Master of Orion Preview - Back to the Future

Encaen

New member
May 6, 2005
999
0
0
Master of Orion Preview - Back to the Future

I went into my Master of Orion appointment with a healthy bit of skepticism, but left with a follow-up appointment to play more.

Read Full Article
 

Jacked Assassin

Nothing On TV
Jun 4, 2010
732
0
0
Curse on my own obsessions I feel like I should preorder this because I like looking at The Mrrshan.

....

On the other hand I don't see much excitement in getting the Terran. They kind of remind me of why I ignored that space FPS game that had 4 different versions of human. I think it was tied to Eve Online or whatever it was.
 

Tiamat666

Level 80 Legendary Postlord
Dec 4, 2007
1,012
0
0
Somehow, looking at those screenshots, it doesn't look like this will be a worthy sequel, and we shall be disappointed, yet again.
Also, movement only through wormholes? The two Orions that did not suck allowed ships to move towards any star system within range.
 

Clive Howlitzer

New member
Jan 27, 2011
2,783
0
0
It looks like it went back to a tech tree style of technology advancement, that is a little sad. Also, I can't help but feel the game looks very sterile and soulless. This is a problem of a lot of newer 4X games.
 

s0osleepie

New member
May 20, 2010
365
0
0
Clive Howlitzer said:
Also, I can't help but feel the game looks very sterile and soulless. This is a problem of a lot of newer 4X games.
I agree that newer 4x games are missing a feeling of life and depth. But from what we played of MOO, I can't help but assure you that it is far from sterile and soulless. Every race has a plethora of custom animations and voice-overs, making them jump from the screen with life. The news segments were hysterical and even the filler cut-scenes for when you do things like colonize a planet were beautiful and engaging.
 

Clive Howlitzer

New member
Jan 27, 2011
2,783
0
0
s0osleepie said:
Clive Howlitzer said:
Also, I can't help but feel the game looks very sterile and soulless. This is a problem of a lot of newer 4X games.
I agree that newer 4x games are missing a feeling of life and depth. But from what we played of MOO, I can't help but assure you that it is far from sterile and soulless. Every race has a plethora of custom animations and voice-overs, making them jump from the screen with life. The news segments were hysterical and even the filler cut-scenes for when you do things like colonize a planet were beautiful and engaging.
Yeah, it is hard to tell from the screens. Trust me, I'd love for the game to be awesome. However, it has a very high bar to try and reach with Master of Orion 2. Also, I assume the game moves away from the interesting turn based combat of MoO 2 to the more generic rock paper scissors combat of other 4X games. Which is sad.
 

Draconalis

Elite Member
Sep 11, 2008
1,586
0
41
I don't know how I feel about the CE giving you access to another race that the other does not... but that being said... I DO love the shit out of MOO.

I currently scratch that itch by playing Sins of the Solar Empire with the MOO2 soundtrack playing on my music player.
 

Mikeybb

Nunc est Durandum
Aug 19, 2014
862
0
0
AndreiCC said:
No Elerians? No sale.
As much as I loved the races added in Moo2, it was Moo the first that stole my heart.

Don't get me wrong, I want all the races from the classic and the sequel in the game, but just seeing a handful and change of the originals so well rendered and everything else looking right...

I'm excited.
Genuinely excited.

If any race doesn't get in the initial release, I'll be there clamoring for them to be added immediately though.
Even the gnolam.
 

s0osleepie

New member
May 20, 2010
365
0
0
Clive Howlitzer said:
Yeah, it is hard to tell from the screens. Trust me, I'd love for the game to be awesome. However, it has a very high bar to try and reach with Master of Orion 2. Also, I assume the game moves away from the interesting turn based combat of MoO 2 to the more generic rock paper scissors combat of other 4X games. Which is sad.
The game mostly draws from MoO 2 actually. It was a pleasant surprise.
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
8,687
0
0
Hmmm, never played the original MOO's, but judging from the screenshots and description this sounds a LOT like a game from back in the day that I really enjoyed: Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain.
 

Jake Martinez

New member
Apr 2, 2010
590
0
0
Honestly, if this is just a bug free and updated MOO2, I will buy it. They don't even have to add too much for me to get interested, the updated graphics have already done that for me.

AndreiCC said:
No Elerians? No sale.
The Elerians were kind of garbage. Saying that, I used them all the time because of this. Once you got really good at MOO2 half the fun was using the crap picks and trying strange tactics to win. I'll actually miss the Gnolems more from a character design point of view.

Hopefully they'll have it set up like Galactic Civilizations III where you can add custom races to the AI player list.
 

Tsun Tzu

Feuer! Sperrfeuer! Los!
Legacy
Jul 19, 2010
1,620
83
33
Country
Free-Dom
My first experience with the series was MoO3 when I was a teen.

It was neat conceptually, and I really liked the races/idea behind it...but the gameplay was crap.

