I was lucky enough to get to see the game first hand at a presentation in San Francisco a couple of months ago, after which I got to talk to Rick Goodman about his latest brainchild. Empire Earth is Goodman's second games project, having previously been the co-creator of Age Of Empires. His vision when he formed this new development company was to create an RTS on a truly epic scale, in which the gameplay spans a massive , years of human history, starting with primitive man and ending with a sci-fi future.
EE's central theme is to take an empire - either customised or one of 12 predefined ones - and advance it through periods of history. As each epoch passes, your empire will grow more powerful and more advanced, and you'll even be able to reshape the past due to Goodman's insistence on historic accuracy. This means you could find your nation embroiled in the Napoleonic wars or battling against Alexander the Great's armies. To an extent this isn't too far from the truth, as the simplest way to control the action will be from the overhead viewpoint.
However, Stainless Steel has provided the option of zooming into the action, so much so that you virtually feel as though you're there. You'll be able to watch the land, air and sea battles from a variety of viewpoints, and Goodman demonstrated this to us by moving the camera into the cockpit of a WWII fighter plane, from where we watched an entire dogfight unfold.
We were also shown how the 3D game engine works, with walls and raised ground obscuring or reducing a unit's line of sight. Rick was keen to point out that fun gameplay has always been more important to him than absolute realism. While many of the combat units are modelled on real-life statistics, it was never an option to sacrifice the 'fun element' as he called it in order to make everything as lifelike as possible.
Throughout the eras, there'll be five different resources for you to collect, depending on the needs of the time. There's also going to be huge scope to play EE the way that suits your playing style. If your leadership qualities are more Ghandi than Stalin, you can concentrate on building your empire up as an economic power rather than a brutal military one.
Depending on how successful you are, you'll be given varying amounts of Civilisation Points, which you can then use to upgrade the different sections of your empire in areas such as farming, economy and the military. We were treated to some truly epic battles, in which ground, air and sea forces all clashed at once. Goodman explained that every unit has its own particular strength and weakness, and every single one has a counter-unit. In addition to this, your planes will need rearming and refuelling, and you'll be able to customise each vehicle by playing around with their statistics in the game editor.
A scenario editor will enable you to create your own maps. Of course, no modern-day game would be complete without extensive online options. EE is set to allow eight players to clash online, and if development time permits, Goodman hopes to raise this to The online experience looks like it's going to be a huge amount of fun, as you'll be able to advance your empire through the ages, meaning shrewder players could well be developing tanks and irrigation systems, while their opponent's units are still dragging their wives around by the hair.
When I spoke to Goodman, I asked what the most exciting moment of this project was for him. That was an exciting day," he said. Perhaps we'd have needed to have been there to truly appreciate the excitement caused by a hot beverage dispenser floating on a blank background, as his zeal was lost on me and the blank-faced journalists around me.
Each to their own though. Personally, 1 saw more than enough of EE to get excited about Finally, I asked Goodman how much Age Of Empires had influenced Empire Earth, as the two titles bear more than a passing resemblance to each other.
I'm getting the chance to do those things now in Empire Earth. That much is clear, as EE is a huge leap forward from those early days of the RTS, and its scope and ambition, if realised in the end product, could well put even the brilliance of Civilization in the shade.
Only time will tell if it's just another RTS with a few novelties or a huge step forward for the genre, but if AOE is anything to go by, Goodman and co could well have a product that joins the much-welcomed recent crop of games which further their genre.
Empire Earth is without doubt one of the most stunning feats of endeavour since I Iannibal squeezed his elephants over the Alps. Covering more than , years of inglorious war spanning 14 epochs, this is the kind of game you can take to school, play during history and get away with it on educational grounds. But let's not get carried away. Sure, the researchers for EE must have exhausted the world's supply of Prozac months ago, but the fact remains it's just a damn game.
The influence of AOE is palpable, and diere are even sound effects like mining and building that are exactly the same. However, with this being a beta version, it's likely that the final sound files have yet to be added.
