Software: Buy Empire Earth Online

Average Rating:

This game is entirely about combat, so don't come expecting a real-time version of Civilization 3. There are 4 campaigns, but the real fun is in the multiplayer and computer skirmishes. In these games, you can either choose a "tournament" game, in which both sides rush through hundreds of years of technology, or a more focused game with only a few eras of advancement, say from WW1 to WW2. Whatever you choose, you can set the starting era and the ending one. A great touch is that all maps are randomly generated, and they've included a wide assortment of map-types to fit your style - islands, plains, mountains, mediterrians (inland sea)...

Gameplay-wise, nothing much is new here - you still must micromanage your town and economy, and send troops blindly at the enemy if you hope to win. Where EE is different from the rest is that it has SO MANY upgrades to its basic units - infantry advances from cavemen to laser shooters - and some basic types are eventually outdated, like archers and cavalry eventually are replaced with tanks and rifles. The march of time is merciless, you MUST win the arms race to win the game, so the sheer need to constantly research is something new that could not be experienced in any other game.

I was surprised one game when the computer probed my lines with a "balanced" assortment with units, and after I had a hard time eliminating the catapults, it sent an army of 30 siege engines and utterly wiped me out. The computer actually learned from my tactics and changed itself accordingly. It changes it's attacks pretty regularly, actually, which is a nice change from the AI in some RTS games, which seem to be able to do all things perfectly, at once. The AI in Empire Earth attacks like a game of chess, moving one thing first, then another, attacking you but leaving itself open for counter-attack afterwards. The give and take in this game is very saticfying.

The graphics are 3D, and can seem kinda bare until you witness hundreds of units on the screen at once and realize everything in this game is King-Sized. I liked the scope of the technology, but wished for more of a Civilization-type tech tree, in which one advance leads to the next. As the game is now, the player simply researches a new "Epoch", and once he/she gets there, they are granted access to build anything and everything in it. Nice, but it tends to make opponents very similiar. Otherwise, a great game.

Make sure u have a P3 with 600 Mhz before buying this beauty
(I must say the music is not so cool its the kinda u hear in churches)!!! THIS IS GONNA DE-THRONE CLASSICS LIKE STARCRAFT & Age Of Empire2 !!! GET IT NOW !!!

Ah, we all know the Age of Empire tittles! And once Age Of Empires II came out, it sold so many copies, you couldn't find it at your local [store]. Now, there is a new tittle from the producer of Age Of Empires, and they game it the name, Empire Earth. Why such a bold sounding name? Because you aren't back in the Middle Ages any more. No, you not in the future. You're in both and all ages. "An Epic Conquest Spanning 50,000 Years" You start all the way back in the prehistoric ages, up to the Nano Age. So, you're covering a lot of time in about 7 hours. And, usually "Villagers" now known as "Citizens" can't live fifty thousand years, but hey, it's a game, right?

Game Play:
The Empire Earth engine is basically the same as the AOE2's engine, so returning fans won't half to learn a new language. But going back and forth though playing World War 3: Black Gold and Empire Earth, it gets kind of confusing. Nothing you'll half to worry about though. Just like the AOE2 engine, it's great and one of the best Strategy games engine. But there are some improvements to the engine, and they are very distinct and useful. Like, you can know select many, many more units instead of just forty. Which is very useful if you're in the Nano age and need to stop those nuking bombers before they strike. You also have quick select buttons that you can set to quickly select buildings. So while your controlling you army to go help out your pathetic ally that is getting wiped out by the hundreds, you can just push the button and make more while your still in the battle grounds. Another thing I noticed is, the music changes when ever some one attacks some thing, funny thing is, you will be over your "Capital" (Town Center) and suddenly hear battle music. Oh, it was just a Citizen killing some hippo to eat. The computer is also improved, smarter. You can point to an area where you are attacking an enemy and need some back up. (Although, you might want to think ahead, it takes the computer so time until the units come) Or where you are getting attacked and don't even have one military unit to counter attack, the computer will come right to your aid! They also improved the scenario game play greatly. You can move the camera all around to make things more intense then just displaying text that says: "Watch out! The enemy is coming! Look!" And you can zoom way and even select it to be in letterbox so it's "Official" looking. I mean, it's nothing like Metal Gear: Sons of Liberty's movie seances, but it's the best system for strategy games. The graphics have also improved. Trees will sway back and forth, and every thing is 3-D, but that lags up even pretty fast system, like me, having 256MB of RAM, and a GeForce 2 MX video card, it still will lag if I have a large army on the screen. It improves much more if you change the tons of graphics settings, but the game won't look as good.

Features:
There is soooo many new features to Empire Earth compared to Age of Empires 2, I don't have a clue where to begin. So let's just begin with random map options. One of the down sides is, there is not many maps to chose from, you have a choice of only seven maps, Continental, High Lands, Large Islands, Mediterranean, Plain, Small Islands, Tournament Islands. That is it. Of course, it looks different each time you play it, but it's the same map type. I think this is a bummer, I was expecting a huge long list of wonderful maps to appear when I opened that window, but no. Sadly we must stick with seven random maps for now. Maybe in some expansion pack for EE there will be more. If there is even one. You know how in AOE2, and better yet, the expansion of AOE2, The Conquerors Expansion, they had a whole bunch of civilizations? Ha! Forget civs! That's right. Another down side to Empire Earth is there is no civilizations to choose from, you just get all the units in random map games. But, now you can make your own custom civilizations, but not many people know how to make buildings in 3-D programs and same with units. That was one of the really cool things about AOE2 is each player had their own buildings that looked different then the other teams! Now you must settle with the same looking buildings for all players. Of course, they look different when you change ages. Hey, at least they got that down. And, you have the normal settings for Random Maps like in AOE2, the resources. But they changed these. Now, if you set them on high, not more of the resource will appear, but the value of each one will increase much more, like you put it on Standard - High, each tree will be worth 500 wood, and the gold mines will me 30,000,000. So, no running out of resources even in 8,000,000,000 year games. Starting Epoch (age), of course, there is much more than AOE2 ever had. Fourteen, Prehistoric, Stone, Copper, Bronze, Dark, Middle Ages, Resistance, Imperial, Industrial, Atomic - WW1, Atomic - WW2, Atomic - Modern, Digital, And Nano Age. That's a lot of ages to go though! You can cover them all in about five hours, if you're good and fast. But, games can go on forever if you let them. My first game, I still have not beaten, and I've played it for more then thirty-six hours. The game seems to get harder and harder the better technology you get. You can also select what age you want the game...