Master of Orion 3 - first impressions

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2002-11-27 10:26am

The largest gaming magazine in northern Europe, the Finnish "Pelit" received a preview version (build is dated 20.10.02) of this anticipated computer game a week ago. Three reviewers have been posting their opinions on the magazine's message board, which is unfortunately only accessible to subscribers. Here are few things they mentioned:

The game is incredibly complex and not easily accessible. They've been playing it for more than a week now, and still none of them has a clear understanding of how the things work.

It's dramatically different from other MOOs and they warned that not all fans are going to be happy about the drastic changes.

A reviewer who answered to a question about the space combat, said that it is indeed played in real-time. He was currently playing his 100th turn, and there had been only few skirmishes between scouts.

There's a huge number of technologies to be invented, so much that at the beginning of the game you invent new ones every turn.

The reviewers are undecided whether the game is even funny to play or not. One of them said: "This is either the most genious game ever designed, or a huge disappointment."

Post by **Vympel** » 2002-11-27 10:35am

I'd wait for the first wave of reviews really- first impressions are often inaccurate.

C.S.Strowbridge · Post by **C.S.Strowbridge** » 2002-11-27 12:16pm

I think I'll stick to SE4.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2002-11-27 01:49pm

I must admit that I've been waiting for MOO3 for some time with anticipation, but I too will have to wait for further reviews before laying down green for it. Generally, it's better to wait for the later releases, since most of the bugs are discovered by those who initially purchase games.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2002-11-27 01:51pm

The game sounds like a nice development from MOO2 to me. It sounds like it abstracts away a lot of the boring minutae that you normally get bogged down in with these games and that seems like a worthy goal to me!

It's also nice to see a sequel that doesn't just rehash the last game with new graphics.

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2002-11-27 01:57pm

One of the reviewers asked people in his newest post not to spread their opinions in the web. Oh, well...

I have to admit that I'm less enthusiastic about the game now, but I'm still going to buy it. They listed all sorts of things you can do in your empire which makes Civ3 and MOO2 look like children's programs compared to MOO3. Massive fleets of the first MOO are back now and ship design has been greatly improved.

Vympel wrote:I'd wait for the first wave of reviews really- first impressions are often inaccurate.

They've been playing it for over a week now and I fully trust all of those three reviewers. I've been reading their articles since 1992 and they are all simulation/strategy enthusiastis. One of them really loves science fiction and said in one of his reviews (I guess it was Yoda Stories - anybody remember that?

) that "I would even buy a sand shovel if it had a picture of Darth Vader".

As I said, their build is only about a month old -- full of bugs, though. However, it would seem that the only way to defend yourself from enemy spies is increasing opression in your society(!). This will make the population to go apeshit at you...

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2002-11-27 03:11pm

C.S.Strowbridge wrote:I think I'll stick to SE4.

I've been wanting to give this a try. How is it?

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2002-11-27 03:15pm

EmperorMing wrote:
C.S.Strowbridge wrote:I think I'll stick to SE4.
I've been wanting to give this a try. How is it?

You can get a 100 turn demo off the net

http://www.malfador.com/se4.html

After playing it, well it's a good game but it lacks the atmosphere of Masters of Orion 2. Definately worth a look if you like that sort of thing.

C.S.Strowbridge · Post by **C.S.Strowbridge** » 2002-11-27 03:16pm

EmperorMing wrote:
C.S.Strowbridge wrote:I think I'll stick to SE4.
I've been wanting to give this a try. How is it?

One of my favourite games, and IMHO, the best Space 4x game ever. Check out the demo as soon as you can.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-11-27 03:16pm

Why exactly do we need three threads in three days on this subject?

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2002-11-27 03:42pm

I didn't notice the newer thread started by BlkbrryTheGreat when I made this one. This one is totally different from the other two, though. Has anybody mentioned the release date in this thread yet? Didn't think so.

Edit:

just to make sure...