Where's Rome? Where's Charlemagne? There are units and tactics unique to that millennium that aren't really covered here at all. I'm a bit disappointed that there's nothing representing the 1300 years between the death of Alexander the Great and the Battle of Hastings. Given the incredible scope of the project, that's completely understandable. It's all done with a very broad brush and there's not quite as much continuity between the missions (especially the early ones) as there was in Age of Empires.
A final, futuristic campaign outlines a rebellion in Russia. The German campaign picks up in the First World War and concludes with the realization of Hitler's grand empire. The English campaign runs from William to Wellington.
The first campaign covers the empire building efforts of the Ancient Greeks up until Alexander's defeat of the Persians. It begins with the early Helladic migrations thousands of years ago and ends a few hundred years in our future when nuclear weapons fly fast and furious. The campaigns that ship with the game are spread across the entirety of human history. A new 3D engine gives the game a really satisfying tabletop feeling while a cool scenario and civilization design feature lets you suit the game to your own needs. Empire Earth sacrifices some of the details and immediacy of other RTS games to craft an incredibly broad epic that carries the player through fourteen different ages - from the dimly remembered past of prehistoric rock throwers into a future filled with cybernetic robot warriors armed with laser guided weapons. With a few additions and some small changes the economic model and interface is pretty much exactly like that in AoE2.īut the game does add a few new twists. Anyone who's familiar with Age of Empires is going to hit the ground running in Empire Earth. Rick Goodman, the lead designer of the Ensemble game, is also the designer here. Saying that this game is remarkably similar to Age of Empires II is like saying that John Fogerty's recent album sounds a lot like Credence Clearwater Revival. (I had the same bias against the recent Galactic Battlegrounds and was similarly impressed.) I'm consistently amazed with the basic setup of AoE2 and any game that uses that as it's foundation is one step ahead of the game - even if it isn't terribly original. Not because the game isn't like Age of Empires II but because it is.
And after having played the game for a few weeks now, I have to eat my own words. Calling it Age of Empire Earth might have been a cheap shot, but it seemed to fit. I have to admit that I was really dubious about this one.
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