263: How I Gained and Lost an Empire

[Alex Donks]

How I Gained and Lost an Empire

Strategy games don't always lend themselves to playing a specific role, yet Alex Donks tells the story of his tyrannical empire's rise and fall in Master of Orion II, all due to the hubris of its leader.

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[Woodsey]

"Master of Orion II, even more than most 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate)"

I take it people were too embarrassed to tell the guy that came up with that that each word begins with an 'E'.

Great article by the way.

 

[carpathic]

An excellent article, and certainly one that I can commiserate with - though I simply haven't lost those sort of games. I have wasted many an hour on Emperor of the Fading Suns - a similar game.

though, the AI has always been AWFUL in EFS, the game is still fun.

 

[morkalavin]

I love MoO II and enjoy playing it every now and then .. but I actually never thought about building a race that is Creative AND Telepathic .. must have slipped my mind ^^

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Wow that sounds awesome... I want to play it now!

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Damn you! I must re-install this now! Well, that's my afternoon gone....

EDIT - Success! And as for Creative being broken? Try Creative, Unification, and Telepathic - it's almost too easy...

 

[dannymc18]

Extremely well-written article, and it makes that game sound stupendously awesome. How well has it aged? Are there any sequels or whatnot?

 

[Yamikotai]

Ah, Moo2! Brings me back. I must see if I can get it to work on my netbook.

 

[Rasputin1]

Nice article, it was a great read. I need to look out for this game.

 

[Albino Boo]

Extremely well-written article, and it makes that game sound stupendously awesome. How well has it aged? Are there any sequels or whatnot?

The game is still playable if you can live with 640 x 480 resolution but getting hold of a legal copy is next to impossible. There was a squeal MoO3 but is was just plain bad. The game suffered from terrible enemy A.I, a horrible interface, game killing bugs and missed half the features that made MoO2 good.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

This made me miss MoO2 so, so much...

I think my copy is laying around, somewhere...

 

[unlikely]

masters of orion? Put a donk on it

 

[Two Angels]

MoO II had me waste a large number of hours of my younger years but I was never really good at it, always got crushed.... Time to see if age has brought greater wisdom with it.

Also epic article, loved the way it was written, really sucked me into the narrative.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Extremely well-written article, and it makes that game sound stupendously awesome. How well has it aged? Are there any sequels or whatnot?

The game is still playable if you can live with 640 x 480 resolution but getting hold of a legal copy is next to impossible. There was a squeal MoO3 but is was just plain bad. The game suffered from terrible enemy A.I, a horrible interface, game killing bugs and missed half the features that made MoO3 good.

The easiest place to get it from is here:

[link]http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/master_of_orion_1_2[/link]

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Very cool, reminds me of some gal civ 2 games.

 

[Garthoc]

I haven't quite enjoyed a good 4x since "Acendancy" on DOS

man I miss that game, it was super old school!

 

[trollgod]

I loved Master of Orion--must have played dozens of games in both original and MoO2 versions. Usually my fledgling empire was crushed way too early, but occasionally I would find the right combination of research and diplomacy to bring victory. One time I filled a notebook with a year by year, turn by turn account of the rise and fall of the Terran Empire. Great article, Alex!

 

[Snowden's Secret]

Really good article, but now I feel terribly ashamed that I have never played this game.

 

[Irridium]

Very great article. It reminds me of my old Civilization playthroughs. Where I would build a giant army, get cocky, and attack everyone. Eventually I would be brought down.

Then I learned about choosing my battles, and preparing a defense in case anyone attacked while my army was doing their thing.

Great article, I'll have to check out this game.