£40 of bile
I preordered it in the UK from an importer (who got the US version in as there was a delay on the UK version) and it cost me about £50 which is a lot for a game, I usually expect to pay £20 now and at the time £30 was not unusual.
I had followed it from early in development and you could call me a fan I learned how to mod it and tried to learn how to play it.
I was extremely disappointed though I tend not to worry about money once I have spent it I feel a fool whenever I remember how much I paid for it and the actual worth of the game, even though I realised at the time that the signs were that it was not going to be a very well implemented game. These signs were firstly that there was excessive hype (calling it a 5x game was just pretentious) and the official community would tolerate no criticism or lateral discussion and were clearly deeply introverted. I would say it is worth £10 if you really want to put yourself through that, but MoO1 is a better game in terms of play. So I suppose that is 1 out of 5.
The interface was appalling and the game processes inscrutible and uninspiring. It seemed to be the result of one man's private fantasy about the relationship between accountancy and power. While it works as a piece of software in the sense it does not crash too much, as a game it didnt work for me as it was not fun to play. It is an object lesson in how not to make a Galactic 4X game.
The intro sequence was a work of art and always draws a poignant parallel between the Ithkul as a GM project and MoO3 as a software project for me. However the MoO3 project was never finished to anyone's satisfaction and consequently the Ithkul found their most convincing realisation in that very intro.
What I resent most about MoO3 was the damage it has done to the Galactic 4X market. It seems to have utterly destroyed publisher's interest in the genre which is a lot to pin on one lousy game, but I think that is what is happening.
Hopefully a producer with the correct insight will eventually conclude that a well crafted G4X game could be popular, but it is a subtle formula to get right and MoO3 didnt. Producers without a feel for the genre would be well advised to look elsewhere lest the genre suffer another blow of this kind.
I preordered it in the UK from an importer (who got the US version in as there was a delay on the UK version) and it cost me about £50 which is a lot for a game, I usually expect to pay £20 now and at the time £30 was not unusual.
I had followed it from early in development and you could call me a fan I learned how to mod it and tried to learn how to play it.
I was extremely disappointed though I tend not to worry about money once I have spent it I feel a fool whenever I remember how much I paid for it and the actual worth of the game, even though I realised at the time that the signs were that it was not going to be a very well implemented game. These signs were firstly that there was excessive hype (calling it a 5x game was just pretentious) and the official community would tolerate no criticism or lateral discussion and were clearly deeply introverted. I would say it is worth £10 if you really want to put yourself through that, but MoO1 is a better game in terms of play. So I suppose that is 1 out of 5.
The interface was appalling and the game processes inscrutible and uninspiring. It seemed to be the result of one man's private fantasy about the relationship between accountancy and power. While it works as a piece of software in the sense it does not crash too much, as a game it didnt work for me as it was not fun to play. It is an object lesson in how not to make a Galactic 4X game.
The intro sequence was a work of art and always draws a poignant parallel between the Ithkul as a GM project and MoO3 as a software project for me. However the MoO3 project was never finished to anyone's satisfaction and consequently the Ithkul found their most convincing realisation in that very intro.
What I resent most about MoO3 was the damage it has done to the Galactic 4X market. It seems to have utterly destroyed publisher's interest in the genre which is a lot to pin on one lousy game, but I think that is what is happening.
Hopefully a producer with the correct insight will eventually conclude that a well crafted G4X game could be popular, but it is a subtle formula to get right and MoO3 didnt. Producers without a feel for the genre would be well advised to look elsewhere lest the genre suffer another blow of this kind.
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