Video Games : Master of Orion 3

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from: Atari

: Master of Orion 3
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Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years
Amazon Minimum Age: 144 months
Binding: CD-ROM
Brand: Atari
EAN: 0742725237711
ESRB Age Rating: Teen
Format: CD-ROM
Label: Atari
Manufacturer: Atari
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Atari
Release Date: February 25, 2003
Sales Rank: 6295
Studio: Atari

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
You assume the biggest role ever! No longer will you represent mere interplanetary dictators. In Master of Orion III, you become the controlling force behind an entire galactic civilization.

Amazon.com Review:
The Master of Orion series is synonymous with addictive turn-based strategy gameplay. Though the premise--choosing a unique alien race and then leading it in a galactic quest for glory--isn't new, there is something about the series that draws people back. Is it the original take on the diplomatic, economic, military, and exploratory components of galactic conquest? Is it the intrigue of the Antarans, an ancient and predatory race that always seems to pop out of hyperspace to attack at just the wrong time? Is it the sense of accomplishment that comes from building a functioning interstellar empire? Frankly, I don't know. But for whatever reason, these games are notorious for creating a bad case of Just One More Turn syndrome.

Master of Orion 3, then, has large shoes to fill. Appropriately, "bigger" is one of the best adjectives that can be used to describe this third installment. Fans of micromanagement are in for a treat, as the most noticeable new feature is the vast number of options available. The level of control is nice, but can be overwhelming--you'll sometimes find yourself swimming in a sea of menus, interconnected sliders, and check boxes. The array of empire management tools are all used to advance along one of three paths to victory: dominating your enemies militarily, getting elected as president of the Orion senate, or finding all five hidden artifacts.

Each planet in your empire has many components that must be managed individually--including taxes, build queues, regional zoning, terraforming, resource collection, economic infrastructure development, and military versus planetary spending limits. Successful management leads to a productive planet; mismanagement results in revolt and unrest. A vital addition to the game is an AI viceroy for each planet. Viceroys will carry out mundane work based on empire-wide policies you can set, but don't expect them to do exactly what you want very often. And even with the help of viceroys, the galactic scale is no less daunting. You must manage not only a galactic budget and research, but also diplomatic relations, spy infiltration, and military development and deployment. The manner in which the player interacts with the Orion senate is new to MoO3. You can now become a member of the senate and use it to impose sanctions or declare war on other alien races.

When diplomatic negotiations fail, space and ground combat become necessary. You assign task forces mission types that include long-range attack, short-range attack, point-defense, indirect fire, and reconnaissance. Ground forces are likewise grouped into task forces based on their size and strength. Once in combat, you can opt to control things directly or sit back and let the computer take care of everything. You can even skip combat altogether and jump right to the outcome--the fastest and easiest way to manage battles.

In the end, Masters of Orion 3 succeeds with compelling gameplay that will leave you engrossed for hours (or days) at a time. Thanks to the strategic depth of the game, vast number of management options, diverse and interesting alien races, a randomly generated universe, and a sprawling technology tree, no two games will be alike. Though dense and complex, the payoff is well worth the effort. MoO3 is a fantastic title perfect for anyone who enjoys strategy games. --Jon "Safety Monkey" Grover

Pros:

Cons:



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Too much simulation, too little interaction
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.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Best Half-Finished Game -- Great for Single Player Gaming
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.




Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - ALMOST hits the mark...
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.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Time
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.


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - A Wonderful Legacy of a Title That Fell Short
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.

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