MOO III is hands-down one of the most complex games I have ever played. Having been a fan of the originals in the series,  I had some familiarity with playing the game right out of the box, but it was still overly complex. I have to wonder about those who haven’t played the game before, as it seems their only option for learning MOO III is through trial and error. For some unfathomable reason, the game comes with no real tutorial mode. Instead, it provides a series of in-game textual pop-ups which frustrate more than they instruct. This lack of a tutorial mode is an unforgivable omission for a game of MOO III's complexity. One gets the feeling that the game was rushed out the door without proper gameplay testing, especially considering that the printed manual's sole purpose seems to be to explain the background story more than to assist gamers with the understanding of the complex interface. In fact the "read me" file had 30+ pages of errata and addendum, seeming to confirm my belief that MOO III needed more time in development to smooth out the rough edges.

At the start of a game, players are allowed to pick from 16 pre-defined races or they can customize a race based on their preferences. The pre-defined races are a mix of the old standbys from prior Master of Orion titles, with a mix of some new ones. While it would be helpful to know what races or what racial attributes can shift the difficulty of the gameplay, this basic info is nowhere to be found. Once you've picked your race, you're prompted as to galaxy size and the victory conditions for the game, then you being play.

As with the previous games in the series, players start with a single star system, a colony ship and 2 scout ships. Navigation between star systems, especially in the early stages of the game, can take an agonizingly long time. If, however,  you are fortunate enough to have a space lane,  a sort of wormhole connecting 2 or more systems together, then colonization and exploration comes much more quickly. It's vital that you control access to these space lanes, as they become choke points for preventing enemy incursions into your space.

Diplomacy, which used to be the standard bearer for MOO games, has gotten the short end of the stick in MOO III. It now appears meaningless to build up good relations with a neighboring empire, as A.I. diplomacy is completely random. For example, I have seen times where an allied race that you are on great trade terms with will suddenly turn and stab you in the back, launching an unprovoked and all-out assault. After three or four turns of this assault, they'll suddenly start suing for peace, whether they are winning or losing!

In the old days of MOO, tactical combat used to be just plain fun. Well, those days are long past in MOO III, and I don’t like it one bit. There was a time when superior tactics could make up for a technology deficit in a battle. This isn't the case any more, as your orders have no real impact on the outcome of any engagements. Due to the lack of combat strategy, you will find that after a few turns of these fights it's better to let the computer auto-play them.

The wealth of information at your disposable with which to micromanage your fledgling empire is truly staggering. While there's plenty of useful information available, attempting to understand it all would be certain to cause one a severe stroke. There are no less than eight reference screens with a myriad of submenus which you must use to control your empire's infrastructure, research and development, diplomacy and other functions. The only comparison I can make for this complex and muddled interface is that it's like "playing" an Excel spreadsheet with a terrible graphical interface on top of it. While there is a certain level of automation built into the game in order to ease empire management, MOO III's automation acts more like it's fighting against you rather than for you every step of the way. The automated building system, for example, constructs items that have no rhyme or reason, while your colonization automation frequently attempts to lay claim to planets that cannot sustain your species. Sound fun yet?

The only thing worse than the interface seems to be the weak AI, which makes questionable decisions to say the least. It's not all that uncommon for an AI fleet to park a task force within one of your undefended systems, then sit there, not taking advantage of its clear superiority. Instead, it will simply wait for you to either build up a fleet or move a fleet in and destroy it. I tried playing games across all difficulty settings, and I was never able to determine any differences between the easiest and hardest levels of AI. Quite simply, the AI is incompetent on all levels and at any setting. In fact I think a player would be hard-pressed to lose a game, as the AI is simply too inept to offer any challenge. For what is primarily a game meant as a single player experience this is a glaring flaw in the gameplay, stripping any and all joy from a victory over the AI.

The best thing that can be said about the graphics for MOO III is that they won't stress any video cards or force any gamers to upgrade their rigs. Alien racial portraits are only seen on the diplomacy window (thankfully) and in time you’ll wish they had bull’s-eyes drawn on them to relieve the monotony of seeing them time and again. However, even the low-grade portraits are preferable to the combat visuals, as ships seem to be nothing more than jagged dots lacking any sense of scale. The galaxy screens are three-dimensional and well done providing a nice sense of the vastness of space. On a whole, the graphics are not up to snuff for a game of this era, although graphics alone don’t necessarily doom a 4x space sim. However, bad graphics combined with a lack of gameplay is a bad combo, which spells bad news for MOO III.

Sound:

Well, not everything is all bad in MOO III, as the sound effects for the different races are actually quite good, and the soundtrack blends into the background nicely. The music fits the mood of the game and doesn't have that droning quality you find in other strategy games. I know this is faint praise indeed, and let's face it, music and sound are not the primary reason you play a turn-based sim. While they enhance the game a bit, they're not enough to overcome the glaring weaknesses in the gameplay and graphics.

With an unchallenging AI and poor graphics, you'll quickly find yourself lacking a good reason to play the game through once, much less play it again. There are options to play an eight-player online game, but due to the weak gameplay in MOO III, most players won't bother, and neither should you. It's nice that the developers offered an online option, but it's doubtful you'll want to take them up on it.

This review genuinely hurt to write, as I really love the earlier titles in the Master of Orion series. Heck, I still play MOO I and II on my PC. Being such a huge fan of both MOO I and MOO II, I really couldn't wait for this game to be released. However with its minimal tutorial mode, pathetic AI, substandard graphics and an almost incomprehensible interface, I would have a hard time recommending MOO III to even the most ardent fans of the series. With such a strong lineage, it's saddening to see Master of Orion III fail so badly in all areas.