There are great games that were released in unfinished states such as Gothic 3, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines, Master of Magic, X-COM: Apocalypse, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, Fallout 2, & Fallout: New Vegas.. just to name a couple. There are bad games that just so happen to be released in unfinished states such as Battlecruister 3000AD, Universal Combat, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter, Might and Magic IX, and Ultima VIII & IX. Then there's Master of Orion III. The history with Master of Orion III goes quite a way, Simtex, the creators of the amazing first two games closed down in 1997 and the rights to Simtex's creative properties was then held by Atari of all publishers. Atari, being the business geniuses as they showed with the Jaguar, decided that Simtex shouldn't develop Master of Orion III and that Quicksilver (whom are actually quite credible in the Strategy genre as presented with Castles 1 & 2, Starfleet Command, & Conquest of the New World) should develop it instead. While I might have said that they are quite credible in the strategy genre, apparently they've never played Master of Orion. First off, genocide and the refitting of obsolete ships are no longer options. Also, the promised features, which included racial ethos systems and colonization of moons and asteroids, weren't in the final game. Master of Orion III is primarily infamous for the abysmal combat A.I., and let me say the infamy is no understatement. The A.I. is horrendous, practically bordering on suicidal. The technology system has been "revamped" for the worse. In Master of Orion II, you could send diplomatic threats, spy, hire colonial leaders or ship commanders with knowledge of certain technologies, resort to planetary conquest, & capture and dismantle enemy ships. But no, those features were far too fun for a game as boring as Master of Orion III. At times in Master of Orion III, the A.I. would refuse proposals for technology trading without giving a specific reason or reasonable counter offer. Also, the computer players' relations with humans were affected by very middling factors (like how happy they are with you) and a counter intuitive interface that rivals that of EVE Online & Final Fantasy XIV Online. Also, despite good relations and an alliance with a computer player for years, the ally would suddenly declare war without any sort of explanation behind it so keeping them happy almost seems like useless filler. The lack of general micromanagement of races hurts too. All in all, Master of Orion III is a game that does nothing in the 4X genre right. Everything that makes a 4X game good is nowhere to be found in this middling disaster of a game. For that, Master of Orion III receives 1 star out of 5, thanks for reading.
