Rating: 
Summary: Pure Garbage
Review: One of the worst games I've ever played, and I've played a lot of them. Master of Orion 2 is a better game and that was made years ago, by a different developer.I played it for about a week when it first came out, and the bottom line is that it is just not FUN!!! I even gave it another chance when the patch was released, and it still just wasn't fun. Entertainment is the point of playing a game like this. The problem is that the guys who developed Master of Orion 3, created a game that is too much work for too little entertainment value! The graphics have all the charm of an excel spreadsheet, and the interface (while not impossible to get used to) is needlessly complex. Save your money...just do your taxes, it's pretty much the same thing! If there is to be a Master of Orion 4, it's development needs to be taken away from Quicksilver...they don't know what fun is.
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Thinker...
Review: While this game does not offer any actual eye candy whatsoever, it does offer a bit more for the intellectually inclined. Granted, the A.I. can often be quirky and illogical (declaring war, sending word of improved relations, congradulating you for something that you don't know, etc. without any reason). But I do find that the game seems to have an addictive effect. Often I find myself playing for hours (it even has its own built-in alarm clock system to notify the gamer that his or her life is passing without him). I really do not recommend this game to those that rely on graphics to ensure their enjoyment because this game has none, but I would recommend that someone with LOTS of time to kill and a liking for strategy turn based gaming to at least give it a try. Maybe check out a friend who owns it and plan on spending a night or two, or three...
Rating:
Summary: Bastard of Orion
Review: This game was awful. After years of waiting it was a monumental disappointment. MO2 was perhaps the greatest space strategy game out there and probably second only to Civ 2 as greatest strategy game of all time. This third installment removed everything that was great about the first game and instead replaced it with everything that was boring. The biggest complaint about the second was the amount of micro-management and the lack of a decent AI. The third has even more micro-management and a dumber AI! Not to mention how impersonal the game is. You can waste hours navigating through confusing, layered screens to get to common functions like production. Andt you can't name colonies. How are you supposed manage a bunch of worlds with names like Scyd and Rel. Its tough to care about a homeworld named Kled 3 when you're Human. Also the level of discord on the planets meant colonies seceding 5 turns into the game! If they had simply beefed up the graphics of the original game and expanded the universe a bit, Master of Orion 3 would have been Ok. Instead they squandered the potential greatness and probably doomed the series. McBoxski
Rating:
Summary: This game lacks the MOO feel.
Review: This game is just a huge disapointment to me. So many changes from the first two MOO games it just doesnt feel like a MOO game at all. A new game should expand on the past ones and make improvements, i feel MOO3 was a huge step back not forward. Its also hard to take the developers in a serious manner when they tell you time after time that something is not possible and can never work with the engine....yet the patch comes out and look how many things in there were "impossible" before hand, names colors gui etc etc etc.. Overall MOO3 and the development of it have been a huge dissapointment. Some love it but i'm not one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: If you don't have an patience, don't buy this game.
Review: ... I played MOO1 and MOO2 religiously in my time and MOO3 seems to me to be a worthy follow up. Get the patch and look over the user forums at the Atari site. There are a ton of hints and how-to's published by hardcore fans on the official site that do wonders for understanding what's going on. If you've never played the MOO series don't expect this to be Quake - it's not and was never meant to be. It is a very complex game with nuances that I may never get, but what I have figured out works for me. That said it took me a game or two to figure out how MOO3 differed from MOO1 and MOO2 and I like the changes. The AI really does take away from the need to manage build queues and takes up fleet constuction quite well - I have noticed that the AI tends to build more of some ship types that others, but that's easily fixed by marking those ship types as obsolete when you think you have too many. I like that I have a reserve fleet to draw on in a pinch without having to build one from scratch nearer to the front. I like that the ground combat is a separate step that is more convincing than sending colonists over to do ground pounding (as in MOO1 and MOO2). I still haven't gotten around the finer points of race relations yet, but I'm sure that will come in time. I also have a little trouble with the civilzation government types and the population unrest control, but nothing major yet. IMHO, the changes in MOO3 help bring the game down to where it really mattered - exploration, combat, and conquest. While I didn't mind (and quite enjoyed) the micromanagement in MOO2, MOO3 allows me to not have to worry about how my planets are doing and focus on the big picture. Overall a great game and a great buy. ...
