Master of Orion 3

Granted, I did not play some of the later patches. However, when I purchased the game the first time it came out, I found it glitchy, counter intuitive and infuriating in just how much decision making the game tried to do for you. Some automation is desirable for as complex of a game as this but AI should not be countermanding your orders. Space combat was also underwhelming and lacking in a lot of tactical depth. It essentially was reduced to moving ships around.

Not to rehash things that have already been said, but this game was a deep disappointment when it came out, and is still a deep disappointment. Looked good, was no fun to play. Very complicated, no feedback, no real sense of being in control. Stick with MOO2

The game was lots of fun, and navigating through the interfaces was fine after a bit of practice. I found that there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to combat, and the AI did a very good job of screwing that up. If you took control yourself it all went fine.

When if first came out I was hyped up about this game, as I loved MOO2. But after playing it a bit I came to see what a lot of people see in this game ... a bad sequel to an amazing series. It has some nice features, but these are overshadowed by the sheer crappiness of the game. This is one game I would NOT recommend buying.

I decided to write a short review about this game cause I think it could be helpful for the ppl who didnt try this game in the past and cant understand why here we have some 1 star and some 4 stars rating. Basically the reason is, if you play a game named "X" and you like it, when you buy "X2" you expect same game with various improved aspects, both gameplay and graphics, bigger, longer, whatever, but starting from the idea that is a "sequel" that refer to the prevouis chapters strongly. That happened with MoO2 related to MoO chapter one, and ususally happens to every "chapter2-3-and-so-on for everything.. But when it happens, and its that case, that the game "X3" is released, but it's no more referring to the first 2 chapters improving them, and its at the end a very different game that refers to the previous chapters nearly only from the title, you will have surely a lot of ppl disappointed, and in my opinion this is what happened in that case, this besides if the game could be good itself as "stand alone new title". That btw happened also in other "brands" like the C&C franchise and partially the HOMM series. This is the reason why here you see mostly 1 star (i bet from fans of the first 2 chapters), and some 4 stars (ppl that prolly played it without knowing the first 2 chapters). I personally expect and want a "x2" / "x3" game not carrying in only the brand into the new game im buying, so im giving 1 star here, also i played the game in the past and also if you take it as "brand new title" its not very interesting, but thats not the point why im writing this, you can read other reviews talking to the game aspects. You do a new game, you give a new name, sry but too easy to use a brand just to ensure your new product will be surely sold at least to a large number of "fans" that will blind-buy your new and different game. As you can read from other reviews anwyay, if you are not a fan of the serie, if you get this game without expecting to play a better version of MoO2, you may find that game interesting it seems.