MOO! Master Of Orion Reboot Enters Early Access

Initial surprise at a Master of Orion reboot coming from World of Tanks has mellowed into a warm hope that they'll do Simtex's classic 4X strategy series justice (them and NGDC Studios, the team actually making it). If you're feeling bold, you can now see how work is coming along as the Master of Orion reboot [official site] has launched into early access. It's scheduled to float around that spacedock for at least three months, being expanded and improved, before launching properly.

Master of Orion's your usual 4X deal: alien factions try to spread across the stars by researching technologies, dabbling in diplomacy, and probably roughing each other up a bit. Almost definitely roughing each other up. It's very much a reboot and not a remake, Wargaming told us, so don't go in expecting a prettier MOO 2. I skipped MOO back in the day, so maybe friendly commenters can tell everyone what they dug about it?

Adam will be having a gander at Master of Orion and telling us all about it at some point, but for now, hey, Steam player reviews look pretty positive.

Right now, the new Master of Orion is only available in a £29.99 Collector's Edition which also includes the first three MOO games. If you're interested, it's on on Steam Early Access and GOG through their own new early access scheme, 'Games in Development'. A Standard Edition will follow later. As ever, it's important to remember that early access is buying an unfinished game, but Wargaming are probably at least rich enough to not fold and stop development.