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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115 People (110 developers, 5 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 68% (based on 23 ratings)
Players
Average score: 2.6 out of 5 (based on 55 ratings with 14 reviews)
A half-decent game that tends to be more tedious that entertaining.
The Good
I think the best part of the game is that it made it possible for Vance Hill to write a very humourous review on it.
Seriously, though. Unlike the other reviewers here, I have not had the oppurtunity to play either of the first two SC games (yes, GASP!). I bought this game because I've heard good things about its predeccesors, and many computer gaming magazines were very hopeful for a good game.
So, from the point of view to someone new to the series:
The concept of the game is rather good. I like the fact that they blend the different styles of adventure, strategy (to a very limited extent), and combat. Until then, I had never experienced a game that blended these things together.
I thought the back stories to all the races were positively fascinating. Again, I hadn't had any previous experience with the SC universe, so this was all new to me.
The characters voices were fitting with the races, although a few of them tended to get annoying after a while.
Two-player meelee can be loads of fun. For a quick fix that doesn't have to take more than seven minutes.<br><br>**The Bad**<br> The dialogue. True, I liked the backstory, but everyone kept on TALKING. I enjoy dialogue in a game, but only to a certain extent. At the beginning of the game, it can take a while to get into because (wanting to know the gaming universe) I explored all possible conversational options with every new race I met. And when you're talking to one race for that long of a time, interest is lost no matter WHAT they're saying.
The colony building is minimal. It could have been so much more. The sliders were annoying.
There is no way to prematurely end combat. My biggest problem with combat is when the enemy tries to run away from you. This usually happens when their shields are nearly depleted. They stay as far from you as possible, and you have very little chance to hit them. One time I had to wait for my opponet to plow into the nearest planet. Whoops.
The star map is very annoying. Trying to find the certain solar systems you need to get to can be a pain, but luckily there is a search feature. Similarly, with travel you need gas. Sure this makes sense, and it might control gameplay for the first little while. But it doesn't seem like that great of an idea when you're parked at a planet, waiting ten minutes as your gas tank slowly fills up.
On a final note, some of the events are timed. For example, Universe X might only implode itself on Day 32, or you don't see your first talking Cow until Day 1403. This means that even if you finish a bunch of tasks, you might not be able to progress until these days arrive. I left my computer running while I took my dogs for a walk. Is that what makes a thirlling game? Inspiration to exercise? I think not.<br><br>**The Bottom Line**<br>It had some good parts, but with so many bad parts, it's hard to reccomend. Try and find Star Control 2 (according to the reviews I've read). And when you find it, can you burn me a copy? :)
DOS · by Kevin Olson (8) · 2000
An exceprt from the SC3 staff meeting...
The Good
PROJECT HEAD: Okay, staff, let's really take this alliance building, diplomacy thing full tilt on this one.
DESIGN STAFF: Sure.
The Bad
HEAD: How's the dialogue coming along?
SCRIPTWRITER: Uh... well... um... I like Juicy Fruit?
HEAD: Okay, let's rip it off straight from SC2, shall we? How's testing coming along.
RESEARCH STAFF: We've got Bob the Janitor and our pet gerbil playing SC2 right now, sir.
HEAD: And...?
RESEARCH: Bob's getting upset because the gerbil keeps beating him at HyperMelee.
HEAD: Right. Let's dumb down the artificial intelligence. Have the enemy fly in some random direction as soon as combat starts. Okay, what have we done to research the plot?
RESEARCH: We watched the "Friends" marathon.
HEAD: And?
SCRIPTWRITER: I have a secret friend.
HEAD: Sounds like that man's making progress.
DESIGN: Yes, sir. He doesn't think he's a plank anymore.
HEAD: Okay, about the plot.
RESEARCH: Well, Bob the janitor is having trouble understanding what's going on in SC2, so we figured we'd make it a little less complex.
HEAD: How much less complex?
RESEARCH: About as simple as an episode of... well...
HEAD: Let me guess, an episode of "Friends," right?
RESEARCH: Could be, yes.
SCRIPWRITER: Cheez-Wiz is the opiate of the masses.
HEAD: Comission that man to write that Star Control novel we were talking about.
RESEARCH: Ah, "Interbellum."
HEAD: And make the Spathi sound like Woody Allen!
DESIGN: We can make all the villains TOTALLY one-sided dorks!
RESEARCH: Bob's eating his 3DO controller...
HEAD: Take out all the planet exploration features!
DESIGN: BACK TO MIDI MUSIC!!!
HEAD: Create TWO WHOLE MINUTES of CG movies!
RESEARCH: We can use random goobers as voice talent!
SCRIPTWRITER: I have my own Tandy, you know.
The Bottom Line
GERBIL: This is gonna suck!
DOS · by Vance (94) · 2000
The Good
I've played SC2 several times and still needed 3 attempts to finish this one. Each race has its own agenda, power, behaviour and motives, which do not relate to one another (for instance, the Doogs have the best ships in the game, but are quite and passive), alliances are made and lost unexpectedly and distributive thinking is required, as well as paper use, because the hint system is bad.
There are many traps in the endless dialogues and one mistake can end the game.The key is to adapt your behaviour for each race and not make moral judgements.
The colonization process is tedious, but rewarding for your space travel. Also, you have to remove precious crew from your ships in order to colonize (30-50 people is decent for any new colony, having 10000+ resources) but the population in your old worlds will increase very slowly, which makes ship building a fast way to get people, even if you'll never use them in combat.
Fancy ship designs are not the best, but each one is unique and probably useful to destroy another. So far I'm using just Utwig, Doog, Ur-Quan,Chmmr(less) and Claircontlar ships in encounters.
The story manages to get real and keep your attention for hours (even if it's scripted). The times waiting for event X to happen can be used in exploration and colonisation.
The Bad
The search system is simply terrible. Each time you need to get to star X you have to carefully look for it in the unexplored and explored ones, because only the colonisation sites appear as valid targets for search. And if you cannot find it, let a second to rotate the galaxy and search again manually. That's simply painful.
The dialogues are very, very, very long and repeated each time you encounter the same race, even if the events who triggered it are long gone. That is making this game an interesting training option for these diplomatic talks :) For instance, each time you encounter Daktaklakpak and not want to kill them (so that you appear as good in the eyes of the League) you have to pass through 12-13 dialogues and have to remember the correct answer each time. But after a while you'll be responding instantly, without bothering about what the other said.
The combat is annoying, boring and very long, interrupted just by an occasional crash into that little tiny planet, then you're trying to get away from the grav pull and find yourself crashing again into that unrealistic space anomaly.
The Bottom Line
If you're deeply involved in politics, your girlfriend left you, or you're trying to convince yourself to give life another chance, this game is a must, but try to win it without watching the walkthrough. Carefully write on a sheet of paper every aspect worth mentioning, because it requires more time and attention than the previous version, which I loved.
DOS · by lucian (36) · 2005
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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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.