Master of Orion 3

The game design is nowhere near as good as 1 or 2, messier, clunkier. And it's way way too easy -- big part of draw of 1 and 2 was that I had to think to win (on appropriate difficulty level). 3 on highest difficulty level? Doesn't feel challenging at all. Not a good strategy game imho.

In my life of a gamer MOO3 ws the greatest failure. And I actually BOUGHT the game, box and all... Everything they say about this game is true: overly complicated, while absolutely not satisyfying at all. I'm playing MOO2 to this day, and find it much, much more exciting. This game is NOTHING like it's predecessors. Moreover - I believe that creating MOO3 has put a curse on space strategies... I cannot find any new game of this type, that would be (if not better) at least nearly as good as MOO2... Don't buy this.

Bought this game ages ago after being swept by Orion 2. In a few words: The game sucks. It's amazing how you can put out and priceless game like Orion 2 and have a sequel that is totally the opposite: Total junk. Anyway, try another game instead...

This game can be as complex or as easy as you like. There is a settings to remind you after a certain amount of playtime, at first I smiled at it. By the time it turned dark outside, I was still only on my first few planets and needed that one more turn... It is highly addictive and easy to pick up. At the beginning (easy mode) you can literally click next turn all the time, concentrate on diplomatic relations to other species and command your fleets. Sooner or later you take back more and more control from your AI government and research or customise your AI government to your likings/style. The GOG version of the game is totally fine and absolute playable without any of the custom made content (version 1.2.5). Without any mod you can have 50-250 systems in the galaxy with up to 8 planets each, that is 2000 planets. You can distribute a maximum of 16 species over those. Your own race can be straight or complete custom, it is up to yourself. Later the game gets another layer of complexity with the senate you probably become member of and the search for artefacts and lost technology in the galaxy. Combat is the one thing I haven't touched yet and let the AI do the individual fighting.

I've played this game more than any other. You don't have to micro-manage everything, you macro-manage. That's the difference. If you want to have to decide what to build on each of your 100 planets every turn, then you can. If you forget to build something on one of your planets, it will build something for you. You can set policies on what planets concentrate on. Want to go to war? Set policies to military. Want to develop tech faster? Set policies to science. A few things are micro-managed. Building ships and functional armadas late game can be a little annoying, so you can just make them all recon class for simplicity. Harvesters are annoying, though mods can remove them. It all comes down to whether you want to micro manage 100's of planets (which you can), or set policies and enjoy the galaxy. Yes, there are a lot of options and menus - don't you need a lot to manage a few hundred planets? You can do several things in many ways. Forget where that Armada went, or what planets are good for you to colonize? There's a menu option for that. I thought the game was awesome for this macro-management ability. Then, the mods came out. Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate and some more. They really make the game a lot better. I like Vanilla and Strawberry mods.