Master of Orion 3

Removing it from the shadow of its predecessors, MoO3 is merely an okay game. The graphics were pretty nice for the era. The interface has a steep learning curve (because there's so much of it to figure out). Yes, the game does a lot of management for you, but I felt that way about MOO and MOO 2 so that was neither here nor there. Despite its flaws, the game is pretty decently challenging if you were aiming for any end game other than galactic domination.

MoO3 in priciple when properly patched works and works well. My main concern is the balance is all wrong. Whenever I play Ithkul, its always the same. I always modify the existing specs, to make the civ more technically capable, basically by binning, spying and ground defence capability and maxing on Research, Bioharvest, Industry and Mining. In the finace panel, I always have 2 green bars additional research spending and always build at least 2 research DEAs on every panet buigger than 3 regions. You get to a certain point, normally when you can produce dreadnaughts and it all goes pearshaped. With 2x the number of planets as my nearest rival and in 1st place, according to the victory panel, I find myself 4 or 5 tech levels lower and even with 140 planets, I can only produce 1 armarda every 2-3 turns, whereas my enemies can throw 10 armardas at me every turn. Once, ! had 800+ planets, my nearest rival had 20, and he was still a higher tech level than me and he produced more ships per round. I think it doesn't matter what you do, you will always be matched by the computer controlled players, so it becomes a pointless exercise. Most dissapointing.

Alright to begin I feel I have to clarify that I have read the other reviews and that I do understand and agree with most of what they say, but that they really overreact on some minor details. Anyway onto the actual game. To begin I will start with the good parts. First off the back-story is actually entertaining and made the aliens actually look like the bad guys without just saying their evil. They actually did something and that is good when trying to something that you want to beat. Another good thing is that they have in many ways changed the game so that it is not just a better looking game. It is actually a new story with new races and game-play elements. Also it is mostly better looking as well so that is a bonus. Also the customization in this game has been improved over the previous games significantly. Also it is still a master of Orion game, even if the worse in the series, so it is still an OK game. Anyway now on to the bad stuff. To begin, the sheer amount of tabs can be confusing at first, and more importantly once you have it figured out it can be a pain. And it just keeps getting worse. And worse. And that really is not what you want in a game. Also half of those tabs are useless. Continuing on to the planet screens, i have to say that These bugged me. I don't understand why they changed moo2. this one was overly complicated for no reason while before you could just see most if not all info on one screen without having tho click anything. Another issue is the computer AI controlling your stuff. I found this annoying. Also i am not talking about how you can win the game with just the AI (which you can), no i am talking about how it got in the way. It is not fun to do something only to have it changed next turn by the AI that's helping me. And finally, the issue everyone knows about, how bad it is compared to the last games. normally i don't base things on stuff like this. But this is the final on one of the best scy-fi civ games series ever.made so it is important. It just loses to much. There are more issues but these are the most prominent of all. So for my final opinion i have to say the I enjoyed it but never finished it. So while it is not the worst game ever, it is not worth the price it selling at. so if you have the money just buy the first two games. its a much better deal.

If you consider yourself an aficionado of strategy games and you enjoy a 4X setting then Master of Orion 3 (MOO3) probably deserves a shot. While it is not unusual for fans of previous versions of games to be less than pleased when their passionate favorite gets a complete overhaul, the rhetoric spewed out by the old school diehards of this series went way over the top. If you got into strategy gaming after MOO3 you might do yourself a disservice by paying much attention to any of the one star reviews or commentaries that begin by telling you how much a player was disappointed MOO3 wasn’t just a small tweak with some updated graphics of MOO1 & 2 while retaining the feel of their old sweetheart. Again, I am speaking only to the true fans of strategy games that know each game must stand on its own merit. And that a games true value lies first in the strategic challenge it presents followed closely by replayability (or how long it stays on your hard drive). So many games have been done a disservice by being held up to a mirrored image of their ancestors and having every change or tweak being derailed as a flaw or unforgivable alteration of the original. On-line services like GOG allow new players of classic games to break with convention and for a very reasonable price, play the games in reverse order. That may very well be the best advice for strategy gamers approaching the MOO series for the first time. Start with MOO3 then go on to MOO2 and MOO1. The odds are very good you will not share the opinions of the tainted old timers who only saw MOO3 through MOO2 colored glasses. In fact going from MOO3 to MOO2 might seem a bit like going from chess to checkers.

The creators - and those that still stubbornly cling to this wreck with mods and all - have forgotten that gaming is about playing a GAME...not an uber-realistic universal empire simulator. Grown-ups like me who have jobs, family and a wife don't have time for such nonsense. We want a game that we can sit down and ply over an hour a day and despite the fact that MOO1 & 2 were great GAMES, this one is not. It is not a game. It is a spreadsheet. Stay away from this one. Stay far far far away. You have been warned!!!