EXCLUSIVES

Master of Orion 3
Words by Nam-Phuong Nguyen

The ultimate space strategy game (or so the tagline claims), Master of Orion 3 is the sequel to Master of Orion 2 (MOO2) and MOO. Released by MacSoft (www.macsoftgames.com), the third iteration of the game is far more evolved and complicated game than the original. It comes with two Cds, one to install the game, and one that must be in the CD drive to play the game. Game play is smooth and does not lag.

Decent graphics and video sequences develop the storyline and draw the player into the world of MOO3. Much effort has been put into the story: there are four major chapters that read like short stories in the instruction booklet. It's a nice touch for a game that seeks to be entirely encompassing.

Instead of just the usual goal of taking over and ruling the galaxy, a player can also pursue diplomacy, plant spies, and boast military might. Players can also be elected as the leader of the Orion Senate or canvas the entire galaxy in order to solve the mystery of what happened to an ancient alien race of Antarans.

These choices allow for longer game play since each goal is at a different level of difficulty. A player can start by accomplishing the easiest goal of ruling the galaxy, and once he has mastered that, can then try to be elected leader of the senate, a more difficult task, and then finally try to solve the Antaran mystery. MOO3 is designed to be playable for such a long time that it comes with a special feature that allows a user to program reminders to pop up on the screen so that she won't forget what is going on in the outside world. MOO3 is a strategy game, and the basic tenant is to decide how to interact with other alien races to win. This can be done by sending and replying to diplomats to build up trade and stave off war and building ships and armies to conquer species and explore planets.

To build ships you have to have enough resources, and to have enough resources you have to colonize enough planets to grow food, mine, build industries, et cetera. Not only do you need to watch all the resources, but you have to keep an eye on the happiness of your empire by choosing the right type of government, the right amount of money to spend on military, and the right amount of tax to charge the people.

But that is just empire maintenance. You also have to send troops and ships to battles or in defense of your own planets. It's as complicated as it sounds. The instruction booklet is 160 pages long. Luckily there is a computer AI that handles most of the small details for a player automatically. If a player likes micromanaging though, he can turn off the AI and handle everything himself.

An interesting feature of MOO3 is that a person can play individually against up to eight alien species controlled by the computer, or utilize the game's multi-player feature and play with other people on servers via Gamespy networking technology. Since the game has so many components, it is good to start out against the computer.

For those familiar with MOO2, many elements are the same, but there are many added elements. The layout is different, and there are so many tabs and buttons that it takes a while to get used to MOO3. There are notes to help a player learn, and there is a help menu disguised as the galactic encyclopedia, but even with these tools, it takes a while to get the hang of the game. That said, for people patient enough and willing to spend time overcoming the learning curve, the game can become engaging and quite addictive. If you are not the type of person who wants to deal with a steep learning curve, MOO3 may not be the game for you.

This game gets a rating of four stars. It is fun to play, but the learning curve lessens the enjoyment of the game.

MOO3 is rated T for teen because of blood, gore, and violence. The list price is $49.99. It requires a 350 Mhz or faster G3/G4 processor, 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended), OS 9.1 or OSX v10.1.5 or higher, monitor with support for 800x600 at thousands of colors, and 400MB hard drive space. More information about MOO3 can be found at the MacSoft website or at www.moo3.com.