Master of Orion

I have fond memories of playing Master of Orion 2 in the late nineties, experiencing my first ever turn-around-and-realise-the-sun-is-rising experience as I got sucked into a one-more-turn all-nighter. I pre-ordered Master of Orion 3, and on release day picked it up at the game store and loaded it onto my PC with high hopes. Sadly, I did not find it as engaging so I dropped it relatively quickly (especially because Morrowind had only recently released at the time). So the reboot of MOO in 2016 (MOO:CTS) was an exciting development, though I was put off by mixed reviews so waited until 2021 to try it. I regret that I waited so long, because what I found was a space 4X with high production value which faithfully reimplemented much of what I'd liked from MOO2. There are common gripes you'll hear: star lanes, 3D combat... but these are often from MOO purists or min-maxers rather than those who take MOO:CTS on its merits. More positive reviews are found from those who play games to experience something cool first and foremost, rather than those who aim to "solve" every game loop. As for me, I wanted a cinematic, flavourful, immersive environment and on that front MOO:CTS delivers. The UCP and 5X mods improve and switch up the game in a great way, especially the tech tree, making for a fresh and well-balanced experience. Diverse Specials and Massive Planets also makes exploring systems and optimising your colonies much more puzzly and satisfying. My issues tend to be those which afflict space 4X more broadly, such as micromanagement in the mid-late game, where you have to build the same thing on every planet and lose track of what is where - the old cookie-cutter problem. Yes, there is automation, but I feel this is not a good enough solution - I prefer the approach taken by Interstellar Space: Genesis where you get a set number of slots on a planet which creates tension around how you will develop each colony. There is also a lack of in-game events like those in Endless Space which can make the late game feel a bit empty. There will be long stretches where you're just hitting End Turn again and again, waiting for something to happen. But, the game compensates by allowing you to change its parameters to give you a more exciting experience - a smaller galaxy, more AI competitors, higher habitable planet density, etc. Mods also help with this. And you can always start over to experience the exploration phase again, which in my view is the highlight of every game. Overall, MOO:CTS is a great game if judged on its merits and out of the shadow of MOO2. The genre has some standout examples in the MOO vein, namely Interstellar Space: Genesis and Stars in Shadow, but production value varies and the cinematic cool factor is barely there. MOO:CTS has great voice acting (though I have to turn off the Psilon advisor's grating voice), lovely cutscenes, an ability to watch your battles unfold like a Battlestar episode, beautiful graphics and a lineage from one of the finest games ever made. Endless Space 2 does the cinematic 4X better overall, but it doesn't have the MOO charm (though you'll either love or hate GNN). So, if you're new to space 4X, I would highly recommend MOO:CTS to get you into this exceptional genre. If you're experienced, know that it might not be the crunchiest game compared to its rivals, but if you want to feel like you're running an empire and watching things play out from your throne, give it a try (and then do it with mods enabled).

It used to go on sales, where it was worth it on very high % sales, due to the modding community - there are mainly 3-4 large/good overhaul mods, and some fix mods since the developers abandoned the game shortly after release due to failing to reach the initial sales goal. Unless you can pick up a key at around 75-90% of the cost of this and have a interest to install fix mods and overhauls, I'd skip it.

there is a major bug at around turn 250 t0 300 the game goes into "processing turn" and never comes out Game breaking

Taking 3 races that are included in previous Orion games and then selling them each as separate DLCs is kinda messed up.

Overly graphic with extremely poor game play. Makes the original look a work of genius. Not recommended.

This is not just a remaster of the original game. Rather they have completely messed it up due to adding in hyperspace "travel" lanes so you can no longer just head to any star system but are restricted to travel via the lanes. This creates artificial blocks to travel and play which don't exist in space and didn't exist in the original game. Further, there are a few races that were in the original that now have to be bought via a DLC. Even more, it would seem the ships are not as customizable as they were before due to restricting the number of types of weapons or defenses you can have, along with the space restrictions. I'm also not sure the tech tree is exactly the same. Another ouch is that they are restricting the number of ships you can have based on a "support" system using "Command Points". Bigger ships take more points and your colonies can only produce so many points. When you go over that, they hit you with a credit cost penalty that can become crippling. So no 100 ship fleets of miniaturized missile boats for you! Lastly, you can't make really small ships like before. Smallest ship is a frigate. So yeah, looks nice and all but it's a completely different game play.

You are limited to 4 ship blueprints. You can update a blueprint and then upgrade the ships that were built according to that blueprint. But if you delete a blueprint, you can never again upgrade ships that used that blueprint. Why? Neither of these limitations makes any rational sense. What is the fact of reality that prohibits you from having more than 4 blueprints? Why can't you upgrade ships to new blueprints that have the exact same design as that ship's updated blueprint would have? This design philosophy, this disconnecting of reality from gameplay mechanics, this imposition of senseless contrivances, is so loathsome to me that I quit the game, probably to never play it again.

Ai cheats and that is enough to not recommend it. It's fine to give it some bonuses but when it magically shows up in the same tile with overwhelming force in the early game even when you don't have any adjoining systems that is BS.