Space Empires 3 is a turn-based space 4x strategy game from Malfador Machinations. 4x is a type of strategy game where you eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. You start off in the year 2400.0, with your planet, some technology, a racial advantage to help you along, and a whole galaxy to explore. You soon discover that you aren't alone, and there are others that are in the galaxy with you. You must expand and protect your empire to survive. Research hundreds of techs, design and build your fleets with the new technology, build up your troops and fighters, spy and sabatoge your enemy, and lay mines along your borders. And there's always the possibility of an alliance or two.
Space Empires 3 is centered around gameplay, and is concerned little with flashy graphics, or "eye-candy", and complex sounds. You can control your entire empire, or assign certain areas to your ministers. SE3 is a pioneer in their AI ministers, who have different personalities. You could have an aggressive purchaces minister, who will almost bankrupt you to have the biggest, finest fleets in the galaxy, but have a conservative shipyard and scrap minister, who will thwart your aggressive ministers plans for a giagantic fleet.
SE3 is also one of the first games to use fighters and mines effectively. Other games have one or the other, or have both, with both of them used badly. In SE3, you lay mines in specific sectors, not an entire area, where you know ships will be damaged by them. The fighters are pretty complex, with parts that make it harder to hit them(ECM, or Electronic Counter Measures), and easier to hit others(Combat Sensors), shields, and faster movement than normal ships. There is also a choice between Strategic Combat(computer fights for you acording to your ship's stratagy) and Tactical Combat(you control your ships). You can select strategies for your ships, like what to do when you're outnumbered 10 to 1, what ships wou should fire on first(fastest/slowest, biggest/smallest, most/least damaged, ect.), second, third, and so on.
Because I told you to. Just kidding. Space Empires 3's main advantage, is that it takes only $25 to upgrade from Shareware to Registered. Also, it takes up only about 10MB on your hard drive, so you'll have plenty of room left to store some games with "eye-candy", and fancy sounds and music when you get those cravings.
For reviews from other gamers, go to Games Review at gamesdomain.com here. If I have inspired you to download this game, which only takes up about 10 Megabytes, and downloads for only 2.7MB, click here.
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