with when it was made.

This game still has a great online community, even to this day. It's great fun if you have a home LAN network; even if you don't there is a hot seating mode. One computer can equal loads of fun.

The Bad
It is really hard to say what I DON'T like about MOO2 because I love it so much.

But, nothing is perfect (except maybe me). Most of the time your in for the long haul, and sometimes the AI creates a cascade of events which means that you are alone against an intergalactic superpower. Which as you can probably imagine is really annoying.

The planetside battles are really badly designed, it's nothing like the space combat and you have no control over the battles. It's all automated and often you watch your simple townsfolk in there own 16bit world, with there little poking sticks; getting beaten from afar by aliens in suits with big guns. This is really frustrating, especially when your spaceships are far out powering theirs. Who cares who can benchpress more, when you have a gun that can blow up a planet?

The diplomatic relations AI is a bit rubbish. And stupid. Ask it something enough and you'll find it'll do one of two things:

1. Do what you ask.
   
2. Declare War.

Now when all you've been asking is for sub-terrainian farm technology you start to ask yourself 'why?'. Which is almost unforgivable until your beating them to death with there own flux-capacitor and they are begging for peace and offering up there own mother to placate you.

This is however a really nice moment.

One thing that really really got on my nerves was the Antares, aliens from another dimension that would randomly attack random systems and decimate the planet and then fly back to their own home world (going to there dimension and killing them is a way of beating the game -not an easy feat I can tell you), if they happen to be attacking a system your just developing and it's not protected by your entire fleet you might as well give that planet up because it's back to the drawing board. This is a really annoying game mechanic that punishes those you don't get the fast engine tech early. Which is mean because I think that food is more important on developing worlds because rocket fuel doesn't feed babies. At least not yet.

The Bottom Line
Master of Orion 2 is at the end of it a game that has never left my hard drive, something which I've always thought as an achievement for a good game. MOO2 is a game I still play, I still enjoy and occasionally brings me something new that I never expected, something that is missing from the games of today.

This is a game for the ages, if you don't own it already; you're mad.

The Good
Almost anything. The game has good graphics, a powerful yet simple and direct interface, a fun AI ranging in several levels and a lot of customization options. I espacially like the techology system, which allows you to research about a third of all of the techologies in the game, making each decision cruical to your strategy and enhancing the inter-player interaction (trading, spying or conquering new technologies is a must).

The Bad
The multiplayer options. Although there are many possible options for playing with other players, the game constantly crashes while playing Hotseat or Modem. The latest patch helps, but not enough, and the game is not stable. Another problem is the race customization; it's too easy to make a "broken" race, which will have amazing specialty in one field (a lot of money, a lot of science, etc. etc.) and will ruin the game, but this can be easily solved by playing one of the pregenerated races.

The Bottom Line
MicroProse is selling this game, along the original classic, for an amazingly low price. Worth buying, espacially now.

The Good
The ability to create custom races and ships definitely added to the replayabilty of this game. An improvement on the original.

The Bad
The space combat engine could have been improved. There was no terrain to mention.

The Bottom Line
An incredible game for 1996! If your a turn-based strategy buff this is a must play.

The Good
1) The game was released in the Fall of 1996 and no other game of that 4X genre has succeeded since then to take away its crown. But it can be argued that "Imperium Galactica II" (released in April 2000) can share the throne, "MOO 2" being the turn-based ruler in this diarchy, and "IG 2" being the real-time co-ruler. Four games will come out, in the next five months of 2000, to attempt to take away the 4X/turn-based crown: "Reach for the stars" (mid-August), "Space Empires IV" (Oct. 1st), "Stars! Supernova Genesis" (?), "Galactic Civilizations" (?). "MOO 3" is seriously under development for a Fall 2001 release.

2) 13 races to choose from, and a very detailed menu to custom-design your own race, playing with a lot of options and variables. This consequently confers to this game a lot of replay value. Three and a half years after its release, I still play that game on a regular basis.

3) Stellar systems most often contain more than one planet to colonize.

4) Even though they are 2D, graphics still look great, except the pictures of some of the races.