What of the famous epochs then? The epoch system itself actually works in the same way as technology progressed in AOE. In other words, once you've gathered enough resources and established certain key structures such as barracks and stables, you move onwards to new technology and a truly awesome amount of upgrades. For example, once you reach into the Atomic Age, towers become 88mm AA guns and docks become naval shipyards.
Likewise, special 'hero' units like Napoleon make way for the likes of Baron Richthofen. Basically, Empire Earth is all about speed. The faster you progress through the epochs the stronger your weapons, beliefs and heroes become, and thus you're more likely to trounce opponents.
We hate to keep going on about it, but the whole framework of the game is virtually a copy of AOE even down to the collection of food, wood, stone, gold and iron resources. When it comes to the multiplayer game Well, you'll hardly notice the difference. One notable difference though, is the option to call upon metaphysical powers. With a temple and a powerful priest you can bring forth such spectacles as volcanoes, earthquakes and tornadoes.
Wonders also play a very major part in the spiritual side of the game, with buildings such as the Tower of Babylon and Library of Alexandria helping to reveal the enemy strongholds and to convert enemy civilians. Although we've been informed that the A1 has yet to be finalised it's nice to see most of the units have a brain.
Unit path-finding is good, and military types appear to know their stuff when it comes to battle positions - they even have the good sense to retreat when being pasted. There are also four different behaviour patterns to choose from including guard mode, patrol mode, aggressive mode and defensive mode.
Our personal favourite is the 'explore' icon that unsurprisingly sets your selected unit wandering off into the wilderness. So, if you've had enough of manually exploring fog-of-war, you can understand what a stroke of pure genius this particular option is. Often cheesy English lines are read with even worse foreign accents that fail to stay consistent, sometimes changing in mid-paragraph. Despite minor quibbles with graphics and voicing, Empire Earth is a fun game for seasoned gamers.
Expect stiff opposition early on, as the scenarios are very challenging and well designed. Those who polish off the campaigns and human opponents will enjoy the sophisticated editor used to make countless encounters including personalized cut-scenes. Although not the prettiest game in the genre, Empire Earth's expansive timeline of conflict is unmatched.
While it would have been nice to see more of the economic aspect of war, it is exciting to help a tribe of troglodytes fight through , years to become a nano-tech nation. Empire Earth is literally a game for the ages. Graphics: Graphics are a tad blocky, but unit movement animations look decent, especially the death spirals of airplanes and ships sliding to a watery grave.
Sound: Barring the questionable voice acting, the sounds are consistently accurate and reflective of the proper time period. Enjoyment: While the game is mostly military in nature, the battles are exciting, more so if at sea. Customization reaches a new high with civilization points, tech research, and unit improvements. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Open the Installer, Click Next, and choose the directory where to Install.
Let it Download Full Version game in your specified directory. Open the Game and Enjoy Playing. You Got 14 Different Epochs. Cruisers are available since the Industrial Age. Developments are foreordained in scenarios, yet chosen by the player shortly after the beginning of random guide matches.
Likewise, civic institutions may be drawn up from the participant throughout the principle menu or at the manual editorial supervisor. Every individual advancement has a couple of benefits, by way of instance, accelerate or diminished cost to get a type of unit. Any individual advancement can be performed at any age nevertheless may be great in ages which use units which it's benefits for. In scenarios, the participant gets"civ targets" for completing different missions.
Coming up next are the available civic institutions, assembled into their proposed ages. Multiplayer comprises Of on the internet and system play up to 8 people at precisely the exact same moment. The sport is Vital warfare between either side, except if discretion is included. Until November , multiplayer continuing interaction has been Played on the official Sierra servers, nevertheless, these were shut someplace Around Activision that had bought the organization.
Regardless, Gamers can, in any circumstance, play on the internet by associating legally to the IP address of this game server, gave the firewall of this host has Vents sent. Click on the "Download Game" button.
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