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Ever since then, we as gamers have been blessed with all sorts of renditions of the classic 4X formula, in which you would first eXplore the regions surrounding your fledgling empire, eXpand out from there (usually with new colonies), eXploit any resources close at hand in order to build up a military, and then attempt to eXterminate your rivals. We\u2019ve seen retro offerings, such as Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander<\/em>, complete with kitschy pixilated graphics, on up to Stellaris<\/em>, which fused an overlay of Paradox Development Studio\u2019s grand strategic formula upon an impressive 4X package.<\/p>\n I must say outright that however much more technologically advanced these new challengers to the 4X throne are, there just isn\u2019t anything that wowed me as much as the original Master of Orion.<\/em> A few years later, in 1996, Simtex again teamed up with iconic 90s gaming publisher MicroProse, and they released arguably the greatest 4X game ever created, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares<\/em>. I personally lost many an hour to that game, and besides Civilization,<\/em> I can\u2019t remember a game that engendered that addictive \u201cone more turn\u201d feeling. We\u2019re talking looking out of the window and seeing the sun coming up<\/em> levels here.<\/p>\n So imagine the sense of anticipation I felt when I\u2019d first learned that another game developer called \u00a0\u00a0Wargaming.net, procured the rights to the Master of Orion IP a few years back in 2013. I couldn\u2019t wait to see what the makers of the \u201cWorld of\u201d series of games would come up with in regards to offering their spin on a gaming classic. Have they succeeded in resurrecting the same sense of grandeur and magic that Simtex had? Well, yes, and no\u2026<\/p>\n WG Labs AKA Wargaming.net may have been a little too faithful to the original Master of Orion<\/em> formula, in my opinion. Yes, the graphics are updated. Yes, there are shiny menus that you navigate through (don\u2019t worry, they\u2019re nothing like the abysmal Master of Orion III<\/em>). And yes, it has some outstanding voice over talent in Mark Hamill, Robert Englund, and John de Lancie\u2014Luke Skywalker, Freddy Krueger, and Q from Star Trek, respectively. But, there really isn\u2019t much going on that\u2019s new.<\/p>\n You still send out scout ships in order to discover habitable planets (or hostile aliens), but it\u2019s not nearly as well-done and fun as in Stellaris. After establishing new colonies, you still manage their tax rate and production focus, as well as research new technologies. Want to build new types of ships? Go for it. How about negotiating with fellow empires on a sparkly and clean diplomacy panel? Yep\u2014got you covered. In fact, if you\u2019ve played the original Master of Orion<\/em>, besides a new paint job, you\u2019ve probably seen it all before.<\/p>\n That isn\u2019t to say that the new Master of Orion<\/em> doesn\u2019t acquit itself well. It does have a feature which allows you to clean up some of your more polluted worlds, should they eventually get too filthy\u2014which is something that is in-step with our eco-friendly times. Although it was great to see that the developers considered this eco-conscious element, managing your clean-up duties can tend to grow into a distraction later on in the game, once you accumulated numerous planets to oversee.<\/p>\n Unlike Stellaris\u2019<\/em> masterfully complex yet accessible empire creation system, Master of Orion\u2019s<\/em> feels rather lackluster by way of comparison. For example, although all of Master of Orion\u2019s <\/em>main six races certainly look very different, they all feel sort of same-y in practice. There is very little in the way of race-specific specializations and each race can also research ever single technology in the game. In other words, some of the lesser advanced races can learn everything that the most tech-savvy ones are able to. I\u2019m sorry, but if I\u2019m playing a modern version of a game created twenty-three years ago, I expect a little more in the way of innovation. Pretty visuals can only take you so far.<\/p>\n Speaking of visuals, WG Labs handled that aspect of the new Master of Orion<\/em> quite well. Stars twinkle and wink across the expansive galactic screen. Planets look glorious and their atmospheres (if they have one) glow and convey as sense of grandeur and massiveness. However gorgeous and updated Master of Orion\u2019s <\/em>graphics look, there is still just something missing. Everything seemed so sterile and overly sanitized. It doesn\u2019t feel like an actual lived-in universe, but rather a holographic one.<\/p>\n It sort of reminded me of when I first saw Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>. Yeah, it had fancier visuals, but compared to The Original Series back in the 60s, the ships looked too computer generated and flawless. Like the original Master of Orion,<\/em> the old Star Trek series had grit as well as a sense of authenticity about it. The sound department is likewise well done, with capable laser blasts, explosions, and so forth being well rendered, aurally.<\/p>\n To be fair to WG Lab\u2019s latest Master of Orion<\/em> endeavor, however, I think that part of the issue is that Simtex\u2019s original version was revolutionary when it first came out. Quite simply, there just wasn\u2019t anything like it that had come out up to that point, so it sort of took the gaming world by storm. This more modern game is not bad by any means, it\u2019s just not as seminal or as important as a contribution to the gaming world, in any way, shape, or form. The remake will allow you to revel in a sense of nostalgia for old time\u2019s sakes, but it doesn\u2019t offer much in the way of innovation or its own identity. WG Labs didn\u2019t really infuse the new Master of Orion with a distinctive personality of its own, and that may make it little more than a temporary curiosity to many gamers out there.<\/p>\n SCORE: 72%<\/p>\n One thing that Master of Orion <\/em>does have going for it are some very detailed graphics, and they\u2019re more than capable enough to impress you and your friends. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC in order to play it at a decent frame rate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:<\/p>\n Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Master of Orion NGD Studios\/WG Labs Way back in 1988, a gentleman by the name of Steve Barcia created a little video game development studio called Simtex. Contrary to popular belief, Master of Orion wasn\u2019t the first game that Simtex created\u2014that distinction went to a lesser known title called Star Lords. Star Lords not only… Read More »Master of Orion \u2013\u00a0Pretty, Yet Sterile<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":5758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2732],"tags":[2520,2592,741,2488,2527,67,2486,2593,2594,2556,2586],"class_list":["post-5757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","tag-4k-gaming","tag-4x-games","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-game-review","tag-game-reviews-2","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane","tag-master-of-orion","tag-ngd-studioswg-labs","tag-science-fiction-games","tag-strategy-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5765,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5757\/revisions\/5765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2\"](\"http:\/\/www.cpgaming.gg\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2-915x503.jpg\")
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