6 people found this review helpful
Recommended
28.7 hrs last two weeks / 347.6 hrs on record (284.4 hrs at review time)
Posted: 26 Jul @ 3:46pm

This is basically a graphically enhanced reboot of the classic MOO 1 and 2 games of the 1990s. The current version of the game has proven stable with no crashes in nearly 300 hours of gameplay. You have a choice of ten races to play in the base game, each with their own traits, strengths and weaknesses. I have discovered through play that the races are not too well balanced - Meklar and Klackon are probably the strongest, with Mrsshan being the weakest - although knowing this can help to make games more interesting by using it as a handicapping system...
Multiplayer also works fairly well, and was stable for the two games I played. Space battles always use the auto-resolve option in multiplayer, presumably to save time since they can be lengthy endeavours. I found myself using auto-resolve in single player games for the battles most of the time anyway, so this wasn't an issue for me.
Ship designs can be modified using the blueprint editor, or even scrapped entirely. Colony management is very similar to the 90s games, with colonists being assigned to either research, farming food or production projects. You can set a per colonist tax rate for your empire, and use the game currency to rush builds in order to complete them in 1 turn. Terraforming projects are the exception, as these cannot be purchased in order to rush complete them.
There are 5 possible paths to victory in each game. The first 4 are Conquest, Technological, Economic, and Diplomatic. The fifth is simply to have the highest score after a set number of turns (default is 500).
Diplomacy with other races is fairly basic but serves it's purpose. You can set up embassies, trade treaties, research treaties, non aggression pacts, alliances and so forth. You can also build a spy centre and then train spies either to sabotage or steal from other players, or for use in counter-espionage to protect yourself from enemy spy activity.
The game also has workshop support. I haven't tried any of the mods yet, but some of them do come highly recommended.
Overall this is definitely a worthwhile purchase for anyone who enjoys 4x space strategy games. 9/10
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