Star Control 3
| Star Control 3 | |
|---|---|
Cover art of the DOS version
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| Developer(s) | Legend Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Accolade |
| Director(s) | Michael J. Lindner |
| Producer(s) | George MacDonald |
| Designer(s) | Jim Tyler Mark Poesch |
| Programmer(s) | Michael J. Lindner Mark Poesch Glen R. Dahlgren |
| Artist(s) | Heather Capelli Michael J. Lindner Steve Riley |
| Writer(s) | Daniel Greenberg Michael J. Lindner |
| Composer(s) | Andrew Frazier |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Mac OS, Windows |
| Release | 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Publication | Score |
| GameSpot | 8.5/10 |
| Macworld |   |
| Next Generation | |
Star Control 3 is a video game developed by Legend Entertainment. Legend were hired by Accolade to create a sequel to Star Control II when the original creators Toys For Bob expressed no interest in creating the sequel with the same budget as Star Control II (which left them working without pay for several months). It was released for DOS and the Macintosh in 1996, and re-released in 2011 with Windows support on GOG.com. The game was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews but disappointing sales.
The game uses a 2.5D form of melee combat, but 2D combat is still available. However, unlike Star Control II, all ship designs absent from the story mode were omitted (with the exception of the Arilou). The module tunes of the second game were replaced with MIDI music, and pixel animations for communication with aliens were replaced with rendered and digitized 2D graphics of live puppets.
The gameplay is a mix of borrowing the melee combat and alien encounter dialogue trees from Star Control II, with new colony management elements which could be compared to Master of Orion, but usually aren't. Star Control II's resource gathering and hyperspace travel gameplay elements were omitted.
The story expands on the mystery of the Precursors' disappearance, and introduces new enemies in the form of the Hegemonic Crux.
Shortly after the end of Star Control II, hyperspace mysteriously collapses throughout the galaxy, stranding most space faring races. The Captain, living on Unzervalt, builds another precursor ship, with an experimental "warp bubble" drive that allows it to travel between star systems without using hyperspace. The Captain contacts the other races and they discover that the hyperspace collapse is somehow connected with the Rainbow Worlds, and that it originates near the galactic core in the Kessari quadrant. The Captain is sent to the Kessari quadrant with colony ships from several races to investigate and solve the problems with hyperspace.
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