“Human Republic cruiser flagship Endeavour, fleet number 211. Captain’s log, Stardate -306724. Our conquests in the Andromeda system have been met with great success. Attack ship losses are within acceptable parameters, as the Klackons are exterminated in their pitiful colonies. They can skitter and skutter all they like, humanity’s reach is never-ending. As a result of this purge, the warp corridor to the Fieras system is open and we intend to take it. The Mrrshan believe that they have a “holy right” to the single habitable planet in that star system, but not even their alliance with the Terran traitors will save their feline hides from the burn of our lasers. Reports of their already colonising the planet and that its defenses are impenetrable are laughable, a tactic of mere propaganda. They know they cannot fight us on equal terms, so they try to turn the balance. Human expansion is glorious, and inevitable. These aliens, no matter their number, shall never hold any planet against the might of our millenia-long mastery of warfare. Humanity’s time is now.”
Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars is the upcoming reboot of the classic DOS 4X game of the same name, which is currently in early access under the reigns of developer NGD Studios and published by Wargaming (of World of Tanks fame). This is the first game from said publisher’s new initiative Wargaming Labs, which is dead-set on providing games that fill the more niche markets and provide original ideas. It should be noted, as a bit of “oh that’s pretty cool I guess” trivia, that the term 4X (which stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) was first used in a review for the original Master of Orion in 1993. This should give you a good clue as to just how beloved this name is, and how important it is that NGD don’t bugger it up like the spectacular cock-up that was Master of Orion III. Indeed, early access may just be the best way to reliably bring back a series left on such rocky ground. But does this reboot bring back the glory days of Master of Orion II? Or is it true that in space, no one can hear you suck?
The first thing you’ll notice, at the time of writing, is how much of the game is incomplete. It gets a pass due to being early access, but it may be a bit overpriced because of it. Spies and espionage still haven’t been implemented, a couple of races are still missing, there was only one difficulty setting until recently, and the AI still isn’t entirely up to snuff (especially when it comes to the game’s version of Civilization‘s barbarians, space pirates). But this, amazingly, doesn’t stop the game from sucking your time into a wormhole like every game in the 4X genre that’s worth its salt. The basic mechanics are certainly very solid, and very easy to pick up. You start with one planet and build colony ships to establish more colonies in order to gain more resources or simply as a giant middle finger to those insectoid dicklickers who insisted on destroying your scouting ship. You’ll also establish contact with hopefully less insectoid aliens, trade with them or beat their brains out, fulfill winning conditions, beat the game and moon some insectoid scum. It’s about as deceptively simple as 4X games can get, and that’s not a bad thing in the slightest. It reminded me of the leap between Civilization IV and Civilization V, from a more “hardcore” micromanaging experience that definitely suffered from stagnation to a streamlined game that even your pet rabbit can play. Except nothing’s been lost in this transition; despite its new simplistic presentation, Master of Orion is every bit as complex as its predecessor, and that’s just what the genre needs.
At this point in time, there are nine distinct races to choose from: the Meklar (unfortunately not spelled ‘Marklar‘), a race of machines that exist solely to optimise the galaxy. The Sakkra, a reptilian race that are built like a brick dunny and aren’t afraid to flaunt it. The Mrrshan, a matriarchal cat-girl society with some seriously Blade Runner-looking pyramids, and play the role of token furry bait. The Bulrathi, a race of space bears with a bad case of “What-accent-is-that?-itis”. The Human Republic, a collective of nations on Earth that have banded together to reach for the sky. The Terrans, a faction of humans that reject the rule of the Human Republic and are completely new to the series but are only available in the collector’s edition. The Klackon, damn dirty insectoids. The Alkari, a race of bird people that somehow don’t have wings. And finally, the Psilons. These guys have big heads and even bigger research counts. Seriously, don’t try to beat them at mind games. They can talk you into suicide within 14 seconds. Another two races, the Darlok and the Silicoids, are on the way as well. Each race has its own starting bonuses, but no unique units or improvements. This is a shame, because there’s already such attention to detail in each races’ own ship designs. It also means that, apart from these smaller details, each race feels more or less the same. The leaders of this rogue’s gallery of ETs are voiced by some damn impressive sci-fi voice talent to. John De Lancie, Dwight Schultz and Michael Dorn of Star Trek fame, Mark Hamill from good lord do I really have to tell you, Alan Tudyk of Firefly, and many more awesome actors lend their pipes to the characters. The love for science fiction is strong here.
A quiet corner of space, ten minutes from the nearest wormhole, close to schooling planets, prime real estate.
On the topic of design, Master of Orion leaves very little to chance. Every game design decision feels like it has a purpose, and the gameplay benefits greatly from this. Diplomacy is the same kind of fare you’d expect from Civilization V: treaties can be signed for alliances, maps are exchanged for riches, backstabs are prepared, and there’s plenty of fist-shaking. Combat operates like it does in Total War: you may either auto-resolve battles or direct your fleets yourself. However, manual control often becomes too cluttered and too reliant on fervent micromanagement to be an option for some players. Ship weapons are pretty even in terms of damage, even when upgraded, which makes these sometimes costly improvements to your ships’ armament seem somewhat pointless. An easy fix for this would be simply making each ship upgrade feel more like an actual choice as opposed to if you want to mass-produce good ships or even more bad ones. Civilian ships are defenseless against military vessels in any case, but there’s (now) a retreat option in the manual battles if things don’t particularly go your way. Hopefully these parts of the game are improved upon before the final release. Speaking of choice, the variety of food, science, and production outputs for planets is mind-boggling and creates some genuinely difficult choices. Do you colonise the planet that has plenty of food, but little to no mineral deposits? Or do you set foot on the volcanic world completely devoid of arable land, but with shiploads of gold, and transport civilians from your homeworld? It also means that if those Meklar bastards steal your perfect planet that you’ve been preparing to colonise for eons, you’ll feel the anger. You feel the betrayal. You feel like you can’t trust a machine anymore. So you nuke their colony and wage an interplanetary war that’ll make headlines, which the game shows you through its Galactic News Network segments that highlight important events like population booms or declarations of war. These tended to get fairly tedious but they can (now) thankfully be disabled without ignoring this info entirely.
If we add red paint, we can go FASTER than light!
So what’s the deal?
There are many other finer details that make the game what it is, but each of these details help put together what’s looking to be a very fine game indeed. Master of Orion ticks all the boxes when it comes to a good 4X game: Compelling settings, variety in gameplay, fluid presentation, good attention from the developer to game balance and stability, and the age-old gripe of “Just one more turn…” The lack of content may put many people off getting into early access, but a finished build of this game should be well worth your money.
PC exclusive. A free copy of the game’s early access build was provided by the developer. Early access is available through the Collector’s Edition ($49.99 USD).
