Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars

The game was released in two versions: standard and collector's editions.

Standard Edition

The standard edition of Master of Orion revives the cult strategy in the 4X genre, i.e. “Explore the open spaces, conquer the worlds, manipulate leaders and accumulate resources to bring one of the 10 races to dominance in the galaxy.”

Collector's Edition

Collector's Edition includes:

• an exclusive version of the game with a new race, not available in the standard version - terrans;
• “classic” graphics mode that turns 3D ships into pixel images;
• all previous games of the series Master of Orion ;
• early access ;
• unique digital artbook;
• soundtrack in orchestral processing.

In July 2013, it became known that Wargaming acquired the rights to the Master of Orion franchise ^[4] . On June 9, 2015, Wargaming announced its plans to publish a new franchise project created by the NGD Studios team ^[5] .

Master of Orion is a sequel to a series of games developed by Simptex and Quicksilver Software: Master of Orion (1993), Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares (1996) and Master of Orion III (2003).

Master of Orion is a turn-based strategy game in which a player controls one of 10 (11 in the collector's edition) space races ^[6] . Each race claims galactic dominance and fights or unites with other peoples controlled by AI. At the disposal of the player are entire colonies of the inhabitants of the infinite Universe, as well as modern technologies.

The player is engaged in the construction of spaceships, establishes friendly relations with other races and fights for control of the galaxy. Managing first only the home planet, the player gradually begins to build an empire and manage four types of resources: Credits, Research, Food and Production. Under competent control, the colony expands, the space fleet grows, and the player begins to conquer new planets, develops intergalactic trade and fights with other nations for dominance in the universe. Victory is achieved by the complete destruction of all other races, or by the possession of the right to peace.

Interstellar movement works according to the principle of the third part, that is, ships can only move through special tunnels between adjacent stars. At the exit points you can build defense stations that block this tunnel for unfriendly races and participate in battles at this point, or early warning stations. This is carried out by special mobile plants, which also build various stations on asteroids and gas giants. In the end, they can also collapse gas giants and asteroid belts into new planets.

The game has the same original races as in the original: alkari, bulrati, darloki, klakons, people, meklars, mrshans, psilons, sacra and silicoids. However, for those who have purchased a collector's edition, the Terran Khanate is also added, a race of evil and imperialistic people that are strikingly different from their earthly brothers. According to the plot, the terrans were abducted by the Antarans and used as soldiers in their ancient war with the Orions, they were subsequently abandoned on a dying planet in the Alpha Kit system. Only the cruelty of the ruling khans allowed them to survive. Terran ships look like ships of earthly people, but their color scheme is much darker, and gray and red tones predominate in it.

As before, there is a race editor where a player can use a certain number of points to get certain advantages (or disadvantages) for a new race. Visually, the new race looks like one of the existing races (optional) and replaces it.

All characters in the game are voiced by professional actors, including Mark Hamill , Robert Englund , Alan Tudyck , John de Lancey , Michael Dorn and Dwight Schultz .

The project was well received by the press, which noted excellent graphics, many interesting gameplay mechanics of the game and a sufficient level of freedom ^[7] . Nevertheless, the strategy was mediocre adopted by the players, openly speaking about the simplification of the game process ^[8] . In addition, there is an excessively "animated" graphics, significantly spoiling the effect of immersion, and too high actual system requirements. In practice, the game is more or less comfortable during the first 50 moves, after which the time of each next move increases progressively.

• - official site of Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars