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The Age of Empires franchise once again tries to dominate the market. Though many years have passed since Ensemble Studios last developed an Age of Empires game, the company has been on top of their game thanks to offshoots like Age of Mythology. Age of Empires III by no means attempts to revolutionize the genre, but does have some neat additions and breathtaking graphics, that enable to game to cement itself as one of the definitive real-time strategy games, just like its forefathers did before it.
Age of Empires III centers around the imaginary conflicts of European powers fighting for control of the New World. It includes a considerable single-player campaign, spanning three generations in three acts. The game includes five stages, ending with the industrial stage and the adoption of locomotives and mass production. Age III includes eight European factions including the British, Dutch, French, Germans, Ottomans, Portuguese, Russians, and Spanish. Each race has significant differences in their play style, how they get workers, train infantry, and such though they do share some common units and structures. The computer opponents in Age III are pretty varied. They are pretty stupid at the easy setting though quite challenging in the harder settings.
The gameplay is pretty similar to Age II. The game lets you take control of a colony in the New World. You’ll have to gather three resources—food, wood, and coin—as you build new structures and units. The resource gathering has been simplified since building mills will continually produce more food, and plantations will consistently produce more coin. Also, the workers don’t have to carry their gatherings anywhere thereby speeding up the process. The marketplace handles economic concerns. You’ll still build houses to hold the expanding population, walls to keep your area free, and military structures to get infantry, artillery and cavalry. You’ll spend a lot of your time building a good base and stable economy, and a sizeable military. The game’s interface makes all of this pretty easy to pull off.
Age of Empires’s most unique feature is the introduction of home cities. The home city can send reinforcements, military upgrades, and additional resources. You’ll get to use this if you gain experience for your home city, which is done by killing opponents and destroying their buildings. Speaking of this, killing every single member of the opposition is the only way to win a match in Age III. This causes some matches to drag on a bit too long because you’re missing a few people in the other side (most often peasants that got lost somewhere). This is a bit disappointing and I wonder why Ensemble Studios took out the other ways to win matches found in previous games like building wonders or collecting the relics.
Home cities, for the most part, only send reinforcements one time, forcing you to strategically decide if you want to do it in the beginning and attempt to wipe out the enemy or wait for them to launch an offensive. The experience your home city gains in a match carries over to the next match, rewarding you for continually playing the game. You’ll unlock more assistance as you get cards, which are unlocked as your city reaches certain levels. You can’t use more than 20 cards in a match and there are much more than that, forcing to pick the cards you think will be most helpful in a given situation. The eight different races have different cards available to them, though they also share some.
There are some other changes as well. The game lets you make trading alliances with Native American tribes. You cannot destroy their buildings but you can destroy the opponent’s trading post, thus cutting the connection it had with the tribe. The game also includes an explorer, a character that cannot die (though he can collapse and you’ll have to pay or somehow recover him from the enemy). He can reveal the fog of war of the area and find his way around, collecting treasures and such.
Other features include a skirmish mode to play against the computer without having to worry about the campaign. Age III also includes a scenario editor that lets you create your own maps or campaigns. If you’re interested in learning more about the history of the units in the game, it includes an encyclopedia with information on the different cultures, units and structures (among others) in the game. It also includes multiplayer. It has the ability to play over a local network; and ESOnline, Ensemble Studios’ play-matching service. The service lets you compete in matches over the Internet, chat with players, and even participate in ranked matched.
Age of Empires III is an amazing looking the game. The different units are immaculately detailed which is simply a wonder to see. They move around very realistically, only further providing some oomph for the graphics. The different environments range in type—you’ll visit areas like jungles and tundra—but they don’t range in attention to detail and overall quality. The many ships and buildings break in parts with plenty of smoke and fire for good effect. The water effects are particularly stunning, providing what is probably the best water in any game. The game runs decently on a number of systems since the game’s autodetect system is pretty effective.
The game’s sound is good too. The background music is pretty effective and takes into account the different cultures that the game involves. The voice overs are pretty repetitive as is the standard in the genre but sound satisfying nonetheless. A lot of it is spoken in the native language of the people you’re playing as or against which is a nice touch. The sound effects are particularly effective and dramatic, providing a lot of vigor to the onscreen action.
Age of Empires had to meet the lofty requirements that previous entries in the game and recent RTS games have set. The game meets the bar set by previous games in the series though it doesn’t really revolutionize the genre. The additions, changes, and amazing visuals make the game one that is easily recommendable though. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 24, 2005
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