Master of Orion

"Conquest has never been more fun."

With games like this, who would want to conquer the real world?

Master of Orion is the primary progenitor of the space conquest game. The only notable game that was out before MOO (as I'll call Master of Orion from here on) was Reach for the Stars. Since MOO, there have been a large number of other games in the same genre but few compare to the venerable Master of Orion.

The game's concept is quite simple, take your race and conquer the galaxy. The means of doing this and the two different paths you can take provide the challenge and immense diversity. You can either win diplomatically through the Galactic Council voting you in as the #1 ruler, or you can conquer everyone. Along the way, you'll face thousands of decisions ranging from choosing which ship to build at Planet X to which planet your spies should sabotage.

The layout of the main screen is very intuitive, with a bar keeping track of your Race's vital statistics (as well as being the place where you interact with your planets) and another with buttons to take you to the other screens. In the remainder of the screen is the zoomable and recenterable galactic map, where you move fleets around and keep a proverbial eye on your neighbors. Personally I prefer the system based fleet movement that MOO has rather than the ''sectors'' that Star Trek: Birth of the Federation saddles the player with. To me it makes more sense to send fleets to System Y than it does to send them off to some random set of coordinates.

Planetary management is extremely simple, consisting of a set of sliders that control where the system's production resources go. These choices including obvious ones like Shipbuilding and Defenses, to the important Ecology.

Technology is another area governed by sliders. You can change the sliders and allocate research funds to one of six different areas. Each of those areas of technology contain a large number of advances, and when the time comes you get to choose which of those advances you want to research.

Diplomacy is one area in which MOO has a definite advantage over the vast majority of its competition. For the most part the other Races don't go psychotic on you for no reason, unlike in Birth of the Federation where peaceful coexistence with anyone for more than a few turns was impossible. In fact the AI is good at what it does, even to the point of noticing that you tend to backstab people is you do so more than a couple times. The only downside to the Diplomatic Model (and a flaw that virtually every other game has) is the lack of a ''broker a peace'' option to keep you from having to intervene militarily if a war isn't going the way you want it to. There are a few other flaws in the diplomatic AI, but for the most part MOO's diplomacy is the best around (an exception being other Simtex games, Master of Orion and Master of Magic).

Now, before you start thinking, ''Jeez, this sounds like a bunch of fairies playing in a field of flowers,'' you've got to remember that with diplomacy goes spying. Espionage is a very important part of the game, as it allows you to get technologies that don't lie in your tech tree; it helps you catch up to the other big boys in the galaxy if you've fallen behind. And then there's also sabotage, to help slow down your opponents by either wrecking their industry and defenses, or by creating instability and then rebellions on their worlds.

Get a little spy happy and you can forget about all of those nice treaties you've signed, someone is coming to lay the smack down on your nosy little candy ass. Once a war starts, the real fun of the game begins. A quick look around on the Internet should turn up accounts of some people's war stories in this game. You've never had fun until the other races have joined together in the galactic republic and you're taking everyone on at the same time. (This is when you start breaking out those fun little biological weapons...)

Unlike most other games, the AI in MOO doesn't cheat and get to see what you have, it was programmed to be good and nasty and despite some interesting glitches it can have you'll notice that it can beat you into the ground if you're not careful. So once the wars start, you've got to keep the AI off its guard and off-balance and hope it doesn't decide to just start wasting your planets one-by-one.

When two opposing fleets meet, the game shifts into tactical combat mode, which can be a lotta fun depending on the composition of the two fleets. I can remember many a close battle where my ultimate victory or defeat was due solely to my own genius or stupidity. The AI here is a little weaker than that in the rest of the game, and you'll notice it doing odd things like chasing down one lone ship while missile bases pound the fleet into scrap. But it's still pretty solid and can give you a run for your money.

In the end, I'd still be playing Master of Orion in all night marathons if Simtex hadn't created Master of Magic and later Master of Orion 2 to keep me occupied.

Now for a quick scoring summary for those of you keeping track of the numbers:

Gameplay: 9

Extremely solid AI and intuitive interface make this a pleasant and challenging experience no matter which millennium you are playing it in. The only thing that hurts this is some of the wonky behavior the AI exhibits during combat.

Graphics: 6

Pretty good graphics for the genre and the time, but nothing compared to modern games. (What do you expect from the early 90's, aside from terrible FMV?)

Sound: 5

You play strategy games for the sound? Honestly, it's alright. Some of the weapons effects in combat sound pretty good. Except for a couple of the tunes the races have during diplomacy, I don't remember any of the music.

Replay: 10

This is so replayable it isn't funny. 99% of the starting situation is determined randomly from parameters you set, so you never, ever, play the same game twice. With all the different strategies to try out with the variety of races, there's no end to the number of galaxies to conquer.

Other: N/A

Did I mention that MOO is addictive? You'll go into over-night planning sessions to get the perfect war strategy worked out, and then executed. You will ponder whether or not taking Orion from the Guardian is worthwhile. Hours will be spent tricking out the latest warship design you've come up with (I did mention the completely customizable warship designs didn't I?). And you'll be wondering if conquest or diplomacy, war or peace is the better choice.

Overall: 9

If you haven't played Master of Orion, go do it, now. You won't regret it unless you just plain old don't like space conquest or 4X (eXploration, eXtermination, eXploitation, and eXpansion) games. I'm not sure where you'd find a copy of Master of Orion these days, but MOO is good enough that the trouble of finding a copy would definitely be worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/01, Updated 12/18/01