Posted July 27, 2010
If you consider yourself an aficionado of strategy games and you enjoy a 4X setting then Master of Orion 3 (MOO3) probably deserves a shot. While it is not unusual for fans of previous versions of games to be less than pleased when their passionate favorite gets a complete overhaul, the rhetoric spewed out by the old school diehards of this series went way over the top.
If you got into strategy gaming after MOO3 you might do yourself a disservice by paying much attention to any of the one star reviews or commentaries that begin by telling you how much a player was disappointed MOO3 wasn’t just a small tweak with some updated graphics of MOO1 & 2 while retaining the feel of their old sweetheart.
Again, I am speaking only to the true fans of strategy games that know each game must stand on its own merit. And that a games true value lies first in the strategic challenge it presents followed closely by replayability (or how long it stays on your hard drive). So many games have been done a disservice by being held up to a mirrored image of their ancestors and having every change or tweak being derailed as a flaw or unforgivable alteration of the original.
On-line services like GOG allow new players of classic games to break with convention and for a very reasonable price, play the games in reverse order. That may very well be the best advice for strategy gamers approaching the MOO series for the first time. Start with MOO3 then go on to MOO2 and MOO1. The odds are very good you will not share the opinions of the tainted old timers who only saw MOO3 through MOO2 colored glasses. In fact going from MOO3 to MOO2 might seem a bit like going from chess to checkers.
If you got into strategy gaming after MOO3 you might do yourself a disservice by paying much attention to any of the one star reviews or commentaries that begin by telling you how much a player was disappointed MOO3 wasn’t just a small tweak with some updated graphics of MOO1 & 2 while retaining the feel of their old sweetheart.
Again, I am speaking only to the true fans of strategy games that know each game must stand on its own merit. And that a games true value lies first in the strategic challenge it presents followed closely by replayability (or how long it stays on your hard drive). So many games have been done a disservice by being held up to a mirrored image of their ancestors and having every change or tweak being derailed as a flaw or unforgivable alteration of the original.
On-line services like GOG allow new players of classic games to break with convention and for a very reasonable price, play the games in reverse order. That may very well be the best advice for strategy gamers approaching the MOO series for the first time. Start with MOO3 then go on to MOO2 and MOO1. The odds are very good you will not share the opinions of the tainted old timers who only saw MOO3 through MOO2 colored glasses. In fact going from MOO3 to MOO2 might seem a bit like going from chess to checkers.