5) The command-points system limits the number of warships one can effectively control, preventing a race to produce massive fleets which can overwhelm the game early one.

6) A very extensive technological tree, where the player cannot select every available option, forcing him to make important choices. This also confers to the game a lot of replay value. For example, in one game, you might choose to accelerate production by selecting "automated factories", while in another game, you might rather opt to bolster your defenses with "planetary missile base", or strengthen your warships by selecting "heavy armor". That trio represents one of the tough crossroads of the research-tree.

7) You can hire amusing heroes and mercenaries: up to 3 to become efficient star-system governors, up to 3 to be assigned as warship captains.

8) You can design your own starships.

9) There are a lots of diversified buildings you can put down on the surfaces of your planets.

10) The pictorial representations of the various planetary landscapes are superb.

11) Turn-based tactical combat between warships looks great, is easy to learn, but complex to really master.

12) A 14th race, the Antareans, can be introduced later on in the game to harass the most powerful races.

13) There are 3 different ways to win the game: military extermination of the other races, diplomatic victory by obtaining 2/3rds of the votes needed to be elected Galactic Emperor, destroying the Antarean homeworld.

14) A sufficiently extensive diplomatic menu, with an exquisite "holographic" representation of alien embassadors when you communicate with them.

15) You can spy and sabotage.

16) Lots of cool weapons and weapons-effects.

17) A whole lot of stuff to play with, making it a prodigious game with lots of replay value. I'm sure I forgot something good to mention.

The Bad
1) The galactic map generator is mediocre to bad, in the sense that it can initially create a universe which puts some races in tight spots, surrounded by cheap planets to colonize. You can thus invest hours of gameplay to then realize that you are doomed because of an extremely disadvantagous starting-position.

2) Even though many star-systems offer more than one planet to colonize, there's a maximum of about only 70 systems in the game, with a few systems closed to colonization (because they contain a black hole, or no planets, or only gas giants and asteriod fields). That's frustrating, especially if you combine this limitation with what was mentioned in the previous paragraph.

3) The game, as initially released, was full of bugs. Get the final 1.31 patch: on my computer, it is very stable, bug-free, and it only crashes once and awhile when the late game has too much stuff to process ("stack overflow"). Save often on a few slots representing different times. Don't click too much for nothing when the game enters its late stages.

4) The enemy AI is of unequal value. Except in the initial learning process, don't play below the "average" difficulty setting. What often happens is that one or two races will rapidly become very strong (usually: the Sakkras, Klackons, and Silicoids), while the rest of them will stagnate on few star-systems. I think that the cause of that is a defensive programming which forces them to build early on too powerful fleets for their means, neglecting planetary building, research, and colonization.

5) There are no social and political events on your planets. You can mismanage your empire and overtax without fear of being challenged by riots and revolutions. "MOO 3" is supposed to introduce internal consequences for your decisions.

6) Consequently, it is easy to manipulate the taxation system to unfair ends. When the game has proceeded beyond the early stages, you can overtax your population for a few turns to make a lot of cash and then accelerate production by purchasing items.

7) Spies often take too much time to train. It is unrealistic to see that a planet has to dedicate all of its productive efforts for half a dozen turns just to train one spy. Instead, like in some other games, the player should be able to build FBI/CIA-style buildings which would then generate spies or espionage points, while the planet's production queue would be engaged in building other stuff.

8) Planetary ground combat is extremely simplistic and dull.

9) Starship tactical combat being turn-based, the fanatics of real-time combat might eventually become bored.

10) There's a lot of micromanagement when the game gets into its later stages, with many planets to supervise. In a single-player game, it can still be fun, but in a multiplayer game, it will introduce boring delays.

The Bottom Line
I agree with Zzap's recent review: "MOO 2" remains the very best Space-empire building game, 3½ years after its release. It has a lot of replay value, with all of its options, but that becomes even better if you can get your hands on the third-party save-game editor ("Corion2" by Gonzalus, 1997). Unfortunately, that editor does not come with instructions, and your games will fatally crash or get weird if you mismanage the editing process. E-mail me ([email protected]) if you have questions concerning the game or the use of the editor.

