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Space Empires III

Space Empires III Game Cover
67%Game Brain Score
story, replayability
graphics, gameplay
78% User Score Based on 37 reviews

Platforms

PCWindows
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Space Empires III Game Cover

About

Space Empires III is a single player and multiplayer tactical management game with economy and science fiction themes. It was developed by Malfador Machinations and was released on October 8, 2020. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

The third game within the Space Empires series brings the dawn of a new age of exploration. Your race keeps running through the fabric of space and moves to other solar systems beyond your own.

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Space Empires III screenshot
Space Empires III screenshot
Space Empires III screenshot
Space Empires III screenshot
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78%
Audience ScoreBased on 37 reviews
story1 positive mentions
gameplay3 negative mentions
  • Highly immersive and deep 4X gameplay with extensive ship customization and large-scale galaxy management.
  • Nostalgic value with endless replayability due to random maps and the ability to create/customize empires and systems.
  • Tactical combat system that allows player control over ship actions and targeting, praised as superior to many modern 4X games.
  • Technical issues such as range check errors and crashes affecting playability on modern systems.
  • Outdated graphics and user interface that feel clunky, cluttered, and unintuitive, lacking modern UX improvements.
  • No native support for modern display resolutions, fullscreen mode, or online multiplayer, limiting appeal to new players.
  • graphics
    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's graphics are very simple, dated, and lack customization options, offering a clean but basic visual experience reminiscent of older utility programs. Despite their rough and outdated appearance, many players find the gameplay fun enough to overlook the lack of modern visuals and interface enhancements.

    • “The graphics are very simple but their simplicity means they are also very clean, and haven't really aged in the way that 3D graphics from the time have.”
    • “Graphically dated (obviously), but still a fantastic game to play for any fan of the genre.”
    • “If you're not bothered by the fact that there are basically no graphics, this is one of the best 4X space games ever in my opinion.”
    • “There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customize the graphics settings.”
    • “There's no way for gamers to try to improve the low quality graphics.”
    • “Rough graphics comparable to a common utility program.”
  • gameplay
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay is praised for its deep and unique mechanics, offering a complexity rarely seen in other 4X games. Although the user interface is simple and static, the variety and depth of gameplay systems create a rich experience that appeals to enthusiasts of detailed strategy. Additionally, configurable settings like the ship cap highlight the game's technical ambition and scale.

    • “No other 4X game (not even SE4/5) has quite the specific combination of mechanics that works like magic here.”
    • “It has a lot of in-depth mechanics that you don't really see in more modern 4X games, which I really enjoy.”
    • “It is so complex, with many mechanics that are not visible at the beginning.”
    • “For gameplay purposes, because the user interface for this game is mostly just 2D static images, it might as well be a browser game.”
    • “The game even has a configurable ship cap setting, not for gameplay reasons, but because older systems literally couldn't handle 2000 individual ships floating around at once.”
  • story
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game lacks a predefined story or empires, offering no traditional narrative, but this allows players maximum flexibility to create and customize their own empires and gameplay experience.

    • “There are no pre-defined empires or story or anything, but the trade-off is that you get maximum flexibility in creating the game you want, because you can effectively design every empire and their characteristics from scratch.”
  • replayability
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers extensive replayability through randomly generated maps for each new playthrough and customization options that allow players to personalize system and enemy names, enhancing the overall experience despite its basic appearance.

    • “This game might look basic compared to today's games but is customizable and offers endless replayability with random maps created for each new game. Replayability is further enhanced by the ability to customize the names of the systems and enemies by editing the files (go to files>systems.txt and files>empires.txt and replace the contents with your own lists).”
  • stability
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is marred by glitches and bugs, leading to lengthy match durations, especially in large multiplayer games, which may affect the overall experience.

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44h Median play time
37h Average play time
24-50h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Space Empires III is a tactical management game with economy and science fiction themes.

Space Empires III is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 37 hours playing Space Empires III.

Space Empires III was released on October 8, 2020.

Space Empires III was developed by Malfador Machinations.

Space Empires III has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its graphics.

Space Empires III is a single player game with multiplayer support.

Similar games include Space Empires IV Deluxe, Galactic Civilizations II: Endless Universe, Space Empires V, Distant Worlds: Universe, Master of Orion 2 and others.