Is MoO3 a good game?

[Gamerlord]

So, I am considering getting MoO1-2, but I am thinking "Why not get all three, GoG has them all for $16 altogether" but I keep on hearing bad things about it, so I ask: is MoO3 a bad game, or just suffering from 4e syndrome?

[Ranielle]

Depends. If you like accounting, then sure, go for it. You get to spend more time looking at graphs and making calculations than actually playing the game. I know that it's the usual hardcore 4x fashion, but Moo3 takes it to a new level where it's painful.

This is why people say bad things about it.

[Tengu_temp]

I'm trying to think of ways in which MoO 3 is better than 2. Other than the 3d star map, which is more of a gimmick than anything, I can't find any.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

The major complaint I've heard against MoO3 is that the game sorta plays itself once you get into it.

[Winterwind]

I'm trying to think of ways in which MoO 3 is better than 2. Other than the 3d star map, which is more of a gimmick than anything, I can't find any.

I kinda liked the "certain races are more inclined to be friendly or hostile to certain other races"-thing. And the greater amount of uses for the council, as well as some races starting in the council, while others had to try to get into it first. Other than that... yeah.

Another problem of MoO3 is that it is more complicated. I thought I'd be able to figure it out by just playing it, without looking into the manual (as I had with MoO2), and it was an... interesting experience. I never was fully able to figure out when which building was the most sensible, which areas to use in what fashion to the most effect, etc.

And I still won in an amount of time that would have been close to a record in comparison to my MoO2 games, simply by suddenly winning the council vote. There, just settled a bit, didn't do anything particularly impressive at all, and suddenly it's over and I've won. In spite of not really fully understanding what I was doing.

If that's not a sign of a rather... sub-par game, I don't know what might be.

[Poison_Fish]

If you like spending money to claim the title of "The Stratorgist", sure go for it.

[Gamerlord]

If you like spending money to claim the title of "The Stratorgist", sure go for it.

Fun fact: on googiling the word "Stratorgist" your post comes up first. I believe you mean "Strategist"

[Cubey]

No, he means the Strongerest in strategy gaming terms.

So yeah. MoO 3 - not a good buy.

[lord_khaine]

So yeah. MoO 3 - not a good buy.

It might have been a good game if they had ever completet it, but we newer got more than a early beta version.

[Poison_Fish]

No, he means the Strongerest in strategy gaming terms.

So yeah. MoO 3 - not a good buy.

You earn a cookie.

[Kzickas]

The worst part is the ai which is supposed to help you run your empire, which cannot be disabled and will directly countermand your orders

[d12]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything good about MoO3 (I have heard that MoO2 was pretty good though, but I've never played it). I picked it up fairly cheap at the time and found it to be the single most opaque game I'd ever played. I never had any idea what was going on or if any of my tinkering was actually helping. Also didn't really get how to do space combat, but I didn't play much before giving up and sticking with Galactic Civilizations. I'd always allowed for the possibility that I just wasn't familiar with the series or its setting and general mechanics, and maybe that contributed to my confusion, but in my experience everybody seems to complain about it. When I feel the space-based 4x itch I'll generally go with GalCiv 2, or Alpha Centauri if I'm feeling in the mood for something closer to standard civilization-type games.

[Winterwind]

I have heard that MoO2 was pretty good though,

"One of the best games ever released" is more like it.

[factotum]

Is MoO3 a good game? This is kind of like asking if bricks float--it's self-evident what the answer will be .

No, it isn't a good game. It manages to both be overly complicated and not give you enough control over what's happening, which is something of an achievement if you think about it! In trying to remove the more tedious micro-management aspects of the earlier games they also managed to strip out everything that made the game fun.

In short (too late) avoid it. It wouldn't be worth getting even if Steam were paying *you* $16 for the privilege of downloading it.

[Cubey]

Actually, in their efforts to lower required micromanagement, they increased the amounts of micromanagement you must do. And it all doesn't seem to have any effect anyway. The whole gameplay is either "throw money at planets and hope they construct/build/research something, eventually" or "painstakingly deal with tiny little numbers that are meaningless anyway, making you feel less a galactic conqueror and more a galactic accountant". And some elements are just plain weird. Opressionmeter? What the heck? I feel even more confused than when I played Civiliation: Call to Power for the first time and noticed I can set up wage and the length of working day, in the stone age.

Also, the plot had potential but they wasted it. Antarans won the war? I wonder how it will look like to play a civilization enslaved under them! Oh, it's nothing special, they just sit on Orion and do nothing except veto everything. They created a parasitic race of omnicidal killers? Too bad it plays just like anyone else, only hated by everyone. I could go on.

[Winterwind]

Also, the plot had potential but they wasted it. Antarans won the war? I wonder how it will look like to play a civilization enslaved under them! Oh, it's nothing special, they just sit on Orion and do nothing except veto everything. They created a parasitic race of omnicidal killers? Too bad it plays just like anyone else, only hated by everyone. I could go on.

That's actually the best (some, myself included, might be inclined to say "only") reason to get MoO3 after all - the story in the manual. It's a pretty long and quite interesting tale, pretty grim, that puts the entirety of MoO1 and MoO2 into some context and is full of fascinating plot points and foreboding omens. A really good read, in my humble opinion.

Only, yeah, the game itself does absolutely nothing with it whatsoever, sadly.

[Driderman]

MoO3 is really, really, REALLY boring.

Its been a while since I attempted to play it, but as far as I remember it goes along the lines of: You click some poor explained choices in some very counter-intuitive menus for a very long time, until you at some point realise that you have no measurable effect on the games progress.

Then you cry, quit the game and most likely go play MoO2 instead since it is immeasurably better.

[Gamerlord]

In short (too late) avoid it. It wouldn't be worth getting even if Good old games were paying *you* $16 for the privilege of downloading it.

Fixed. Steam does not sell them.

[factotum]

I actually also should have said "for the privilege of PLAYING it", because $16 just to download something and never play it would be a pretty good deal whatever it is...

[liza2010]

{Devoured}

[Whammydill]

I was massively disappointed with MoO3. I just felt like I was along for the ride and everything was arbitrary. I dusted off my MoO2 discs and fired up dosbox instead and had a grand old time.

[Iskandar]

I watched the forums the developers put up while they were making MOO3. The initial plans they had for it would have been a simply awesome game. Unfortunately, they tried to do too much in the amount of time and money that they had available.

Somewhere towards the middle they started slashing features and simplifying things just to get the game out the door. Most of the awesome bits ended up on the cutting room floor, or grossly simplified.

Most the fans who were following the forums saw the great suckitude coming, but our concerns were ignored.

By the time the game was released, most of the fans who had been paying attention were completely unsurprised by the poor reviews it got.

[Winterwind]

Can you give us some idea on what these changes included? I think it would be quite interesting to know what MoO3 might have been, enough time and money provided...

[Driderman]

Can you give us some idea on what these changes included? I think it would be quite interesting to know what MoO3 might have been, enough time and money provided...

Think about what you're saying here.

Do you really want to know?

[Winterwind]

Think about what you're saying here.

Do you really want to know?

Yes, I really do.

Because to me, the sense of hope that "Hey, maybe one distant day somebody will think of that, too, and do it right" prevails over the disappointment that "This is what we could have had, but didn't get". I'm optimistic that way.