The Good
Everything. good graphics, designing your own spacehips, fun battles, different alien races means different gameplay. Master of Magic colony management style. lots of random encounters (space flux which prevents ships from travelling in space for a random amount of time, stars going supernova needing reserch points to be saved, wealthy merchants donating you money etc...) fun fun fun!

The Bad
Stupid AI, the colony autobuild is so dumb it hurts. (sometimes it decides to build trade goods instead of important buildings even though i have 70k+ credits and earning a great amount of money each turn). the diplomacy is virtually non-existant. alien races will decline a trade pact but will accept it after you offer it again after offering a reserch pact in the same conversation!
The Antarens are too easy to beat at a late stage, so even if you are going to get crushed by your enemies you can always win by destroying the Antaren homeworld. If you have a large amount of ships that need to be refitted you still have to redesign each and every one (why not change the basic design and just press a "refit to design" button?) If you deselect Tactical Battles when starting a game by accident you'll never have a chance to change it. and you will want to change it! (as stated before, the game's AI is not exactly amazing)

The Bottom Line
Despite the evil things listed above the game is still superb and as addictive as Master of Magic and civilization (well... almost as addictive as civ ;-) ) fun. go and play it. Seriously.

The Good
In a word, the gameplay sets this game apart from any other turn-based strategy I've ever played. It is immensely addictive and draws a player in from the moment you begin. But I'd also like to highlight other aspects of the gameplay that make for a fantastic game even after the initial addiction fades.

Firstly, the game is so intuitive that a manual is unnecessary. If you've ever played a turn-based strategy such as civilization et al you will instantly pick up on what's going on in this game. You research, manage colonies, build fleets, and conquer, much as in any other game of this type. In a way it's quite similar to its predecessor, master of magic. What makes it so intuitive is the plethora of labels and in-game help. All you need to do for help is right click on something. Fantastic. Because of the clarity of the game's menus, options, etc, there is a very small learning curve at the beginning.

Graphically, the game is antiquated, but to be fair, it IS 8 years old. Still, it is immediately apparent that for the time, a great deal of attention and care went into the visuals for MOO2. Each race is distinct and has distinct figures for colonists, researchers, etc. The only weakness is in the ship icons on the main galaxy board. These are so uniform that they actually make it hard to tell which fleets are yours and which aren't. Still, the actual ships themselves vary quite widely.

The tactical combat is rewarding but can be de-selected. It merely gives you the option to try and push the statistics in your favor. The ships are well modeled and the various beams and missles all look distinct from one another. There is also a certain satisfaction in crushing one's enemies personally, but as I noted, this option be deselected if one desires.

The sound of the game is typical for the age. I feel that this is a weakness of the game as it is wholly midi-based and uninspired. This will be discussed further below.

There is no limit to the number of approaches one could take to beating this game. From my understanding, there is a 'technological' victory as well as a militar one, yet my actual experience with the game contradicted this. Regardless of the truth of it, there is nothing actually IN the game that indicates one can win non-violently, which is a bit of a drawback in an otherwise very straightforward and intuitive game. Still, this minor flaw does not detract from the overall positive effect of the open-ended nature of empire running in this game. It's entirely up to you and this can be very satisfying and rewards ingenuity.

The Bad
The sound is rubbish. The background music is uninspired midi bilk and the sound effects are terrible. Granted this was 8 years ago, but other games around this time (cf Grim Fandango, Sam and Max, etc) did a much more satisfying job musically and with effects.

Frankly, I thought it was really, really hard. The easy and 'tutor' difficulty levels were far too easy, but medium became extremely challenging. It could be a subjective for me, but I've played other turn-based strats such as civilization, civ 2, and alpha centauri, all of which are quite similar to this game, and found that I could beat them on medium if not higher levels. So beware, MOO2 can and will chew you a new orifice if you're not careful. What compounds the flaw of the intense difficulty is a total lack of clarity on how one SHOULD play the game. This is the drawback of the open-ended design which in other respects is so rewarding. There is no indicator of what one should research for a given play style, when one should expand, etc. There are in-game indicators of your status with respect to other races, but it was my experience that the computer pWneD itself and then turned its eyes to me. But perhaps others will find this more rewarding than I did.

