O.R.B: Off-World Resource Base

I am quite shocked that this game actually came to exist on Steam, but I praise valve nontheless. This game is absolutely amazing. It was my FIRST game ever. I remember being about 6 or 7 years old, and my mother giving me this after she saw it offhand at a best buy one day. O.R.B or Off-World Resource Base, is the best spaceflight strategy warfare game that I have EVER played. The story behind this is just as gripping as the gameplay, you play as the Malus, and then after - as the Alyssians. Both races are "children" of a lost species that spanned an entire universe - moons upon planets upon systems upon galaxies, known as the Aldar. All that is known of the Aldar is through a "bible" if you will known as the Torumin, which is posessed by both species. The Aldar came to extinction due to an unknown species known only as The Great Betrayer. After searching and discovering the remains of the Aldar, the great betrayer shows his face. The Elathen, and their slaves, the Kyulek. It is up to only you - to defend Alyssia and the Aldus system from the Elathen - destroyers of matter. Can you find and harness the lost and ancient Aldar technology and use it to your advantage, or will all the great work of the ancient intergalactic Aldar be lost as floating, frozen relics in an endless wasteland of death. This game is not forthright in its secrets...but each mission has a secret trigger event that will unlock a hidden mission later in the campaign, new unseen units, or reveal a hidden storyline. This game was going to be much bigger than it turned out to be - there is enough content inside to fuel several spin-offs, but sadly, none of this occurred. O.R.B is a game to which I have never been bored of, or have ever seen an end to the unique gameplay. And although I wish it had server support, the Singleplayer experience is absolutely tremendous, and the graphics are extremely appealing for a game made in 2002. Good job, Strategy First!

Great classic RTS. Yes it seems complicated upon first glance, and yes it is an older game, but once one understands how to play, hours disappear. The sheer vastness of the play area is amazing not to mention the variety and size of units available. The way one moves the camera through the game areas is very similar to Maya or the Sims 3, making rapid and precise movement fairly easy. Lots of fun, great time waster or engaging space RTS depending on the level of attention you want to put in. Been looking for this game for years and here it is. SWEET

I love strategy games and space games. This game really fills the space where those two desires collide. Yes, this is an older game, but it is so very good. The current price of $5 is an absolute steal when other older re-released games might cost you $10 to $15 to pick up. Be warned though! If this is your first time playing you will really need to play the tutorial and that will take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour depending on how much you really try to acclimate to the controls. You CAN skip it though if you prefer to learn on your own, but id advise against it. The 3D movements are very cool but kind of remind me of a few of the convoluted 3D modeling software controls I've learned. You don't have to play in that mode though as I typically spend my time on the 2D tactical map, but the 3D view is cool to watch a battle or check out an incoming ship you might want to steal. You dont actually control the ships though, just their behavior. (which you can customize too). The AI can be trusted in some of the trickier dogfights though I'd still keep on eye on them from the tactial map. I could talk more about this game, but mainly I'd say JUST PLAY IT! Make time for the tutorial and get ready to spend some hours in-game!

I REALLY don't want to write this, but It has to be said. Don't buy it if you have modern hardware. The graphics engine is unfortunatley not compatable and it makes the game nearly unplayable. Even with compatability settings. Google has failed to find any fixes before I refunded it. Which is a shame because this game seemed like homeworld (A game I absolutley adore), with some interesting twists (Like how they handle mining, research, crew management, and espionage). I'm sure the game is good, just I don't know how to fix the compatibility issues. (No setting it to compatability mode of an older OS didn't help)

It looks like a nice game. It refuses to run on my Windows 7 gaming machine though. So this game is for Windows XP [b]AND BELOW[/b]!!! Remember that.

Ah, this game brings some nostalgia. Scanning asteroids, building bases on them, passive+active sensors, beautiful backgrounds, alien speeches - this game DOES have its own 'atmosphere'. Not to mention that it's one of few space real time strategies with full 3D navigating, base building and research. If you're into this kind of game genre don't let it pass by you. And almost forgot - in-game encyclopedia covers almost every aspect of the game including each race pre-history, ships and technologies.

Having owned and played O.R.B's CD version since 2003, I still keep coming back to this game every now and again, briefly stepping into the shoes of my 3nd grade self that summer vacation. The game is entering it's Twenty Third year since it was officially last updated and still has a few nerds like meself still playing it, and not because of the Nostalgia bomb effect it has, but rather it's quirks which always make it a fresh play, such as it's simple acting but surprisingly complex AI which will actually evolve as the player plays the game, and it's own scenario editor which makes the game infinately more fun, able to script levels, events and new AI's into the game if you're savvy enough, and if not, the editor is forgiving. The Graphics may be outdated, but the backdrop is a far cry better than other modern space games on steam (Kinetic Void, I'm looking at you) with beautiful nebulae which most modern games for some reason seem to leave as dull colors or worse... sprite files. With actual imagery taken from space, the nebulae really appears legitimately beautiful in an odd 32 bit way. The story is a little meh but the levels are fun and challenging, though the final boss of the final level is a bit of an OH MY GOSH WHAT THE HELL IS THAT moment, being nothing less than a planet sized Space Squid. Despite this cliche, it is a fun fight. And lastly are the things under the hood, cut content and features, and disecting how the game runs to make it run better on modern hardware. I've discovered over a decade, including missions and levels that were meant to be in the game and are now left behind as shadowy reminders the game only exists because they rushed production, with a full unit list and CSV sets for building hidden campaign levels that required specific things to happen for them to trigger. All in all O-R-B is a fun little game for $5 and is pretty decent considering it's age. It might not be a Homeworld, but it's a bit cheaper and just as fun. Fair warning, any NVIDIA gpu's newer than the RTX 3000 series may require a convoluted, but doable fix due to an issue with the cards failing to properly emulate DirectX9. AMD RX9000 series confirmed working at this time, and Intel ARC gpu's also requiring a convoluted work around.

I loved Homeworld, I still play it! ORB is Homeworld, just updated graphics.