My Favorite Games: Master of Orion 2 (1996)

I was playing Master of Orion 2 over the weekend. The game is more than 10 years old, and it still provides a great deal of entertainment. At least it's a break from the usual MMORPG and first-person-shooter.

Master of Orion 2 is a good old-fashioned turn-based "build-your-civ-and- conquer-the-known-universe- one-planet-at-a-time" kind of strategy game. When it first came out in 2006, it totally blew me away. I had already seen my fair share of space-empire-themed games like Reach for the Stars, Overlord, and the first Master of Orion- which were all pretty good games (and by "pretty good", I meant I could still lose myself in playing any one of em for hours- particularly the very first Master of Orion). For me, however, MoO2 has just the right amount of detail and micromanagement to keep things interesting.

The first Master of Orion was groundbreaking enough- it was simple and loads of fun, allowing you to explore your surrounding territory, expand your galactic empire by colonizing planets, exploit resources by developing your colonies and forming alliances with other races, and exterminate all those who oppose you.

Some people found the first Master of Orion a bit too simple and repetitive. The second one does give you a LOT more options for customization and micromanagement- you can decide what technology your scientists should research, what weaponry to put into your line cruisers, even how to allocate citizens of one your many planets into what kind of production: farming, industry or research.

You could read Gamespot's review of Master of Orion 2 here, or download the game here on the Atari website.

Cheers, everyone!