A disappointing sequel, almost in alpha stage, but still the most AMBITIOUS and innovative PC project in recent memory
User Rating: 5.4 | Master of Orion III PC
As a MoOII addict, I was shocked like many others to experience what I call now a pre-alpha, alpha stage SPREADSHEET of blurred data and windows clicking fest. The innovative features are there, and it's not that they are badly integrated, it's just they aren't polished. Maybe the testing phase was rushed, even skipped. The AI is lacking and offers no military challenge, and the few patches didn't change that very much. The fonts and user interface, arid and blurred, are enough to kill what could have been a fantastic epic scope. We know there have been some departures in the midst of the development stage, some top designers have left the project - some conflicts of ideas or personality, whatever - and the game never survived that. The IFPs ( Imperial Focus Points ) were abandoned, and maybe it was too late to recalibrate the rest. The compounds updating was probably impossible to do, thus the AI lacking and the incredible gap between the impressive economic system ( real genuises behind that ) and the military engine ( messed up with the rest ). Without military units, MoOIII could have been a good tutorial for a ''Interstellar capitalism sim ''. Having tried a good balance of macro and micromanagement for the genre is pure genius, but the results are not there: too ambitious, lack of coordonated developement and the player has 2 choices: 1- let the AI manage, play macro, and be frustrated to see the bizarre decisions made; 2-micromanage almost everything to keep control, but endless and endless tedious moves to make at an unacceptable level of one hour per turn and more...... The interaction with rivals you meet is cold, unintuitive, and lacks the epic warmth of the classic prequels. Some battles are good to see though, especially when attacking the New Orions at their home system. In resume, MoOIII was perhaps too ambitious and innovative for the genre at that time , yet the development schism has just killed the otherwise decent effort to bring the TBS management/ RTS combat in the franchise. Total War remains the best reference for the combo of both in the strategy era.
