MOO:2 is a galatic strategic adventure game. You pick from one of nearly a dozen races, each with its own benefits or drawbacks (The klackons, industrious space-ants, excel at production but are as dumb as bricks; ethereal Psilons float about learning with amazing rapidity but struggling to produce the ships necessary to defend themselves, while charming and wily Humans play folks against one another). A new feature allows you to customize your own race from the scores of options characterizing the pre-packaged ones. Want enormous planets? Make your race Aquatic and Subterranean. Insanely productive? Cybernetic, Tolerant (ignores pollution effects), +2 Production. The possibilities are staggering, and by buying a lot of negatives, one can afford an equal number of wonderful positives.

Each star system, unlike MOO:1, has a number of planets, most of which you can land on initially. Unlike MOO:1, you will not need to learn different _types_ of colonization for different planets (radiated, barren, toxic, etc.). However, you still need to research how to make them more fruitful. Along the way you receive the option to hire both planetary governors and ship leaders, effectively Heroes for your forces. Placing a good planetary leader in a system with a half-dozen habitable planets can double your empire's food, research, and/or industry production.

Other additional features such as multiple 'special' worlds guarded by nasty beasts, in addition to Orion itself, as well as the ability to purchase (eventually) robotic workers allows for great customization, and lets races rebound from setbacks. MOO:2 even allows you the option to let the computer calculate all the fleet battles nearly instantly, so you don't have to sit through a 2 hour fight involving stasis fields and boarding parties. However, you may only choose this option _before_ starting a given game, and cannot turn it off afterwards. Long fights may get annoying, but I find it far more useful to know _why_ you lost, not just that you did.

All in all, MOO:2 is a very engrossing strategy game, particularly for sci-fi buffs. Note however that while it has aged well, you may need to turn down the graphics accelerator on your computer to keep it from freezing up if you have a new one. Details on how should be included in the help files that come with the game.

1.)Combat-The only flaw in the game occurs here. Ground battles are not fought and commanded by the player; the results are dice-rolled with modifiers. Being a fan of RTS like StarCraft, I would have much preferred to personally lead my armies to sweeping victories. Aerial combat, however, is acceptable, if not amazing. You should also be able to give orders to groups of starships. During one titanic battle, I actually took an hour for my first turn, there were so many ships and so many targets.

2.) Diplomacy-The one little flaw in this is the multi-player facet, in which you can't simply "chat" with other players. Otherwise, very practical. I especially enjoy the "Threaten" option as a way of bullying smaller empires into giving me some tribute. New players, keep in mind-it's VERY hard to bluff with this.

3.) Economics-Again, a very practical, realistic approach was taken to this. You can conceivably build one of each building you've researched on a planet, but the maintenance costs drives your taxes to new heights so you can stop yourself from going into negative values. This was my only recurring nightmare until I realized my flawed startegy, and began using some planets as foodstuff-producers and others as industrial magnates.

4.) Science-Research of new technologies is what will really tilt the game in favor of one race or another. "Creative" races have an extreme advantage in that they research every possible venue in a field, whereas normal races have to pick one and "Non-Creative" races don't even have a choice. I tried playing with a regular race once, and it was tough enough even on "Easy" that I decided to stick with "Creative" races.

5.) Spies-My one argument with the spy system is that, like ships and buildings, you have to "build" spies, whereas in the first one, that sort of micromanagement doesn't take place. You just say, "Ok, spy on them." Otherwise, it is an excellent engine with little room for improvement.

6.) Overall-Like I said above, a Must-Have for any hard-core gamer. But unlike games like The Operational Art of War and Jane's Fleet Command, MOO2 has a good re-play value. The amount of variety you can introduce by changing the variability in using the race-customization engine, number of races, the size of the galaxy, the difficulty, and the starting tech level all contribute to the game so that no two games can ever really be alike. I've had this game for years and keep coming back for more.

What is the greatest feature of this game is re-playability and customization. You have (if I recall) ten races to begin with, all with different inate abilities, e.g. research, ship combat, ground combat, omniscience, trade, diplomacy, etc., and if that is not enough, you can make a custom race.

Besides the different races' abilities, there is the aspect of ship design, perhaps my favorite. You can come with an infinite number of ship design combinations, anything from size, shape, the number and types of weapons, direction of fire, sheilding, armor, tractor beams, and so on. I also love that as your technology increases you can make modifications to your existing weapons, e.g. shield or armor piercing, auto fire, continuous.

Finally there is the aspect of randomization. Every new game starts with a new map of the galaxy, making the strategic considerations different every time. There are also random events, good and bad, like earthquakes, space monsters, space pirates, plagues, shifts in orbit, industrial accidents, super novas, attempted assinations, weddings, and the list goes on and on. Also, in Moo2, the Antarans attack you randomly, and there is a final show down with them on their home turf (alternate dimension) as an alternate game end to conquering everyone or being elected to "master of the galaxy."

I am leaving some things out, but trust me on this one, even though this is an old game, if you do not own it, buy it. My only question is WHERE IS THE SEQUEL?!

Civilization III offers 16 playable civilizations, and each has its own strengths and bonuses. The game begins in the year 4000 B.C., when your civilization is nothing more than a primitive tribe, and each turn progresses the game forward in time. You manage growth, military production, city development, diplomacy, and scientific research as your civilization grows from a single village to several towns to a continent-spanning metropolitan sprawl. The fun is in deciding whether to research writing or the wheel, whether to build a musketeer to take out an encroaching enemy pikeman or direct your city to work on the culturally significant Sistine Chapel. There are five ways to win the game, ranging from wiping out the other civilizations with military power to defeating them through cultural dominance, which is one of several new victory conditions.

Fans of Meier's other turn-based games will find the same addictive gameplay present in Civilization III. Building off the gameplay are several new additions, specifically the new cultural rating and the new resource management options. Every turn, each civilization earns culture points based upon how many wonders and other culturally significant structures are built within its cities. The higher the culture rating, the faster your civilization's borders grow. If your border extends to an enemy city, it's possible to capture that city without shedding any blood; the city's citizens will be attracted by your culture and willingly rebel.

The other big change is that you must collect raw materials in order to build certain units. For example, oil and rubber are required to build modern units, and if those resources aren't within your territory, you'll need to negotiate with other civilizations for them. And because the game's negotiation process is very deep and involved, you may find yourself cut off from key raw materials if you're at odds with other civilizations, which, in turn, will weaken you militarily.

The AI powering rival civilizations is quite good, and is capable of negotiating complex arrangements with both your civilization and other civilizations. These negotiations run from simple trade agreements to complex mutual protection pacts, and it's not uncommon to find an enemy civilization taking steps to isolate you from the rest of the world.

There are a few minor issues with the game, most notably with unit imbalances and the tedious endgame, which can drag on forever. These are minor problems, however, and don't detract from the overall experience. Fans of Sid Meier's other games, or anyone looking for a fun and challenging gaming experience, owe it to themselves to pick up Civilization III. --P. Meyer

Pros:

• Enemy AI is very impressive
• New additions really add to the experience
• Very addictive gameplay

• Some unit imbalances
• Endgame is a little long-winded