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Too much simulation, too little interaction

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The so-called 4X games may not be my forté, but I can't see how MOO3 really fits into the category of "game". You need a great deal of patience and a desire to drop interactivity in exchange for thoroughness of simulation.

Oh, you can do everything in this game. You can terraform. You can conduct diplomacy, invade other planets, build ships and raise armies, conduct research, bomb another people into molecular components. But somehow, none of that is fun here. The graphical interface - what makes a game a game - is so minimal it just takes away the fun. There are too many options to set (tax rate, spending on various sectors, intent of AI governors) and too many discrete possibilities within them.

Consider Dark Reign 2, which is an RTS and not quite as grand as most 4X games. You can discretely set your units to scout, seek and destroy, or hold their ground. In MOO3, you have a continuum of 1 to 100. This invites ridiculous levels of fine tuning.

Combat is... about as exciting as playing my Atari 800.

To be fair, it's more expansive than Gal Civ I in terms of what one can do, but just not as enjoyable to play. Okay, I really didn't enjoy either that much, but Gal Civ at least makes you feel like you're not some bored intergalactic bureaucrat.

Best Half-Finished Game -- Great for Single Player Gaming

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Masters of Orion III is the best half-finished game ever produced. Some will tell you that MOO II was better, but that is only true for multiplayer gaming. As a single-player game, MOO II was a complete bore. MOO III, on the other hand, is a hugely interesting single player game.

Unfortunately, the project was too ambitious for its budget and MOO III was rushed into production only half finished. The result is a great gaming concept, hugely complex and endlessly mod-able, tied to a buggy and now unsupported implementation.

The gamer willing to mine the internet for fan-created fixes, mods and guides (the documentation is also lousy) will be rewarded with a turn-based 4x gaming experience still unsurpassed in 2008. MOO III was the first great "macro-management" game, and the world is still waiting for the second.

Warning: don't buy the Mac version. The Mac port is less buggy than the Windows release, but far too many of the player-created fixes are Windows-only.

I loved this game and played it for hundreds of hours. If a finished version were ever released, I'd buy it in a minute.

ALMOST hits the mark...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

All in all, a good effort at a follow-up to Master of Orion II (MOO II), with a few problems that, if addressed, would make it nearly perfect.

Rather than go into too much detail, let me say simply that while I like the game, the following are my main complaints:

* I miss the old turn-based combat--Perhaps an option between real-time and turn-based combat is in order, maybe even the ability to switch during combat. In automated combat, it would be good to have options like "all-out, with no retreat," and to have ships actively seek the enemy instead of just sitting on screen until combat time runs out if no enemy ships are immediately within view.

* More control over build ques without having to micro-manage is essential. There is some of this now, but it would be good to be able to assign things like, "build ships until I say stop," with alerts every ten or twenty turns to see if you want to switch. Micro-managing takes forever, while auto-build doesn't give quite enough control. There needs to be a happy medium.

* When another empire surrenders to yours in a war, you get nothing of importance except an end to the war. One should be able to require surrender of all or a portion of enemy planets to your empire's control. You should also be able to demand surrender through the diplomacy screen.

I hope (but doubt) that there will be a Master of Orion IV, in which these issues are addressed.

Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: August 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It takes allot of time to play this game. If you select a large galaxy with many races expect up to or over 1000 turns easy.

Love it though.

A Wonderful Legacy of a Title That Fell Short

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: April 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

An excellent game idea. I played the first and fell in love with it way back when. This newest version though is a big disappointment. It doesn't have hardly any of the original style that made the first so fun and the interface on this one is *HORRIBLE*. There is no real hand-held manual for such a complicated game, only in-game and that is vague at best. Learning how to do something as eventually vital as build a fleet in order to defend or invade is hilariously ridiculous. At the time this series began, it was close to the only one like it and easily worth it, but it's clear they've lost the magic and the point with this one. Pass it by.

click...click...click...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: April 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

MOO-III is the latest (and with any justice in the universe, the last) of a space-based series of resource-management strategy games. I was a big fan of the last version, which was a marvel of slick, intuitive controls, engrossing combat/empire management, and cheesy (but fun!) graphics.

