Have you ever played games like Civilization V, Endless Legend, or Galactic Civilizations II? All of these turn-based strategy games, among a few others, fall unto the umbrella term called 4X, which stands for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. The game that coined the term and led the charge was called Master of Orion. In this game you are the leader of a galactic race and compete with others to win. Win states can either be of peaceful means, or wiping out the others, depending on how you build your empire.
While Master of Orion 1 and 2, especially 2, is still highly-regarded by fans of 4X, the third instalment didn’t do so well. The rights remain under publisher MicroProse, then after the they were shut down, was transferred to Infogrames, which renamed itself to Atari, and has now been recently acquired by.. Wargaming.net. Wargaming is only known currently for making the popular free-to-play game World of Tanks, and a few other free-to-play games. But they are pretty successful, which would make sense that they can afford to buy a pretty dormant IP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKP4niGewxo
Fast-forward to now, the Master of Orion reboot is now in Early Access. As of the time of writing, the only way to opt-in the Early Access program is to buy a Master of Orion bundle, which includes the original three games as well as the reboot for a pretty cheap RM95. The game looks really polished for an Early Access game. UI looks nicely done and there’s plenty of voice-overs by pretty big names, including Mark Hamill, Troy Baker, Nolan North, and Roger Craig Smith. However, like most games following the program, it is still too early to judge if the game’s really as good as it could be, so consider that before jumping right in.
But if you’re curious to check out the Father of 4X and what has it now become, now’s a good time to do so. Or check out on Youtube for some folks already playing the Early Access build.