Master of Orion 3

Ignore the negative reviews and buy Master of Orion 3! I completely agree with this guy about MOO3: "I'm confident that MOO3, properly patched and modded, is the single best, most fully featured space 4x game ever made. It has every feature I have personally ever wanted in a grand space strategy game. It has everything you would expect in terms of empire management, economy, diplomacy, and espionage. Technology is handled in a unique way at the macro level. Some people will not like the lack of ability to research specific techs, but there are just so many of them and you can influence their development in a way that usually results in you getting all the techs you want anyway. It has a streamlined ship design system, as well, that lets you pick your hull, weapons, mounts, engines, defensive systems and special modules. Speaking of hulls, there are more than 14 types, ranging from lancers, cutters, corvettes, frigates, destroyers, light cruisers, cruisers, battle cruisers, etc. etc. On top of this, the fleet management system is simply top notch. The rules of fleet creation make fleet design feel very naval and authentic. Build detachments, flotillas, squadrons, fleets, etc. Add ships to the core, the escort and the picket. Then deploy your task forces and conquer." Font: https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?msg=52666

Seriously, just about every time I go in a local Five Below, I see about 30 copies of this game. You could get two great games in the series for $6, or this one for $9.

The first impression of Master of Orion 3 is not good. The layout is lifeless and flat. At the time it was a huge step back in presentation for a turn based strategy game, and the years have not changed this. There are many spreadsheets of info with basic icons. Occasionally there's something more, but largely it's like something you could create with a lot of work in Excel. All of this is unfortunately because it hides the gameplay underneath...if the UI wasn't so bad it might take less time to realize how bad the gameplay is. The game is the worst of what I think of as "programmer mechanics", where the programmer of the game can see all of the action going on but the player isn't involved. Even if you understand the meaning of all the seemingly nonsense info, the game actively fights you trying to play. You could try to manage your planets, but the game doesn't agree with you and it will fix your mistakes. You could try to do combat, but the game can do it all for you as well as you can. Might as well just press the end turn button again and move forward. I've seen some bad sequels, but I don't think I've ever seen one as spectacularly deflating. I can still remember nearly two decades later the feeling I had after buying this game.

Master of Orion 3 is one of those games that never had a chance, so no matter what year you're in, everyone will insist on maintaining that status quo. That's why I gave it five stars, to counterattack the deluge of one stars in what little way I can. Is 3 perfect? No, as no game is perfect. Is 3 as good as the previous games? Not quite as good as II, though very little is. However, it's at least on the level of the first, a game that compares favorably to II. Is 3 kinda buggy? Yes, that's PC gaming for you. Sure, 3 is a complicated game to the point of needing an elaborate governor system, but that's not a bad thing by itself. It seems to be the #1 issue everyone has with this game, so if it's not the true issue with the game, what is? Starlanes, which are in almost every other 4X game made after because they're actually a good idea? Seems unlikely. So I genuinely don't know. None of the other complaints make any sense. Interestingly, Orion 3 was seemingly made to be modded, and had an extensive mod effort, the Unofficial Patch Mods (http://www.moo3.at/mods/). That's three different "flavors" of mods: Vanilla, which is meant to resemble an official patch; Strawberry, which is similar to Vanilla but with a number of quality-of-life features added; and Tropical, which makes a number of new balance and design decisions for a change of pace. I seem to remember there being plans to do even more flavors, and some unrelated modders have considered making their own, though nothing has materialized beyond these three so far. Surely there's something for everyone here? Master of Orion 3 deserves something called "better". We all have the power to give it this thing, and we should use that power. But after seeing so many toss the new Master of Orion into the bin for being a fairly solid game... well. Fanbases have this tendency of ruining entire series far deeper than the creator ever could.

Orion 3 is not like the other ones in the series. it is a slow game with very detailed controls and planet by planet builting. or you can let the ai build your planets and even control the space battles. If you are in the mood for a long drawn out game its good.