Sadly, I returned my copy of MOO-III one week after I bought it. It's the first game I ever played that felt more like *work*. It's slow, boring, and comes with a poorly written manual. It's also the best example of why you never let engineering geeks run amok designing any interface without some play-tester feedback.

It feels like it takes seven clicks to do *anything*. (I suspect that had this title's programmers designed a car's stereo system, you'd have to twist a dial three times, honk the horn, and stick your head out the window in order to turn the damn thing on.)

A couple small kudos are in order: the graphics are a vast improvement, the aliens truly look *alien*, and the Galactic Council is awesome.

However, these are all ephemera; the talent to create an even moderately enjoyable and entertaining game was sadly lacking in this design team. What a sad waste of programming ability.

Went back to playing MOOII

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: April 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I reviewed this game when it first came out (I was even one of the fools to pre-order the stupid thing), but I wanted to give an update. I recently downloaded DOSbox and started playing MOOII again, and WOW! I forgot how fun this game was. I can still remember playing the first one on my Tandy back in 1994 and both those games just make me cry when I think about MOOIII and what it could have been. Don't waste your money, and do download DOSbox and start playing MOOII again.

Master of Orion 3

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: April 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game based on a review I read on Amazon. After buying it and playing, I was somewhat disappointed. The layout of the panels for giving various orders are well designed. The detail of this is very good.
What I felt was lacking was that it didn't make me feel as if I was "IN" the game. Not much in terms of visual stimulation. A bunch of menus, clicking to build ships, troops and technology research.
I felt it could have been a great game had there been a bit more planned into it with better graphics during the action battles. Or to literally SHOW YOU where on your planet your forces were.
A good example would have been a larger planet view with a rotating planet and zoom capabilities into bases, seeing troops coming out of their bunker to line up, poised for battle. But there was none of this. The graphics to the ship battles were lacking considerably.
It took a bit a time to realize what was taking place, where I was, what I was doing. Again, just clicking planels and building and finding what planets to pick to do this on.
Considering the time this game probably took to program, I feel the creators could have made it better. I feel however it has potential to be this. I wrote a more indepth review to the creators to show my disappointment in the game and what I liked and didn't like. I honestly got bored with it after a about three days of play and a couple hours a day playing around with it.
Too bad they couldn't have consulted me during their creation of this game, I could have offered something to make it A LOT more interesting.
I suggested they ad a full screen rotating planet depending on the one you colonize. That the user can rotate that planet to see various areas of which have what. Or when an area is being attacked by an invading force, that that planet in full screen comes up and automatically rotates to the area of attack. A screen showing just WHAT is being attacked. A zoom capability would allow the user to literally WATCH the action of troops or ships getting blasted on the ground as they run for cover.
I've tried all kinds of games of all types over the last 15 years and this one was one I thought was going to be good but wasn't.
The aliens for example look like a talking mushroom. I mean, c'mon guys...we can get more creative than this!
There was no capability to DESIGNING ships. And one thing I found was some of the panels and understanding what was were and where it was being built was confusing.
Too much menu planning with little in terms of visual effects to make this game barely worth the $9.95 I paid for it. I have a feeling that Galactic Civilizations will be better. I'll have to give it a shot.
I'd recommend not wasting your money. You'll be finding yourself turning around in your chair to watch the women on FearFactor instead. As I did and forget you even had the game up. I give two thumbs down on this one guys. As for those who made this game, come on guys! get with the program! Step it up a notch, People now a days are looking for something that's going to really pull them into a more virtual reality game with stunning graphics and better interactive play.
I'm not sure how old this game is but I'd feel based on the play of it that it was made back in the early 90s?

One of the worst games ever made

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: March 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Riding on the name of a classic, this pathetic piece of trash can't even be called a game. It is a shoddy, lousy example of programming and saying it has hideous game design would imply there actually IS any game design to it.

It was a flop when it was released for good reason. (...)

