Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares

by Atari

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00002S6BL
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.8 x 1.8 inches
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,928 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Forge an empire to span a universe. Colonize unknown planets and trade with other races for their knowledge. Conquer alien star systems by war or diplomacy to secure their resources. Only then can you guarantee your galactic supremacy. Multiple game settings let you select such factors as your adversaries' intelligence, the size and age of the galaxy, and the level of civilization. There are multiplayer options for up to eight players. You can play using modems, a network, a hot seat, or TCP/IP. The game also includes 13 predesigned races, each with its own abilities, and the means to create your own.

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Conquering the universe has long been a common fantasy, but it's not going to happen. At least not in our lifetime. But a virtual galaxy - that's another matter. Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares offers just such an opportunity. Be warned, however, that dominating the stars to build a galactic empire requires managing everything from scientific research to farming and mining.

There are many different races you can choose for this quest - even the lowly humans. Each race has its own strengths and shortcomings. If none of the offered races suit you, customize a new race by creating a profile and sets of advantages and disadvantages.

Master of Orion's virtual galaxy is huge, with many star systems to explore. Each system yields different types of planets. Some are very hospitable to life but lack mineral resources, others are mineral rich but toxic and void of atmosphere. You must decide which ones are worth colonizing in order to maximize the return on your investment. Some planets need the benefit of highly advanced technological breakthroughs before they reach their full potential.

Your scientists develop many different types of technology. Some enhance colonies, some help colonists travel faster and more efficiently, and, of course, many are militaristic in nature, helping you to better defend against (or attack) your neighbors, who also are bent on dominating the galaxy. Be careful to balance a colony and its technical advancements with a strong space fleet.

For combat, Master of Orion offers two options: The computer can calculate the outcome of battles based on statistical analysis, or you can take control of your own destiny using a well-detailed combat scenario. Success in the latter case requires spending a lot of time designing and outfitting ships with various systems and weapons combinations. They are ultimately customizable, allowing for a wealth of combat strategies.

In addition to the take-the-galaxy-by-force approach is the option of building alliances with other races through diplomacy. Establish various agreements and treaties, which, of course, may or may not be honored by one or both parties. The malicious side of diplomacy is espionage. You can send spies to other races' home worlds to steal technology or sabotage colony operations. Spies also work within your own colonies, rooting out enemy spies who have been sent by the other races.

Once you have colonized a good portion of the galaxy (including the legendary star system of Orion) and have defeated your enemies, you might think you've got it made. Nope. There's one last challenge before claiming victory. The Antarans (hence the name of the game) are a race of technologically advanced superbeings who were long ago banished to another dimension. During the course of the game, they find a way back into your galaxy and begin wreaking havoc everywhere they go.

Master of Orion has beautifully rendered graphics all around, as well as a good combat simulator and a great game concept. The star system and the scientific advances and technologies are particularly well done.

On the downside, it's cumbersome to keep track of which star system has which resources and buildings after you've colonized more than a few planets. Domination can quickly degenerate into micromanagement.

Another unfortunate aspect is the manual's lack of a getting-started chapter. There are no clues as to what the most important tasks are for building a colony or what the heck to do when you first land on a planet. The manual is merely a giant reference guide with a glut of small details to digest. The only way to figure out basic strategies is by arduous trial and error. - Wade Albright

Good News: Nice graphics. Great game concept. Very detailed universe.

Bad News: Bogs down in micromanagement. Manual lacks a clear tutorial for beginning players.

Rating:3/4

©1999 MacAddict

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Game, January 13, 2000

By 

Adam Cushing - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares (CD-ROM)

The original Master of Orion (MOO) was a master piece and set the standard for the spaceploitation genre. Its sequel Master of Orion II continued this tradition. It improved most areas of gameplay and made use of better and more powerful graphics. Some neat features of the game include: Ship to ship combat that allows for boardings and captures. The ability to conquer opposing races and incorporate them into your empire rather than simply killing them. Planet management is pretty straightforward and uses a production que so you can set a planet to produce several items in succession and not have to constantly manage it. One thing that did bother me about the game has always been its fleet limits. In the original game you could build massive fleets of thousands of vessels now you are limited to much smaller numbers. Also any ship under the size of a battleship is basically useless. In the orginal MOO you could buld 10,000 small ships and use them to counter 50 massive ones. In MOO II you simply can't build enough smaller vessels to use the swarm approach, the capital ships rule the battlefield. Planetary defenses can only be so big and can't stand up to a heavy fleet on their own. Still these "shortcomings" do not detract from gameplay, which I always found to be quick and effecient, no real bugs (after the patch). I've owned this game for two years now and still believe it sets the standard for space based war and strategy. No game produced since has improved upon on it or sadly really equaled it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Those cursed Alkari!, September 25, 2001

By 

Ethan D Van Vorst (Salisbury, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares (CD-ROM)

