Alien fleets move from star-to-star and if you arrive in a system when two enemy fleets are there, you have the option of allying with one to team up against the other. Unlike the earlier games, the world is alive in IS3. On the way you might pick up or hire alien ships to add to your fleet, including fighter-craft. Your ship is fully modular, letting your replace your weapons, shield, FTL drive, impulse drive, and many other systems with higher-tech alien equipment you find on your journey. All finished in 30 minutes or less! Some veterans of the series complained about the switch to 3D, but I love it you no longer get trapped in a corner by nebula clouds like you could in the 2D games, and navigating a single fleet in 3D is a piece of cake compared to ordering around an entire 3D space empire in SotS. The game takes place on a 3D map of space where you have 25 years to explore all the star systems of the cloud nebula by moving in straight lines from star-to-star, avoiding nebula clouds that will slow (most) star drives to a crawl, and grabbing as much loot as possible before the time limit… and maybe saving humanity from certain destruction along the way. Which is a damn shame because not only is the third the best of the series, its innovations elevate it to the point of… I’ll put it this way, what King’s Bounty is to the Heroes of Might and Magic games, Infinite Space III is to the Sword of the Stars games (The 4X originals). Years later this third iteration was finally released to middling response in a post-FTL market. Then FTL came out and was a worldwide sensation. The sequel Weird Worlds was more of the same but better, yet retaining many flaws from the original. A Star Trek inspired coffee break game that had you illegally exploring the cloud nebula as its first human representative, (for better or often worse), grabbing everything not nailed down then delivering it all to your mob boss patron for fame and fortune. I’ll admit my bias right off the bat, the original Strange Adventures in Infinite Space was the title that started my love of indie gaming.
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