Frustration to the max

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yeah, I'm a little late in writting a review for this game (about three years). I decided to write one now, because i bought this game the day it came out, and just within these past few months (of 2006) i actually figured out how the game actually works. It definitely has a high learning curve, i must of had 300 or so hours in playing this game before i was even a novice at it. To say it's complicated is a serious understatement. There's so many settings and buttons that it reminds me of one of those purposly complicated chain of machines and gadgets they use to do simple things like open doors for fun. Just when you think you have it figured out, something happens that makes you throw a drink across the room and shout "Why the $%%# is it doing that???". The main weakness in the game is the manual i think, it simply doesnt do a good job of explaining how the game actually works. Only about 40% of the features and interactions are explained in it. You're basically on your own to figure out everything else, which leads to a mountain of questions. Heck, it took me about two years of playing the game on and off before i actually figured out how to create a task force. Other questions still haunt me, with no answers to be found. Can you disband a ground force unit? Do they actually cost maintenance like the manual says....? Anyone?

Supposidly, the game has a lot of automation features that make it easier for you. Unfortunatly, these never work the way you want them too. I cant count how many times i've been in the thick of a war, only to find that all my colonies are building scouts and colony ships rather than warships. Great, the enemy is pounding away at our borders, but i got 30 colony ships in reserve, thanks a lot. I'd like to say that the "Planetary AI" feature does some things right, but it really doesnt. Instead of setting an compromised, steady financial setting it usually likes to just run the colony into the ground for a few turns, then do nothing at all for a few turns to fix the damage.

The fix, of course, is to simply turn all the automation off and do everything by yourself. Which....can be quite a task when you're controling 30 or 40 worlds. A single turn can take upwards of around 20 minutes like this (usually it takes about 600+ to win the game). It's kind of sad that this is all the game is about when it comes down to it. About 80% of your time is simply going to be spent on getting your colonies to do what you want them too, when supposidly it's supposed to be done for you.

Of course...all this frustration has to be leading to something really good right??? Nope. The battles systems is....pretty basic. There really is no room for strategy, brute force always wins. The Ground combat system is laughably simple, yet confusing as to how it works.

Which leads me to my next rant: Taking Planets from enemys. This....is extremely difficult. Invading a system, and destroying and local fleets, and planetary defences is actually the easy part of invading. The hard part is what to do next. Do you want to just destroy the colony on the planet? Or do you want to invade the planet and control it yourself?

Well...if you want to choose the wisest path and just nuke the colony, you got yet another headache in store for you. It's basically darn near impossible to do so. It can (and does) take about 30-40 turns of orbital bombardment to destroy a colony (as opposed to the one or two in MOO2). The only time effiecent method is to invade with ground forces and take the colony for yourself. This leads to yet another series of headaches. For one, the ground battle system is kind of a masterpiece in that it is both idiotically simple, and complicated at the same time. You get to choose from about 20 different battle tactics on how you're going to assault the planet, without any explanation at all on the benifits or weaknesses of any of them. Basically it's just a matter of guessing and hoping for luck. If you do conquer the planet, you're in control of all the alien race there. This isnt so great because the AI isnt very picky in choosing planets, so you usually end up with a real dump (yet another planet you have to manually control), with a population thats useless to you. You cant really create things like colony ships there, because they'll create ones of their race, not yours. So on top of the mountain of frustrations you have already, you get another: Somehow finding a way to keep your entire empire populated by your original race for simplicity's sake.

I'll stop before i get to far into this, rest assured i could write pages more of the headaches you have to deal with, but you get the idea. The only other thing i want to mention is the interface really is a terrible design. The first thing i learned in my freshman VB class was to make the interface user friendly (number 1 priority), these designers had a whole different agenda. I wont go into many details but let me ask you this: When you go to File, then Save As then click a file, it asks if you want to overwrite the file. As an industry standard, which side of the little menu is "OK" and "Cancel" on? "Ok" is on the left. Of course, the designers of MOO3 just felt the need to be different, and cause tons and tons of frustration for people who blindly think that clicking on the left button saves the game.

All in all, i play the game because I "Want" to like it....not really because i do.

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