Moo3

[Papewaio]

If there is a thread on it please point me in the right direction.

Deciding if it is worth getting... still enjoy Moo2... but the word I have heard about Moo3 is that it doesn't have much staying power... too quickly released and falls short of its hype while in production.

[Demon of Light]

I loved MOO2 and got MOO3 when I saw it for sale. It wasn't worth getting.

[chunkynut]

I got MOO3 fairly cheap a little while ago, liked MOO2 and can say that MOO3 is a different type of game.

You get executive level strategic command rather than command of everything from ships captain and planetary governer to the high level stuff.

Thats the big thing, if you play the game as if you are the leader, rather than some sort of work horse micromanaging everything then its fun and you can see which policy works and which doesn't depending on what race you pick etc etc

[Voigtkampf]

Actually, my first review was written for Master of Orion 3. I was a great fan of MO2 (never played the first part, though) and was utterly disappointed by that game. It is complicated, but in an unhealthy manner, driven by logical mistakes it feel like the greatest administration simulation there is. The auto-build AI regularly changes your sets of orders and builds what it wants, there are numerous bugs aside of that one, I won't hurt myself by repeating those I remember of. It is impossible to lose; I'm serious. I once tried out and played some 250 turns, without giving any orders at all, just clicking away. Almost half an hour later I was fed up, didn't want to go on and gave up, but at the time I had only one of my worlds bombarded and there was no sign that the opponent AI will ever manage to finish me off. In matter a fact, this game runs by itself, you are there to make turns, and that is all.

[Crandaeolon]

Don't get it. Stupid as I am, I bought it right after it was released. Out of the box, the game is severely broken: many mechanics (for example, point defense and stealth technology come to mind) simply do not work.

AFAIK, a single patch (most likely there will be no more) has been released, and it corrects some of the problems, but there are simply too many to fix. Combined with the patch, fan-made mods do make the game playable but it still suffers from a severe lack of personality and flavor.

Galactic Civilizations might be more like what you're looking for, but it doesn't have a combat simulator.

[Togakure]

MOO2 is still installed on my PC and I still play it from time to time--a great game.

Given my enthusiasm for MOO2, MOO3 was a tremendous disapointment. Great feature ideas were evident, but they were very poorly implemented and integrated. The result was an unnecessarily complicated and boring game of micromanagement. This was especially frustrating for me because the potential of the game was apparent, the developers just didn't pull it off well.

I recommend not bothering with it unless you are very curious and can get it dirt cheap.

[Rosacrux]

I'll have to agree with the majority: MOO3 ain't worth it. I got it (sucker me...) pretty early, eager as all the hype had brought me into thinking this is a worthy successor of MOO2.

Boy, was I wrong. The game has a huge potential, but it's so poorly implemented that it cannot fulfil any of it. I am a micromanagement freak, mind you, so that's not my main gripe with MOO3 (a game actually featuring more macromanagement than micromanagement).

My main problem is the complete lack of personality, it is a soul-less game. It can't stand out, can't drag you into it's world and is unable to introduce you effectively to the immense world it sports.

If you really want a turn based strategy game - and you don't consider Civ3+expansions - Get Spartan. Cute game and highly modable. Has great potential and looks promising.

[Spino]

If you consider accounting to be an extreme sport and anal retentive file clerks to be the cornerstone of civilization then by all means, go and pick up MOO3.

[nightcrawlerblue]

I love MOO2. I played the 1 hour demo for MOO3. I immediately threw my hard drive against the wall.

If you want it to be like MOO2 don't get it. I didn't really play it enough to get a solid opinion of it but what I did see was not fun. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/flat.gif

[Demon of Light]

To me anyways, the management of the economy seemed counter-intuitive. Like Rosacrux, I like to micromanage but I simply couldn't figure out the logic behind the economic interface. I don't know if anyone else had this problem but the combat simulator also bothered me. To manage the battle, I had to zoom out too far to be able to see the combatants and if I zoomed in enough to see the ships, I was too close to be able to see manage the battle.

[the Count of Flanders]

I think it was ok, after the patch. Before the patch it was unplayable. If you micromanage this game you WILL go insane very quickly. Don't do it and you'll have fun with it. Not a great game but it kept me interested for about a month tough, which makes it worth its money.