It’s got a peculiar name for an overall standard-issue game. Easily comparable to the ever-popular “EVE,” in which the overall goal is building up your own sizable fleets and conquering the various galaxies, all while combating with opposing forces, “Ogame†is a somewhat run of the mill, user-interactive screen saver.
Starting off on a randomly selected planet in a similarly random system, you are immediately thrown into it, with a series of tutorials available to help put you on the right path. Although far from being a mentally stimulating game, MMORPG players looking to try a new genre will likely find themselves dozing. Regardless, it’s definitely a good game to leave running in the background while you work or whatever. If you’re looking talk smack to your friends while level grinding and smacking them around, this is far from the game for you. There are no “Night Elf Mohawks†to be found here. It’s just click, click click.
Gathering resources, building your planetary defenses, amassing your fleet, further colonizing other planets, are all in the day to day life of an explorer and potential galactic overlord in “Ogame.†With a variety of potential technologies to pour your resources into, ranging from espionage to astrophysics, the latter of which allows you to colonize more and more planets, in addition to the previously mentioned planetary defenses (lasers, plasma turrets, shields, interplanetary missiles, the usual) and ships for your fleet (they even have a Deathstar if you have enough resources,) there’s ample variety with which to work.
Of course, getting these technologies requires facilities and resources. With metal, crystal, and “deuterium†(extracted from water) providing the raw materials, and solar energy providing the juice, you can then proceed to constructing the necessary facilities in order to start building your defenses. Research labs, a shipyard, a robotics factory, all of these are for beginners before the move on to the big stuff, like nanite factories and terraformers. All of this should be second nature to “EVE†players, just replace the names with the “EVE†analog.
It’s far from a bad game. It’s user-friendly, there’s not much of a learning curve and it’s great for “pick up and play†casual gamers, but it will definitely not have mainstream appeal due to its lack of any action whatsoever. Even the space fights are just a bunch of numbers and percentages. It’s a good game to waste time with in the background while you do something actually entertaining or productive. The bright spot though, it’s free.
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