Star Control 3
Description official descriptions
Since the events in Star Control 2 the Ur-Quan have been pacified and the captain who bravely destroyed the Sa-Matra has had a horrible vision of the future. Suddenly without warning, all Hyperspace travel in the universe has stopped. Top scientists have pinpointed the cause of this disturbance somewhere in unexplored space in an area known as the Kessari Quadrant. Hastily assembling a fleet of ships as and an untested Precusor star drive... a loose alliance of alien races known as The League of Sentient Races sends a task force to the Kessari Quadrant. You are its commander.
Star Control 3 features a new 3D star map, new alien races to discover, new worlds to explore and colonize, new artifacts to research and a new isometric Hyper Melee battle system for inter-starship battles.
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Credits (DOS version)
115 People (110 developers, 5 thanks) · View all
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 68% (based on 23 ratings)
Players
Average score: 2.6 out of 5 (based on 55 ratings with 14 reviews)
This is what happens when games are designed by committee
The Good
Ummmm... the CD-ROM makes a lovely coaster.
The Bad
The plot was horrible. It was an awkward slapping-together of old Star Control 2 plot lines (much of the dialogue taken out of Starcon2 verbatim) and poorly thought out new ones. Most of the time you were simply waiting to be fed instructions from the hint sytem. (It's a sure sign that a game is bad if it needs an integrated hint system).
The combat was poorly-balanced. Unlike the old Star Control 2 melee, which I still play on occasion, the ships tended to be horribly lopsided, hard to distinguish from each other and boring to fly.
The music is terrible, especially when compared with its predecessor (why they went back to MIDI music from MOD is beyond me). While some of the voice talent is quite good, this is neutralized by the fact that the dialogue is quite horrible.
The Bottom Line
"An eloquent argument for why Accolade should stick to sports games"
DOS · by Jonathan Daggar (4) · 1999
The Good
Umm.... Duhhhhhhhhh... Tell me about the rabbits, George.
The Bad
Where to begin? The gameplay is a joke, all around. The Strategy element is dull, and waiting for colonies to produce fuel for your mothership causes the game to drag horribly. The plot is excrutiatingly linear, and while it may SEEM like you're doing things, in fact you're just cruising around waiting for the game's clock to hit Point X, at which point your computer pops up and tells you where to go next. The dialogue, when not ripped straight from SC2, is poor. The new alien races are almost uniformally poorly-thought out, and either stupid or excessively silly. The captured claymation video is almost always bad, and the humanoid characters are hideously deformed. Oh, and they absolutely destroyed the play dynamics of the series by attempting to move the gameplay into full 3D, and the new ships available to play throw the previously perfect balance of the battles way off. Finally, extra demerits for completely ruining what had been a wonderful series.
The Bottom Line
How would I describe this game to others? With words entirely inappropriate for a family site.
DOS · by WizardX (116) · 2003
A mediocre sequel to a true legend.
The Good
Most of the voice acting fits the motif if you ask me,
and HyperMelee is fun even if many of the SC2 ships
are missing..
The Bad
Many aspects.. for example the MIDI musics aren't very good,
the GUI looks pretty drab and the story quite doesn't
match SC2 in excellence.. not to mention that this game
is boring. Seriously.
The Bottom Line
A sequel to SC2, but not made by the same people,
and it shows.. very well.
SC3 is an ok game, just that, ok, but if you compare it
to SC2 it is like a comparation between the sun
and a worn candle.
Anyone would be better off playing Star Control 2.
DOS · by RmM (68) · 1999
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Star Control 3 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Novel
A novel titled Star Control: Interbellum was published by Prima and written by author W. T. Quick. The book supposedly contains story and events that takes place between Star Control 2 and Star Control 3... however the popular opinion is that the author has never played or was ever given the plot to either game. Also the player character of both games is given a name for the novel, "Commander Omega".
Screenshot capturing technique
This game will dump a screenshot to a .PCX file if you hit PRTSC during gameplay.
Star Control III
Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III owned the character rights to the various alien races, Accolade owned the Star Control copyright. When the original creators declined to make the new sequel, Accolade gave them an ultimatum; sell the character rights or part three would be made with entirely new characters, no continuity involved whatsoever. The creators decided to make some final money off of their creations. A side note to this is that none of the original artists involved with Star Control II were even approached to work on Star Control III.
Information also contributed by Aaron Grier, Vance, and WildKard
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Related Sites +
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The Pages of Now and Forever
This site could perhaps be called the heart of the Star Control fan movement on the 'net.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Trixter.
Windows added by Picard. Macintosh added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: RmM, Shoddyan, PoliticallyCorrupt, Plok, FatherJack.
Game added May 21, 1999. Last modified March 18, 2024.