Rating: 
Summary: I'm still waiting for this to be fun.
Review: First off, when I heard MOO3 was coming out, I was excited. More excited because the rumor was that if MOO3 was successful a Master of Magic 2 might be developed. I read all the horrible reviews that everyone wrote, and thought to myself, "Hey, I loved MOO, MOO2, MOM, Civ2" and just about every other turn based strategy game out there. I'll have to like this. I figured all the negative reviews were just by people who get frustrated by complexity. The game is complex. VERY complex. I consider myself a pretty intelligent guy. I'm college educated. I've been playing strategy games for a long time. I have no clue the the [F-Bomb] is going with the economics and research aspects of the game. I'm sure a lot of time and effort went into developing this side of the game, but personally, I find US Income Taxes much easier to understand than this. I've put in about 6 hours of game playing and I'm pretty much giving up. I kept thinking that I'm missing something and the game will get fun after just 10 or 20 more turns. The game just isn't fun. I don't mind playing for an hour to get into the game to get the challenge going (Getting setup in CIV and developing Cities takes time for the later battle). But the game is just missing the fun aspect. ...e And the most depressing part, I sincerely hope they do make a MOM2...just don't let Quicksilver Developers touch it.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy! Stay away!
Review: What a complete waste of time and money. Even with the patch applied, this game is terrible. It's boring, the AI stinks, the graphics are terrible, and the fun parts of the game have been abstracted (particularly the space combat) while the boring parts of the game, including economic management, have been expanded on. It makes no sense. It's as though they were intentionally trying to make the game boring and dull. If I was on the design team for this game, I'd be ashamed. One and a half stars. That speaks for itself. Do not buy this game.
Rating:
Summary: Typing this review if more fun than the game.
Review: I tried to play this game untill I got to a fun point. I really did. But it was for naught. The game just plain ... 1- "real time space combat" in this game = watching little dots on your screen shoot at eachother for awhile. The space combat graphics look like they are from 1990. Their is very little in way of stradegy to it at all. 2- 4+ levels of menues you have to navigate through just to manage a planet. Each planet you go requires that you click through menu after menu to get anywhere. 3- The Tech tree is basicly an AI controlled monstrosity that you can't really understand or control. Your scientists study multipule sciences at the same time and go on to the next automaticly. The whole thing is very confusing. There is no sence of "I need to get this tech so I can get 'x' ability". 4- The enemy AI is [horrible]. Completely stupid. I often found enemy races declaring war one turn, making peace the next, then declaring war again the turn after... over and over for round after round. Take this for what it's worth from someone who put a lot of initial time into the game. I won't be playing it again. Total rip off.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Bear in mind I'm a fan of those games which, in the later stages, can stretch out to an hour a turn. The design of the game is excellent, but I found that I started and started over a dozen times, slowly learning all of the VAST number of features of the game. If you like to micromanage, you will not be disappointed. Two complaints. First, you basically have to allocate all shipbuilding and building construction yourself, though you can leave the DEA production to the computer. While this gives you more control over your end product, it can be VERY tedious. Second, the documentation is LOUSY, and does not contribute at all to learning the game. My advice is to sit down for two weeks and screw things up until you see how things work.
Rating:
Summary: I was not happy/ Now I'm very happy!
Review: When the game came out I have to admit; except as practice for the patched version it had no value. It was impossible to lose, very clumsy to play and very buggy. Since the first patch; I am very happy to say this is a fine successor to MOO II. It adds much deeper layers of complexity and a much, mucH, muCH, mUCH, MUCH larger galaxy and number of planets to inhabit! It allows you to give suggestions to planetary viceroys and let them run your planets while you concentrate on strategic and diplomatic issues. Or you can turn your planetary AIs off and micromanage some or all of your planets. But I think if you enjoy micromanaging all of your planets in this game you have more than a few issues with control in your life. There are fixes to be made. There are some aspects of the game I would have changed if I had made it; there are changes in the works now. If you like TBS games. If you liked the old Avalon Hill strategic board games. If you like chess; I would suggest giving this game a try. WARNING! Steep learning curve and the documentation is weak! (that's being worked upon too.) You get a lot of help by reading player comments in the official forum.
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