Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars first look – What does the reboot of a cult classic offer us?

The 4X games may not be the most known member of the gaming family, but they are quite popular and have their own group of devoted fans. The mysterious 4X, introduced way before the ever-present 4K, means: explore, expand, exploit and exterminate, which pretty clearly describes the essence of gameplay. We begin with recon, so we can build a strong strategic position using the available resources and eventually proceed to eliminate any opposition on the map, usually by force. Civilization would perhaps be the best example, but space-based variations are definitely not to be underestimated. There’s Galactic Civilizations III, to name one decent proposition, but many gamers have particularly fond memories of one of the genre’s forbearers – Master of Orion. The first installment in the series was released in 1993, and the latest one, the mildly welcomed third part, came out twelve years ago. That’s why, when the news of a new Orion and the planned reboot of the whole franchise came to light this June, many rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

The latest chapter will be developed by an Argentinean developer NGD Studios. Sounds exotic? Sure does, but the good news is that the team decided to keep things as close as possible to the original, adding only a few proven features from Master of Orion 2. Developers secured probably the best possible consultants: members of the original 1993 Master of Orion development team from MicroProse will oversee the remake. NGD have the assistance of the game’s lead producer, artistic director and two designers. Additionally, they’ve gained the cooperation of the original game’s music composer, and the new sound score will be based on the classic main theme. The visuals will be completely remade; the characters will gain animations and speak to us with recorded dialogue lines and hints. The release date remains unknown, and the short demonstration we’ve seen, presented only four out of ten races (all of them featured in Master of Orion 2) and a small exploration and base development tutorial.

Each race has some unique traits that will have a significant impact on the gameplay later on. The Alkari value honor and truthfulness, the Darloks are spies, living to steal others’ achievements and information, the Mrrshan are unpredictable, as you would expect from cats, and the Psilons possess unparalleled technology. Before we begin a game, we choose our ship, determine the number of opponents and characterize the galaxy as a whole, including its age and size. Those numbers will determine some important things, like the amount of resources available and consequently, the game’s difficulty level. The galaxies we’ve created can be shared with other players, allowing them to try conquering the universe on our terms.

Most of our time will be spent on the map screen, where we move our fleet from one planet or star system to another. Ships are classified accordingly to their intended purpose. Scouts serve as reconnaissance crafts, frigates are used for ship-to-ship engagements, destroyers can bombard alien colonies from the orbit and other types of vessels provide logistics and construction capabilities required to establish a base on a newly-discovered planet. Once the base is complete, we can build additional structures, supervise the planet’s population, expand our fleet, and, last but not least, focus on further exploration, conquering even more planets and, eventually, other races.

The technology tree will include as much as 75 technologies and a search engine, but the techs will be common to all of the races. During our space travels, we will encounter random events that can yield interesting benefits, if examined (loot system of a kind), but often we won’t be having the luxury to do so, due to external factors (i.e. ongoing combat engagement). Sometimes we will stumble upon an independent colony, whose residents can ask us to complete various assignments for them. Accepting or refusing those assignments will determine our reputation among the colonists, which will later affect which one of the five game endings we get. Encounter with one of the ten key species of the galaxy takes us to the diplomacy screen, where we can establish an embassy, sign a peace treaty, propose an exchange of resources, or order a close up of the borders. Should diplomacy fail to accomplish our objectives, we can send in the spies that will sabotage, steal, and incite unrests, dealing a serious blow to enemy’s production potential. To prevent such troubles on our own planets, the spies have to be ordered to initiate counter-espionage.

Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars features a rather simple and functional interface with lots of helpful aids. We can queue the construction of buildings and ships, change the production order, or speed up the process with a suitable amount of cash. One important thing – when we remove an item from the queue, the game will remember its progress and resume the construction, should the order to build this particular item be reissued. When discovering new technologies, we just have to click the invention we’re interested in, and the game will automatically begin to research the prerequisite technologies. There’s something here for the fans of both micro- and macromanagement. We can decide the construction sequence on every planet, we can choose the destinations of exploration teams, or we can click the “auto” button, leaving the AI to build the base structures (beginning with the most needed ones), and the exploration to the scouts. If our decision turns out to have been the wrong one, we can go back in time and change it accordingly, relying on our animated advisors’ vocal guidance.

How do we win this game? There are five options: conquer the other races, be the first to research all the 75 available technologies, use economy, diplomacy, or by following the Excellence Path (a new feature). After we eventually establish relations with all the key and independent races, a Galaxy Council will form and a voting will take place to determine its leader. If our relations with the galactic races, including the numerous independent species, are flawless, the assembly will pronounce us as the leader (and the winner). This path may prove to be especially difficult, because the colony assignments (crucial in gaining the colonies’ support for the voting) will come up a number of times, and usually when we have some other, pressing issues at hand.

Unfortunately, since the recent gamescom yielded not a glimpse of the tactical battle mechanics, it’s hard to state something other than the fact that space battles will be present. The creators consider implementing additional features, like a custom race editor or separate tech trees for each of the races. Some additional content will be available later, in the form of DLCs. I’ll leave it to your judgment, if that’s a good thing or not.

What we’ve seen so far, suggests that the Argentines from NGD Studios does what they can to remain true to the original Master of Orion. I believe every gaming veteran would like to see his favorite classic remade with modern sound and visuals. With the addition of some features to make the game more accessible to beginners and newcomers, there’s no doubt that the new Master of Orion will turn out to be a hit and will wipe the disappointing third installment from the gaming community’s memory. My only concern is the overall visual design of the game. The colors are rather vivid, sometimes bordering on saccharine and the species representatives look somewhat comical – my Psilon reminded me of a typical b-class movie grey Martian and spoke with a distinct, exaggerated old man’s voice. Who knows, maybe some lighter note is needed in a vast 4X strategy game, full of economy, diplomacy, wars, and alliances. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a successful reboot of this gaming classic.