Played it, went to MoO 2, was appalled at the changes, went to MoM, took some time to get into it but loved it, then went back to MoO2. I thought things like the ambient music and more advanced combat would stop me from going back to MoO, but DAMN was I wrong! This is close to a perfect game! As I slowly go up in difficulty and play again and again, I’m still finding out new things! Just yesterday the Sakkra ambassador said to me “Do you think we’re fools? Amassing a military fleet on our border can only mean war!”. They may have some hilariously exploitable quirks (a lone ship with a repulsor beam can take out a whole armada if they don’t have heavy lasers or missiles, but they’ll KEEP TRYING), but it’s simply shocking the level of effort put into this game. I’m still learning some things like using the planetary reserve. (Should I funnel everything into that one artifacts planet, or will there be diminishing returns? How much can I boost productivity?) I dislike just about everything about MoO2, though, now that I’ve come back. The ambient music is nice, but a lot of the changes just don’t cut it. MoO didn’t have any space farmers. Master of Orion should not be about space corn. The races got too much of a facelift, which would be ok but they only have one general animation. They don’t show emotion. On top of that, the music feels much less distinctive in MoO2. I can close my eyes and hear the angry Alkari music, or the Meklon music. Building freighters is another annoyance. It’s like supply depots in SCII.
Master of Magic is just incredible in itself. It’s such a damn shame that Master of Magic II was going to be made before SimTex fell apart (and why was that exactly? They kept making hit games).
I believe SimTex was so successful in their turn based games because the developers were such huge fans of board games. These weren’t kids who grew up on video games and made video games based on what they loved in your youth (like a photocopy of a photocopy). Master of Orion’s ‘custom ship building’ was SO POPULAR and a revolution in itself.
With Star Control 1, the spinning map really got everyone. You’re not alone there. Star Control 1 is best played with other Humans. It’s kind of like playing Smash Brothers with the computer. With another Human, they would be messing up on the star map too, and you both would laugh about it. You shouldn’t be having any issues with the controls in Star Control 1 (unless you mean for strategy game). You can customize the controls in Star Control 1. There is a separate program that does nothing but define the keys for player 1 and player 2. GoG should have the program in the start menu.
I see GoG as a way to get these really great old games again but also to visit gems and see how they hold up. Lately, I’ve been playing Dark Reign from GoG.
During the RTS Boom, tons of RTS games were coming out, and the two big RTS companies, Blizzard and Westwood, had yet to release Starcraft or Command and Conquer 2. Out of those like hundred games emerged a trifecta of RTS hits: Age of Empires, Total Annihilation, and Dark Reign. Age of Empires had that civilization theme going, and people who love to play ‘sim city’ in RTS games (you know who they are) loved it. Total Annihilation was doing the 3d thing, and had tons of units (I believe you could download new units as well as they kept releasing more). And then there was Dark Reign who, as time went on, did have a cult following for quite a while. Yet, it does seem underrated compared to both Age of Empires and Total Annihilation which is interesting since it was rated higher than both when it was released. There was actually a ‘rivalry’ between Total Annihilation and Dark Reign at the time. When PC Gamer gave a higher review score to Dark Reign, the Total Annihilation people got so angry.
I think Age of Empires and Total Annihilation, to an extent, catered better to poor playing RTS players (which consists of many kids, many new RTS players, etc.). I remember in Red Alert and Warcraft 2 in games always getting ‘that guy’ who would just play Sim City in his base the entire game. They even made walls in Red Alert. WALLS! Hahahaha. They would be the same type who cried over ‘rushes’ and demanded Red Alert games have a ‘harvestor treaty’ (that players don’t attack the harvestors which get resources). I would just laugh at them, tell them this is war, and tank rush… with taking a side trip to destroy the harvestor. They got SO angry haha.
Dark Reign appealed mostly to the experienced RTS players (which ultimately became a curse going forward). Playing it now, here are the three biggest things that make Dark Reign unique from the other RTSes at the time.