So, a good version of that? Color me interested. Also, cat people.

I'm down for cat people.
 

SmugFrog

Ribbit
Sep 4, 2008
1,239
4
43
Starlanes and the Mrrshan ambassador using terms like "Cat on a hot tin roof" and comparing themselves to cats... NO. Just no. This is like if we were comparing ourselves to some alien monkey on another planet. Sure, there may be similarities there and the other races may refer to us as monkeys in a derogatory manner, The Mrrshan always struck me as a noble/honor based race that would be very offended and disrespected by being referred to as a human cat.

These types of decisions do not look well for the series - but I'm hopeful that they're just trying to make the diplomacy look more cartoonish in order to relate it more to the civilization series.

I could go on for a few paragraphs about why starlanes are a bad idea for the series.
 

chiatt

New member
Oct 10, 2009
28
0
0
Well, my excitement upon starting this article quickly died when I realized how empty and unfocused it was. Even for a preview article, this was extremely heavy on the filler and light on any real details! Nearly half the article, is dedicated to background info, personal anecdotes, and such. Mr. Vanderwall, if "there's entirely too much to go into detail with every one of the game's systems and mechanics," why would the areas you really focus on be worker placement production queue UI and management? Especially as what you've described is, essentially, the same mechanics as MOO2 with a few modernizing refinements. Why not focus on some of the changes or truly new additions?

I really hope the new MOO turns out well, but man, the sloppiness of this article is forcing me to look elsewhere for information.
 

SmugFrog

Ribbit
Sep 4, 2008
1,239
4
43
chiatt said:
Well, my excitement upon starting this article quickly died when I realized how empty and unfocused it was. Even for a preview article, this was extremely heavy on the filler and light on any real details!
It's one of THOSE kinds of previews; HEY look how awesome this game could be! Yeah...

WTF is this even:

Your production queue can hold up to five total projects, including the one currently in production.

That's less than you could stack up in Moo2. Late game when you colonize a world there were a TON of things to build. It was helpful to queue up a lot of things to get the foundations of industry and farming going and then set the auto governor to take over. Yet another thing that this game can't do as well as Moo2.
 

Encaen

New member
May 6, 2005
999
0
0
chiatt said:
Well, my excitement upon starting this article quickly died when I realized how empty and unfocused it was. Even for a preview article, this was extremely heavy on the filler and light on any real details! Nearly half the article, is dedicated to background info, personal anecdotes, and such. Mr. Vanderwall, if "there's entirely too much to go into detail with every one of the game's systems and mechanics," why would the areas you really focus on be worker placement production queue UI and management? Especially as what you've described is, essentially, the same mechanics as MOO2 with a few modernizing refinements. Why not focus on some of the changes or truly new additions?

I really hope the new MOO turns out well, but man, the sloppiness of this article is forcing me to look elsewhere for information.
I apologize if the content didn't jive with your expectations, but previews on The Escapist are typically more about our experience with the game than a bullet point list of the game's mechanics. I included a ton of information where it was relevant to the hands-on experience, but detailing every system in the game would have doubled the length of the article. I try to provide background so readers are immediately aware of my mindset and inherent bias on the subject. The anecdotes were largely to differentiate this demo from typical guided press demos, which is of great significance my actual takeaway, as well as the enthusiasm of the team for the game and franchise, which I think is critical to creating a genuinely good reboot.

To be sure, I was told the dev team more or less started with MOO2 code as a foundation, and built it out from there. I wanted to give newcomers a bit of info on important details, but didn't want to bog down veterans with information that is no different from the MOO2 experience. There aren't that many changes. That's one of the things I liked most about what I saw. The biggest changes were the interface/UI, graphics updates, and wormhole pathways, each of which I made a point to cover.



SmugFrog said:
It's one of THOSE kinds of previews; HEY look how awesome this game could be! Yeah...

WTF is this even:

Your production queue can hold up to five total projects, including the one currently in production.

That's less than you could stack up in Moo2. Late game when you colonize a world there were a TON of things to build. It was helpful to queue up a lot of things to get the foundations of industry and farming going and then set the auto governor to take over. Yet another thing that this game can't do as well as Moo2.
This is absolutely one of those articles. I made a point to make my love of the franchise apparent at the outset to avoid any deference to my opinion without a critical eye. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience, and expressing our enthusiasm for what we love is a big part of what we set out to do here.

I mentioned that accessibility was important to the team with the reboot, and I don't personally see any issue with a 5-item production queue. I mentioned it so you could form the opinion stated here, and so others could come to their own conclusion. Sorry if you didn't enjoy the read, but this comment indicates that I was successful in not just conveying my experience, but offering information so critical gamers like you can decide for themselves!

In any case, I do appreciate the feedback on both accounts. We'll have more information-focused articles and news as we see and hear more about the game, which I hope you'll find more helpful!