The Bottom Line
An excellent game to play on the easy/tutor levels but frustrating at higher levels. It is full of depth and is almost instantly addictive, and no matter what is worth the price, especially nowadays when it's available for 5$. A continuing example of what a turn-based strategy game should be.

The Good
The music sometimes never leaves my head, its so catchy. The game play doesnt miss a beat. And the choices are many and diverse. This game has some of the hightest replayabilty that I have ever seen. Graphics are good and the game's progression of difficulity is terrific for new players. In the lowest level of difficulity the game is easy to learn and enjoy. It hooks the new players and dares them to try a real challenge. The game never really gets boring and it all comes together to form an excellent game worthy of the title Master of Orion. Truly one of the greatest games ever to come from Microprose.

The Bad
there are some small things that could have been done that would have made this game even better. (1) After you colonize or take over a colony you cant rename it. (note: I know that when you first land on a planet in a system you can name the system but after that you can change it.) (2) Although the music is catchy, there is a definate need for more music. Its catchy because there is only one song or theme playing through the whole game. (3) more options on diplomacy screen. ie.. using your spys to kill a leader or start a coup. Overall there really are no complaints with the game as far as I know.

The Bottom Line
Great game. If you like civ you will like this one.

Note: if you only play shooters and you are looking for a new game to try that isnt a cookie cutter shootem-up then try this one. Trust me Its worth it!

The Good
High praise? Well deserved I would say. Master of Orion II is still on the top spot of my (very short) list of games with any real(!!) replay value.
The user interface is comfortable, graphics and sound add nicely to the overall mood, but what it really sets in front is the gameplay and the nearly infinite amount of tactics you can (must) use to win a game.
Winning with the Psilons is a piece of cake? Switch to an uncreative race and get yourself slaugthered the next few times. Can you adopt? How can the computer (great AI) grow that fast with the same race?
You will always find settings where the game is a real challenge.

The Bad
Towards the end (espacially if you are playing for a good score), the micro-management gets a bit tedious and if you finished it in one session you might feel a bit drowsy.

The Bottom Line
Turn-based space-exploration and empire-building game (fortunately not) out there. You can get it on earth.

The Good
Everything, starting with the improved gameplay (even more addictive), improved graphics (even more elaborate and beautiful), improved battles (even more fun), improved aliens (the Antarans) and added music. :-)

The Bad
You do get sick of it after a while, but every two months or so you just have to go back and play it again.

The Bottom Line
A buy you won't regret.

The Good
M002 instantly appeals to those who've grown bored of Master of Orion's simplistic colony management. The elegant but bland production bars are tossed in favor of buildings and queues, a la CIV and Master of Magic. The Technology advances are FUN - for example, new forms of government, the capability to create new planets from asteroid fields, and a stellar converter that rips them in half.

Designing ships is implemented well - there are lots of options and opportunities to build ships for many different purposes. Ships are no longer "grouped" - they are formed into fleets but each one can be controlled separately in combat. Obsolete designs no longer must be scrapped - they can be refitted.

Diplomacy is top-notch, and espionage works well. And nothing seems wrong with the AI.

The Bad
Multiplayer is just awful. SimTex fans have been clamoring for it for so long - and it just stinks. The main culprit is the horrible multiplay code - it'll feel like play by email even on a lan. What aggravates this is that 10 turns may pass in MOO2 without much happening for a player. In singleplayer, autoskip can be used to skip turns until something happens, but waiting for other people to complete 5 turns when you have absolutely nothing to do is unbearable. And I was so looking forward to a Master of Something done with multiplayer. sigh If you really have your hopes up and must try - set up a one on one game.

The Heroes don't add much to the game - they just add bonuses to your ships and planets. In Master of Magic they may have been unbalancing, but here they're just boring.

