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Ogame is a free browser based space conquest game. We've had the pleasure of reviewing this game as our first for ioMMO, so you can expect a lot of review to look like this. This review is an official review, so we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we liked writing it!

Story
In Ogame, you start out with just one planet. This is your base of operations, and where everything begins. With that said, there's not much of a story going on. You know you're building your empire, so the story starts with you. With no story, it makes it hard to rate this aspect of the game. The greatest effort to develop a story would be the videos Gameforge released for Ogame. It's a bit vague, but allows you to plug in your imagination, and get carried away.

Gameplay
One planet, limited resources, a hungry man's challenge. You start out in the middle of space surrounded by potential enemies who are bolstering up their armies to engage in warfare with, or against you. It's a free for all massacre, and you're lucky enough to be part of it.

Freedom to do anything comes at a price. The game's violence peaks when alliances decide you're a valuable, and profitable target. There is no honor amongst others in space, only those you are allied with.

The only downside to the gameplay in Ogame is it's all pictures. There's no live battles, and the battles once engaged are over in a split second.

Game Variety
There is enough to keep the small time gamer satisfied, but not enough for the hardcore, unless they like simple. The best way to summarize the game's variety includes the following.

• Overhead View: See basic information of the planet you're currently clicked on.
• Building View: See what buildings can, and cannot be built, and how long it will take to build them, and how long until you can build them.
• Research View: Same thing as buildings, except you can only build one at a time.
• Empire View: One of our favorites, however it's limited to paying customers. You need commander to access this view.
• Galaxy View: You can see all players in your area. From here, you can attack, defend, send messages, launch missiles on other planets, and more!
• Shipyard View: You can build ships here, but research is needed to access all ships in the view.
• Defense View: Same thing as ship view.
• Alliance View: You can keep in touch with your alliance here. This is your base of operations for your alliance, and it should be noted that every aspect of this should be taken advantage if you want to work in a cooperative environment.

Game Features
The key to enjoying Ogame is outproducing your opponents and allies. Build a fleet large enough to protect yourself, and at the same time have a massive stock pile of resources to fall back upon when times are rough.

In Ogame, you can build mines, shipyards, battleships, and even Death Stars. Using only three types of resources. Netal, Crystal, and Deuterium make up all building projects, and without one resource, the other would be useless with the exception of several buildings and research projects.

Robotics factories allow for faster build times, but later in the game, you can build nanite factories, which improve the speed of production. Higher level research labs and shipyards also improve the speed in which research and ship can be completed.

Dark matter is the currency in Ogame. It costs real money, but it could make for a better experience in Ogame. Some features of possessing dark matter include the ability to obtain "Commander" which is a feature that improves the gameplay drastically. Commander allows for queues of buildings, ships, and so on. Fleet Admiral adds two fleet slots to attack or recycle resource debris fields, Technocrat allows faster research times and higher level espionage, and there's much more you can do with Dark Matter.

Although dark matter costs real money, there is another way to get it without having to pay money. You can send ships on expeditions, which also give you resources if you're lucky.

User Friendliness
The game is compatible with many browsers, however we've encountered a few issues with older ones. We've tested this successfully on the latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, Avant Browser, and Google Chrome. The hardships we've encountered were primarily with the Opera Browser, but some versions seem to work better than others, so a simple browser change should do the trick.

All the buttons are there for convenience. It's not hard to know where to go when you play Ogame. When you see "Galaxy," you instantly know that takes you to the Galaxy View. The login is easy when you get used to it, since you'll have to drag your way down to which server you're playing on. It can be cumbersome to individuals who don't enjoy scrolling, but it's not a major issue.

Graphics
For a browser game, the graphics aren't half bad. They put a lot of effort in making the pictures that make up the game. There's nothing 3D about it, but it's eye candy to someone who wants to play a game that's easy on their eyes. The dark blue feel made us feel at home. It should feel the same for everyone else unless you just love exploding colors.

Performance
With the testing on several browsers, it seems Ogame performs best on Firefox. Internet Explorer was pretty slow, and Opera just had too many issues to be happy with. Sometimes the server may lag, and possibly kick you off, but recovery is fast, and server downtimes can go unnoticed since the game isn't playing in real time until you refresh your browser. Other popular browsers work just fine, but again, Firefox is key. It should also be noted that Firefox allows for plugins to use on Ogame. Some improve performance, and some are there for convenience.

Game Support
Support at Ogame can sometimes be limited, but this is to be expected in a free to play environment. We give them an E for effort. They take advantage of volunteers on their forums who are absolutely dedicated to their tasks, and their only gratification is the great feeling of a job well done. Volunteers take pride in what they do, otherwise there wouldn't be any!

The base support (Administration, Game Operators, etc,.) have quite a large haul of work upon them. There's thousands of tickets (support requests) that need answering, and they do answer every one that goes into their inbox. The wait time could be tedious, and since there's so much to do, their replies can be short coming. In a ticket submission, they've answered us clearly, but not enough to satisfy us. The second ticket we've submitted answered all our questions to satisfaction. Average wait time is three to four days.

Community
There's thousands of them! Ogame has over 50 servers in the US version, and just as many in 20 other countries. The German servers seem to be the biggest, since that's where the game originated from. It's a vast and powerful community, and there's plenty of die hards that won't let Ogame's community go down anytime soon.

The community in Ogame are aggressive! You never know when you're gonna have a crosshair up your nose. It's all good game, and the players are just trying to enjoy their experience. Most of them are rather friendly, but there are always those minority groups that love to trash the game experience for you. Don't let it get to you if you play Ogame, since payback can be a pain for them in the long run.

Overall
The experience we've had in Ogame was enjoyable. There's much to do, and if you have a PC that's not fitted for those hardcore 3D games, Ogame is right for you. We leave Ogame now with a sense of satisfaction, and suggest this game for anyone ages 14-25, who are in need of time to kill (Believe us, you'll need a lot of time to play this game!), and those with a competitive spirit who want to go against tens of thousands of other players.

Final Score
We've given Ogame a 7.2 final score. It's an above average rating, and should be looked as a compliment. Ogame was a fun experience, and we'd do it again if we had to. Unfortunately, we have other things to do, and must pain ourselves to move on!

Scores