When it comes to strategy games nothing comes close to the amount of depth and complexity that a 4x game provides and for my money no game comes close to the brilliance that is the original Master of Orion.

Master of Orion is a empire management game set in space. You can choose from a wide host of alien races to play as each with unique properties. The Silicoids for example can survive on planets not suitable for other life forms. The Humans are the most diplomatic and my favorite are the Klackons a race of giant ant people who excel at industry and production.

The goal of the game is to become the master of Orion, an ancient planet said to be the host of incredible technology that will ensure your rule as emperor of the galaxy is not challenged. How you take that throne is up to you and there are many ways to get there! The main way is building your economy via factories and researching weapons and tech to allow you to out gun your rivals and be the last man standing but that is not the only way to accomplish domination of the galaxy. Another way is to make friends with your rivals and sway them to vote for you in the galactic council to become the emperor or you can seek Orion directly and face the fearsome guardian and take the throne by force.

The amount of customization that comes from being able to build your own starships and equip them with whatever you like really adds a ton of replay value to the experience. Combat in space is centered around 3 main types. Laser, Missile, and bombs. (Of course there are more option but it mostly boils down to those in practice.) Lasers are your main guns and with tech upgrades you can fire bigger lasers farther getting the edge in your battles or with missiles you can keep far from the enemy and send waves of death to them from across the battlefield. Bombs are special as they are used to wipe out planet populations and defenses to clear the way for your colony ships to settle there instead. You can also use bio weapons but that won’t make you very popular with the other factions as it is considered a war crime to do so.

You can also send troop transports to take a planet via ground invasion which has the benefit of keeping the workers and infrastructure intact so you do not need to rebuild it all. If you go this route however, be warned that rebellion is possible from your newly subjugated populous. Another fun way to play is spy warfare. You can train and deploy spies into the empires of your enemy and use them to disrupt industry and steal technology and even cause revolutions which will put a planet out of commission until they can seize back control.

Something I really love about this game is that it does not limit you in anyway. If you want to forgo tech and just make a million cheap low tech fighters you can still do some decent damage that way as long as you have the economy to back it up and if the rest of the galaxy votes for someone else to be the emperor that does not instantly end the game, you may refuse the decision which starts an all out way between yourself and the rest of the empires which likely will end in you going down fighting but it really all depends.

I have played this game for over a decade now and I still find myself coming back to play it time and time again and every time I play it always feels fresh and exciting.

As of the time of this writing GOG has this game for just $5.99 and it comes with the sequel (Also a great game which I will be sure to review but the first one is my favorite.)

Buy Master of Orion 1+2 on GOG.com