I played the original MOO (that's Master of Orion for those of you not in the know) and was instantly hooked to that venerable classic. But with no multiplayer support for the original I simply had to await the next installment. And then in 1996 it came. I love this game. I love this game, this constant source of irritation, glory, happiness, grief, anger, sorrow, and consternation all in one. Starting out as one of several races, each with it's own unique characteristics (Humans are good at diplomacy, Psilons are good at research, etc.), you start one one small planet in an huge universe, research your way to building better, and fully customizable ships, to both explore and conquer the other races. Along the way you'll meet the other races and either ally with them or oppose them. And when one crosses you by dropping bio bombs on your planet, rendering it almost uninhabitable, you'll seek the nothing short of the very destruction of thier race. I will make the Alkari bird beaks pay for thier insolence...with thier very existence! *Sigh*...it gets to you after a while, but you'll just have to trust me when I say that it is a very *good* addiction that you won't regret!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Emphasizes Tactics, but Weak in Diplomacy & Multiplayer, September 21, 2001

By 

StarPilot057 (Laramie, WY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares (CD-ROM)

Master of Orion II is a title offering a rich experience in very particular areas, emphasizing technological and military aspects of the creation of a galactic empire over elements that require more more character interaction and development. It is a strategy game in the purest sense of the genre, and therefore learning its intricacies and more subtle features can be of paramount importance in a long game or campaign.

In Master of Orion II, you direct the construction of a galactic empire. In this turn-based game, you guide your colonies, command your space fleets, and dictate which technologies your scientists will research. You can win the game in one of three ways: crushing all the other civilizations in the galaxy, building up the technology and military might to crush the powerful Antarians, or gaining enough allies to vote you galactic ruler at a council meeting.

Master of Orion II has no storyline of its own. While the conquests and trials your empire faces in each game could be considered a story that you generate, events that alter the course of galactic history are frequently random and unpredictable. No story elements, characters, or mission goals persist from one game to the next. This is in direct contrast to strategy games with a rich, evolving storyline, such as Blizzard Entertainment's spectacular game Starcraft, which prove that utilizing deep characters and missions that link together does not preclude a focus on strategy in gameplay.

Storyline aside, Master of Orion II has an interesting and powerful interface. You are given complete control over almost every aspect of your colonies, and assign crews of workers to either farm, research, or work on the construction of the colony's project. Levels of progress in the different areas are represented graphically; players of Civilization II will find this interface very familiar. However, its simple look belies the potential for automation that can be employed. Up to seven or so build orders can be queued for each particular colony, allowing you to monitor areas of greater activity without worrying about lesser colonies for long periods of time. When your empire grows gigantic, you can chose to allow a "colony advisor" to decide what to build and produce, saving you the large amounts of time that would be required to check each colony individually, again and again.

Another enjoyable interface, starship design, was an element pioneered by the Master of Orion series, and still provides one of the keys to success in the game. You design your own starships, choosing what hull design, weapons, computers, shields, systems, and special devices are to be incorporated in each ship. You are limited by the amount of space inside the hull, and should keep the production cost in mind when designing huge, powerful battle cruisers. There are even more subtle factors to take into account: you can modify the firing arcs of each weapon, choose how many reloads of each type of torpedo your ship can carry and how many can be fired in each salvo, and even chose special modifications to existing weapons, increasing their power, accuracy, firing rate, durability, or other qualities. Perhaps the best interface in the game, the ship design screen takes what could have been a dauntingly complex task and makes it intuitive and convenient by providing information about each option's function and cost on-screen.

The research interface is visually interesting, but annoying. You chose which technology to work on, and the amount of research required is shown. What is not shown is what the technologies do, making it absolutely necessary to look each technology up in the manual every time you want to research anything (until you get them all memorized).

Diplomacy is a weaker area, where your interactions are constrained to a highly limited set of commands. Besides declaring war and a few basic agreements, there is next to nothing you can do in cooperation with any of the other civilizations. Soon you will wish you could coordinate attacks, interact with more than one other civilization on the same project, or make more complex deals and demands. More or less, you take on the galaxy alone.

Multi-player capabilities, a strong point in many games, are remarkably poor in Master of Orion II. Being a turn-based game, there is the fundamental constraint that every player in the game must wait for the slowest player to finish his/her turn before moving on. Worse still, space battles happen in between turns, in sequence, so everyone must wait for every player to complete every space combat before moving on. Because space battles can last over 10 minutes if large in scale, or longer if you use an attrition-based battle plan, the wait can be utterly unbearable. Additionally, while you are executing your turn, there is no chat feature. You are isolated until you finish your turn, and even then your communications are limited. Whoever is done with their turn sees a dialogue box, where everyone can type and everyone can see what you type. So much for secrecy... your opponents can see everything you say as easily as your allies. In a two player game, it is even worse. As soon as the second player ends his turn, the next turn begins, so there is practically NO time to talk at all. Between the long waits and the isolation, it is clear that Master of Orion II is not a viable multi-player game.

Master of Orion II is an interesting game, and may be ideal if you wish to focus on a few aspects of empire building (colony management, ship design, and space combat) while ignoring nearly everything else. Overall, however, it is possible to get tired of the repetitive gameplay and long time periods in between big battles. Because multiplayer games are next to impossible, and diplomacy with the computer is so limited, expect play to have a solataire-type feel to it. Ruling an empire is a lonely job.