-The game is fast. This game is as fast as Starcraft 2. Actually, it’s probably even a little faster. I was getting killed by the Easy AI in skirmish and died at Mission 3 in the single player campaign. But the thing is, I know the game since I beta tested it and played it like crazy back in the day yet I’m getting my ass whooped. This is not the game for RTS players who like to play Sim City or ‘my very first RTS’ type players. If I want a slow experience, I have turn based games. But with RTS, I want it fast. It’s why I find Command and Conquer practically unplayable today because of how slow the game is.
-Not Economy Focused. One complaint about Starcraft 2 is just how economy focused it is. You have to make workers nearly all throughout the game and keep harassing them all game long. You have to multi-task three to four bases in a large macro game. Starcraft originally wasn’t about this, but ‘pro level’ playing of it turned it into that. Starcraft 2, designed around ‘pro level’ SC 1 play, emphasized the economy focused game. In Dark Reign, there are two resources. One is water which is infinite (although you can build a unit that can destroy the water holes). The resource is as simple to get as just telling one freighter (which comes with your water building) to go to the water hole, and you are done. Interestingly, the water the freighter gets doesn’t immediately get converted to money. It waits until the water plant is ‘full’ and then rockets it up which gives you 3000 credits. However, if you need money ‘now’, you can force the rocket up sooner but you’ll get less credits overall than if you waited. This is a ‘fun choice’ that Starcraft 2 didn’t do. The other resource is a green substance for the powerplants. You don’t actually need it. Every power plant starts off at ‘half max power’ and you can make your existing plants stronger by getting this resource. It is the water that everyone fights over though. It is refreshing to play a RTS with no economic management (like in Starcraft 2). You focus entirely on the strategy.
-10 levels of elevation. Dark Reign was made when Auran showed Activision the Tactics Engine which was a 2d engine that simulated elevation. Unlike the wimpy two or three levels of elevation in Starcraft 2, there are 10 here. This game is totally about Line of Sight. One building is the Camera Tower which does exactly what it sounds. Very important building. You build it on a hill and you can see the lower elevations (down the hill). Then you can use Dark Reign’s amazing artillery which nearly goes across the map (siege tanks are crap compared to this).
Dark Reign also has an extremely impressive unit AI. You can even program behavior into the units. I’ve never seen a RTS game do this since. One of my complaints about the direction Starcraft 2 went (due to the wrong headed mentality of the ‘pro players’) is emphasis on multi-tasking over strategy. A ‘pro-SC 2’ game will show a Terran player being able to marine ball through banelings just because that player knows how to multi-task well and split the marines. But that is action, not strategy. This is why Starcraft 2’s bottom fell out as people want a strategy game, not a ‘multi-tasking’ type game (that is exactly what separates skill levels in SC 2’s ladder). Correct multi-tasking is managing your career, family, and video game time. Incorrect multi-tasking is delaying career, family since video game time demands you practice your builds and keyboard button presses for months since you believe skill is ‘multi-tasking’ or pressing buttons fast.
Rant aside, in Dark Reign I like being able to give units a low tolerance level for damage, for example, so they go back to repair on their own. My favorite thing to do is make a bunch of air units, put on low damage tolerance (where they go back to repair if hit once), and give them the harass ability. If it is a human player they are against, they go bonkers because they are getting attacked from 20 different areas at once.
Because of the infinite resources, games can sometimes turn into a Mexican Standoff. You really have to use your mind to break the enemy’s defenses then. My favorite unit is the Shockwave where it explodes but sends this powerful wave that travels on the ground destroying everything in its path. The wave appears on the mini-map and it really scary to see computers unleash it against each other.
Oh, and Dark Reign has incredible music.
The single player missions were better than what I remembered. Amazing how well this game is aging. I’ll talk more about it later.
Anyway, I love being able to revisit and discover these great old games. I’m hoping they do an EA sale soon so I can buy the Origin games and Alpha Centauri. I have Alpha Centauri but… man, I don’t want to put in the disk!
I’ve pledged not to turn into ‘that person’ who has a backlog. I still haven’t installed Outcast, Thief, or Realms of Arcania 1 and 2 year (the last one was given free if you filled out a GoG survey).
Damn, old PC games are SO SATISFYING. This is where I belong.
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