Master of Orion 3

Super

Poor user interface and idiotic AI.

come on people...don't get fooled again. Remember when this game came out, huh? IT SUCKED! It was universally panned and instantly found its way into the bargain bin everywhere. It's not a classic, its a horrible game! Just because its released in conjunction with the other two MOO classics doesn't make this one any better. You can put a pig in a dress, but its still a pig. Calling it a classic doesn't make it one....

This is a rare flawed gem, sadly hated too much to be objectively judged. If you don't buy into the mindless flame game, you'll find a pretty unique (if unpolished) game of rather well-executed macro-managemnt; certainly, we have Distant Worlds now, but all the way back then there was nothing. MOO3 was a bold pioneer into the lands unknown, and was stomped by angry fans by not copying the original formula. It's much less casual than the original. It requires some analytical skills and some effort to get into. But as soon as you adjust your mind, you'll be surprised how rich your game experience is. And yes, it's 4 star rating for game with fan-mods, which add a much-needed polish. Don't even try playing without them. Seriously. Don't.

Recently, when I was playing the adventure "Book of Unwrittten Tales", that hero gnome Wilbur went into an inn where two Persons spent their time playing a "fantastic multiplayer adventure", with an unique setting in a truly fantastic world. They were both occupied to pay their taxes for the year, to maintain the bike one of them owned, and to work for a living. Fantastic, IF you are a creature from a fairytale-world. Boring, if you aren't. It is the same with MoO3. I did not own any other parts of the series when I bought this game back in 2003, but I had enjoyed playing Ascendancy and Imperium Galactica 2, and was looking for a worthy successor ever since. BUT MoO3 is not a game. It is an overwhelming self-sufficient universe-simulation, in a sense, that nothing you can do will have a significant influence on that universe. This game does not need any player. If you try to influence anything in this universe, you feel like Don Quixote fighting windmills, or at least, like an subaltern city administration employee sitting in front of a desk with piles of paperwork, waiting to be done. IF that sounds fun to you, give it a try.