Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares

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
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
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.