There is a decent game there, but only for people with the patience to climb the steep and brutal learning curve.
User Rating: 5 | Master of Orion III PC
I was like every other MoO fan and bought this game when it first came out. I tore open the box and pulled out the instructions (Yeah, I’m one of those strange people who reads the docs.). After 15 minutes of reading the worst game manual ever printed, I knew I was in trouble. ‘No, it can’t be as bad as the book.’ I thought. Boy was I wrong. So, I booted up the game to run the tutorial, only to find no tutorial. ‘It’s Orion 3, it’ll be okay…’ I continued to delude myself. From beginning to end, MoO 3 is and exercise micro-manage and everything there to make it easier actually ends up making it tougher. Let me explain. Every planet has an AI governor to take care of the minor issues. However, the game’s AI is dumb as a bag of rocks and will build things that make no sense. So you adapt and just run the planet yourself, but the AI will go and change your orders and no, you can’t turn the AI off. Now, imagine that with twenty or so planets and you’ll quickly realize why the majority of players hate this game. If this doesn’t get you cussing out your computer, you need to cut down on the mood stabilizers & anti-depressants. Bad AI can also show up in the espionage screen. You’ll occasionally see spies crossing back and forth across a border for no good reason and other acts of stupidity. With enough tech, spies to get smarter, but not much. Another failing of the game is the Orion Senate. While similar to other 4x games, the Senate is somewhere between useless and a royal pain. Whatever resolution you pass, it’s almost guaranteed not to help you and will probably hurt you in the end. The diplomacy system is better. But with little documentation, everything is trial & error and with a system this deep, one mistake can send you into an unwanted war. In MoO 2 you could hire mercenary commanders to grant bonuses to your empire, and MoO 3 is no different. The trick is, every commander now has a downside. And if the commander is useful, expect them to be assassinated within 20 turns of being hired. If he or she is detrimental, they will have a long and productive career in screwing up your empire. Now let’s talk about combat. In 4x space strategy, massive fleet battles and planetary invasions are the bread and butter of any bid to take over the universe and MoO 3 is no different. Just click a button and your AI admiral or general will go to town, without any input from you. I have played ALOT of these games and this game sports one of the most boring combat system (and graphics) I’ve every dealt with. I like to play computer games, not have the computer play the game for me. With all this going against it, once you overcome the absolutely brutal learning curve and dense AI, you will find a very deep and detailed strategy game there. Given enough play time, you will begin to understand the AI and all the little nuances and start to truly enjoy this game. The question is, do you have the patience to figure this all out? When you do, you can find me playing Master of Orion 2 or Galactic Civilizations. Two games that don’t require 40+ hours of torture before receiving some understanding of how they work and another 10 hours to get any enjoyment out of it.