Oh yes, and the creative skill. Don't get me started. One of the race attributes, creative, allows the race to discover every technology, where other races can only take home 1/3 to a half at their choosing. It's an expensive trait (requiring a lot of race picks when customizing a race) but it still unbalances the game so much it's difficult to play a non-creative race after playing a creative one. Creative should have made research move at a slower, but more thorough, pace.

The Bottom Line
Now I'm pissy and don't remember why I said this game was semi-successful.

But I shouldn't be so harsh - MOO2 is still fun to play dispite its flaws, and is only a letdown because of what I've come to expect from SimTex.

The Good
Everything. The diplomacy was awesome..the researching was incredible...the micromanagement was not too tedious, and the whole fact that this is a strategy game at it's greatest makes this a must buy for anyone.

The Bad
The fighting and upgrading ships could use some work.

The Bottom Line
I strongly recommend that any fan of strategy games buy this. Ever wanted to be a Napoleon of space? Here is your chance.

The Good
The second chapter in the classic MOO series, obviously, gives some audiovisual improvement: graphics and music are correct, and sound effects are specially remarkable. Now, instead of having to choose between pre-defined races, you can customize your own through a benefit / flaw system that costs or gives you picks; this is a good way to expand replayability and strategies to use, and is the best addition to Moo. Good (even necessary) fix were multiple planets in each system.

The Bad
The diplomatic model is rich in options, but making allies isn't worthy the effort, since little effect it has (improving the range of your ships, and nothing more: there is no cooperation between allies). Also, in very very few occasions you get fair tech exchanges: the AI always demands tech of superior (even much superior) value.

Tactical combat can be nice to see the first times, but it's poorly designed. Although range is taken in consideration and the Attack/Defense values isn't a bad system, current speed of the ship plays no role: if a 14-speed ship moves 7 squares a turn, in the next it shouldn't move at 0 or 14; it's unrealistic; a fast-moving ship shouldn't make a 180 degree turn at full speed, to put another example. The way combat is designed, all battles become soon a matter of close-and-shoot-until-one-of-us-explodes, so take the largest ship you can and don't bother anymore. There is no tactic. After some battles, you push the automatic (I remember a board game, Star Warriors, which combat system was the best I've seen… it would be a good system for tactical combat).

Colony management in Moo2 swifts to that of Civ-style, and that's a system I didn't like ever: a list of buildings and go on; in middle-later game, micromanagement is boring: build as many as you can, no more. How good could be the system in Moo improved. And the same can be told about tech and research: is somewhat stupid to make a choice between two or three applications in a field… and for some reason you can't research the rest! (the key to victory: Creative, and you needn't to exchange tech). The sliding bar system in Moo was better; why not simply improve it? If you're going to change anything, make something good! Changing for changing leads to the above: a silly system much worse than its predecessor.

The Bottom Line
Although improves features from Moo, replaces some good old ideas with bad ones. The sum is nothing worse, but nothing better.

The Good
The diplomacy was ok, if you didn't count in the fact that the AI didn't seem to mind forgetting about allies etc. Music was also good and compared with orginal the graphics were ok. Also ome parts of the game worked OK: The que system for example is good, maybe better than the one in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which is rather glumsy.

Customizing your own race was also a very good idea. The only bad part is that the races greated by customizing are totally out of balance.

The biggest plus about this game is definetly that it made me realise how the slider mechanics of Master of Orion are really the greatest thing after sliced bread.

The Bad
One word: Micromanagment. The game really destroys the elogance of Master of Orion 1. The thing that I loved about MOO1 was the simple yet still so good system which didn't include any unnecessary micromanagement.

I might have still liked the game if other things would have worked very well, but NOOoooo. The diplomacy looks great, but as soon as you realize that the AI doesen't defend allies you lose interest in talking with the AI. The races are totally out of balance and so the game is really annoying to play with human players.

Master of Orion 1 had a pretty good system for science, but the desingers probably felt a need to change everything and created a really stupid system which is just stupid and boring.

The Bottom Line
Boring micromanagent with stupid computer players. Try to find Master of Orion and try to run it on your system. If the game runs, you will be hooked and trust me, you really don't want to try this micromanagent hell.

I'm rather suprised by the high score on this game, but I still belive my points are quiet valid...