Master of Orion 3 was my most anticipated game at the time, the original title was my favorite game. While none of the developers of the previous games were involved, I had hope in the idealistic Quicksilver to get things done. As it turned out, while they were chirping out cool ideas they were trying to implement, trouble brewed behind the scenes. The game lost its producer half-way through development and what was once a comprehensive vision became a jungle of glassy, well-intended shards. What wound up in a bizarre red box on a frigid February day and, subsequently, in my college-poor hands, is a mystery. The art direction was unified and repulsive. Every fun aspect of empire building was washed away by layers and layers of abstraction and complication. Diplomacy became a game of e-mail and even further abstractions. Simply playing the game was a chore. The game sold okay and it was enough for Infogrames to charge Quicksilver with a pair of patches before dropping support entirely. This mess of a "game" (more like a boring galactic toolset) isn't worthy of the Master of Orion game and I suppose if we'd all been wiser, we could've foreshadowed the trainwreck from miles away, but we were far too hopeful and naive. Do not buy.
