Master of Orion 2

Lets speak about beautiful space strategy game Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares.

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A review of any game should be critical and neutral from the outside - these are advantages, these are disadvantages. But even with this condition, only one thing can be said about Master of Orion 2: it is a masterpiece. The game fully justified the expectations of fans of the first part and became a classic and a model of the genre. Compared to Master of Orion 1, everything in the game is significantly improved and developed, from the interface and graphics to the fighting and the economy, but all the advantages and atmosphericity of the first part are preserved - a rare example of the golden mean.

The goal and means of achieving it are the same as in the first part: using a wide choice of military, sabotage, economic or diplomatic methods, you expand your state and eliminate opponents, achieving victory either by destroying all enemies, or by winning "nationwide" (more precisely, " all-racial ") presidential election; There is a third version of the ending, but about it below.

These elections are held - regardless of your desire - regularly, if the overwhelming majority of planets are on the map, and always tensely, is settled (there is a tough “election campaign”). The scale of the map corresponds to the real one: now the star is not equated with the planet and can have up to 5 planets, each of which can be populated if its conditions allow; to increase the range of their fleets, you can create on the planet not a colony, but an outpost (without population and buildings) - it is not a pity to lose it; fight must also be for each planet separately.

One of the best innovations is the presence of leaders in the game, each of which has its own unique features and, over time, develops them, obtaining new titles. Leaders can be commanders of ships or governors of star systems, all of them are personalities living according to the laws of the game world of Master of Orion 2: they can be hired by any race (not only by you), but die when they destroy their ship (system). The number of leaders is limited, so that by the 250th, almost all of them will be hired by someone. Of course, you can do without them, but they greatly increase the effectiveness of your actions, so it makes sense to hire them; at the same time in the service you can have 4 commanders and 4 governors.

Start the game and its course. There can be a huge variety of options. You choose 1 of 13 ready-made races that have their pros and cons, and also (this is best) you can create your own race, giving it any features: for this you will have 10 points, each plus (for example, the ability of a race to live without problems on planets of the oceanic type or, hm, there are stones instead of food) takes away points, each minus (for example, the weakened protection of ships) adds. Then you need to choose the size and features of the galaxy, the number of races in it and the same starting level for them - Pre Warp (1 planet, without fleet and technology), Average (1 planet, small fleet, basic technologies) or Advanced (5 planets in different stellar systems, a decent fleet, medium technology), as well as the level of complexity, the ability to control the battle in space (do not turn it off in any case!), the presence of random events and attacks Antarans (about them below). I would especially like to say about the highest level of complexity (Impossible): the enemy there not only has more material advantages (including bonuses for the race), but, most importantly, he is smarter, therefore, it is much more interesting to fight with him.

Economy. The control screen of the planet is simple, convenient, understandable and reminds Master of Magic. The figures of soldiers and tanks on the screen show ground troops protecting the planet, the figures of the inhabitants - its population. Each resident (1 figure corresponds to 1 million) can be a farmer, a worker or a scientist, in addition, having studied a special technology, it is possible in addition to the inhabitants to build androids performing all these works. Residents of the planet pay taxes, consume food, conduct research, can build ships or modernize existing ones, train scouts, build buildings, planetary defense systems or terraforming, and convert their working potential (Industry) to population growth (Housing) or money (Trade Goods). What are some cosmic minefields or the creation of a planet from asteroids! In general, all this must be seen, especially since the graphics - for that time - are gorgeous.

Diplomacy and intelligence. The possibilities are the sea, just like in life. You can make different requirements to other races (up to the transfer of their ships or star systems to you), regulate the relations of this race with any other, make all sorts of offers - including those that “they cannot refuse”, and computer ambassadors in their queue, may be offended and not communicate with you for a while. The game consists of various political blocks (usually durable) from allies and "sympathizers", which is reflected in the presidential election. But the reconnaissance and sabotage activities in the game are not sufficiently developed, it all comes down to the percentage probability of success with an admixture of chance: you just need to have more intelligence agents and counterintelligence agents and hope that they are lucky. But a minus is, frankly, small.

The science. The basic principle here is the same as in the first part: all the scientific work is divided into topics (here there are 8), and the topics into sections, each of which contains 1-4 studies. The bottom line is that you can only do one study from each section, and the rest of the technology can only be obtained through diplomacy or intelligence, but if your race has a Creative feature, you will conduct all the research section at once, and for the price of one. The technologies here are more numerous and diverse than in the Master of Orion I, but their significance is still great, and it’s almost impossible to technically overwhelm your fleet. In general, technology is the basis of everything: development, production, income and, of course, a successful war.

Hostilities. They are divided into 3 types: battles in space, orbital bombardments (to start them, you must first win in space combat), ground battles. It makes sense to single out orbital bombardments because they have now become dosed: your fleet can immediately use all the firepower on the planet, incinerating everything and everyone there, and can conduct shelling gradually and after the destruction of enemy troops on it or take the remaining residents and buildings with their bare hands , or (if for some reason you don’t need to take this planet from this race) proudly turn around and leave, demonstrating power - well, just like R. Heinlein’s novel Star Rangers. Ground battles have not changed much, and the one who has more troops and they are better wins there, and there is no small element of randomness, but, alas, there is no control - let's note one more small minus of the game. But the big plus is the non-obligation to exterminate the inhabitants of the occupied planets, and their assimilation, and at first they will work through the stump-deck because of dissatisfaction, but then they will get used to it.

And finally, space battles. This is the main "highlight" of both parts of the game and the main means of achieving victory. Now there are no detachments of the same type of ships indicating the number, and you control EVERY ship that has its own characteristics (including the name and experience of the crew). The types of ships are no longer 6, as in the first part, but an unlimited number, create as many as you want, but if the type is outdated, then it does not matter - the ship can be upgraded; therefore, it is no longer necessary to scrapping ships to build newer ones. All types of ships in the second part are divided into 6 classes (do not mix the concepts of "type" and "class"!), Differing in size, and size determines the number of crew and free space, that is, in the end, all the ship data: firepower, speed, vitality and so on. So, the best ship is Doomstar, capable of single-handedly defeating entire fleets, but in order to build it, you need to crank up some kind of scientific and production work.