Empire Earth
Description official descriptions
Age of Empires is set in the past, Command & Conquer explores the future, but up to now there was no real-time strategy game that covered the whole breadth of human history. Empire Earth fills this gap and lets you wage war with everything from prehistoric stone thrower up to futuristic battle-mechs.
Empire Earth’s mastermind Rick Goodman was lead designer of the original Age of Empires. Similarities are thus hardly surprising; in fact, his new game can be considered a 3D version of its predecessor. Despite the graphical leap, the game’s look and feel are very familiar - AoE fans will feel perfectly at home. The perspective is fixed in an isometric view, camera management is not required. In your quest to crush the opposition, you build settlements, collect five resource types, recruit troops (land, sea, air) and, well, fight battles. Unit improvements are no longer researched in buildings, but can be bought at once for each unit type. For example, you can increase your tanks’ hit points, attack value, armor, speed and range separately -- for a price. It's your choice whether to spend your income on a huge army, or on an advanced one. Throughout the campaign, you also earn civilization points for heroic deeds; you can spend these on general unit improvements, e.g. reducing your archers building time by 30%, or making your citizens 20% faster.
The game’s four campaigns span the entire history of warfare: conquer the Mediterranean as the Greeks, lead the English from the middle ages to the battle at Waterloo, change history by making the Germans victors of the First and Second World War, and finally create a Russian empire in 2025. The campaign missions are heavily scripted and contain quite a few adventure elements; for example, you must lead William Duke of Normandy safely through enemy ambushes. As the scenarios focus on a set time frame, you don’t advance through the 14 epochs (from the Prehistoric Era to the Nano Age). In skirmish mode and in multiplayer battles, however, you may lead your people from caves into skyscrapers.
Spellings
- 地球帝国 - Simplified Chinese spelling
Groups +
- BestSeller Series (Cendant / Havas / Vivendi Universal) releases
- Covermount: Fullgames
- Empire Earth series
- Games that include map/level editor
- Green Pepper releases
- Historical Conflict: Hundred Years War
- Historical conflict: Napoleonic Wars
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Setting: 2010s
- Setting: Classical Greece
- Setting: Future now past
- Setting: Medieval Europe
- Setting: Totality of history
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
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Credits (Windows version)
167 People (164 developers, 3 thanks) · View all
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Lead Single Player Game Design | |
Single Player Game Design | |
Lead Multiplayer Game Designer | |
Multiplayer Game Designer | |
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 83% (based on 32 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 66 ratings with 9 reviews)
I have a lot of bad things to say about this "Age of Empire" rebellion game...
The Good
The game has new features, different from its predecessor Age of Empires II. I commend their "trying" to come up with something new, as well as their ambitious attempt to "compile" all ages, past and futuristic. So what do you have when you combine Age of Empires, Cossacks, Red Alert and Starcraft? I'll tell you later...(save the best for last).
This game has no races or nations like other games, instead the differences are given to "civilization bonuses", which if you play a normal game (not campaign), you get to choose what bonuses your "race" excels in, similar to character creations in RPG games only this applies to a race (or nation). For example you can customize your nation to excell in Tanks (e.g. 20% attack bonus, 20% armour, etc). Therefore it would probably virtually impossible to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of a nation in a multiplayer game!
Improvement of units are now delegated to the units themselves, not in buildings (e.g. barracks), however with a limitation. You can only improve only a number of improvement per type of unit, therefore also creation diversity in unit abilities. Example: If you maximize attack, defence to maximum, your unit may lack speed or movement, etc.
The graphics are sound features are very nice. I've noticed some detailed work when you bombard walls and buildings, which gives a more "real" affect.
I do commend the fact this is the only game (I know of) where you can actually play the part of the Nazi's although not explicitly expressed in the campaign description.
The Bad
Now for the good stuff, er bad stuff. What I don't like about this game.
As I said earlier, what do you get when you combine Age of Empires, Cossacks, Red Alert and Starcraft? TOTAL CHAOS!
This game has NO FOCUS. Trying to bundle everything in one package, making this one very boring real time strategy game in the long run. But no matter that's not what's bad, it gets worse.
HORRIBLE INTERFACE! Not recommended for experienced players that take value of informational detail: You click on a unit and there is no description what so ever about the unit. Not even a help menu to explain the uses of units and buildings. BY THE GODS! What are they thinking? Do they actually think that gamers just play? That they do not actually like to READ and KNOW more about those little icons they move around in the game? If there were awards for IGNORANCE for EDUCATIONAL VALUES this game would win top awards. Sorry for being harsh, but games like this do teach much to those playing them unlike most games I've played.
Oh, and the campaign? You'd be better of playing Age of Empires I. Much better. Unfortunately, my personal opinion is if they hope to rival Age of Empires with this "game", they'd be better of making chess programs.
The beta testers (as well as the campaign programmers) failed big time in this game too (well not big time, but irritating enough). When you play the campaign, you'll probably understand what I'm talking about. Whoever produced the campaign needs to get another job! NO TASTE! And talk about bad acting. The story teller could bore you to sleep. No creativity and they keep limiting your options on what units you can or cannot do. In certain situations you cannot control your units because of the plot (They're my units, don't move them!). There goes the strategy!
The units are a little less irritating than of Cossacks. Units can actually bump other units therefore ruining their previous stance. Probably because using 3D features. Which also make units hard to move in tight situations, in addition they can't march in formation very good either. (Should've learnt better from Cossacks)
And there's the air units. If you know how to control those flying birds someone let me know. Forget flying in formation, because there is no such thing. Red Alert fans would laugh out of their socks seeing how the air units (specifically planes) operate in this game. They fly one by one, flying around like a pack of vultures. So you can forget about lightning attacks from the air. They get there when they get there.
Did I mention bad interface. Oh, yes I did. No pride, by gum.
The Bottom Line
Expect minimal brain activity. Better off playing Age of Mythology, worth being called Age of Empires III.
Windows · by Indra was here (20745) · 2003
Age of Empires III. About as good as it predecessors.
The Good
Make no mistake about it; Empire Earth IS a copy of Age of Empires. It looks, plays, and sounds the same. The graphics are the same, the interface is the same, the game is the same, right down to the resources and what they look like. The ONLY difference is that this game tacks on more technological development, right up to modern times and the "nano age."
This is a shameless ripoff in every way, but to its credit, it does it well. Age of Empires IS a good game, and so is Empire Earth. The graphics are crisp and easy on the eye, the interface is smooth, the sound is great and the gameplay is just as good as when Microsoft published it as Age of Empires. And it IS an upgrade; there are some nice rules changes, and far more units.
The Bad
The game has two major flaws. the first is the AI - which, incidentally, doesn't play fair. The computer doesn't follow the same rules the player does, as a result of which computer players are absurdly strong. Even at the lowest difficulty level, giving the player every possible advantage, the computer seems to get free resources and buildings Winning is very difficult, and will only happen with some luck.
The second is that in an effort to expand the game to modern times, the game zips by the technology progression way too fast. Whereas Age of Empires had four or five "Eras," this game has 15. The differences between Classical and Byzantine techs don't seem really apparent when you're buzzing through them at a rate of one era every fifteen minutes. The game's "epic" Civilization-style scope of the entirety of human history seems very contrived against a standard Age of Empires map.
The Bottom Line
Not the epic masterpiece it's being described as, and not a necessary purchase if you still enjoy your Age of Empires II set.
Windows · by Rick Jones (96) · 2001
The Good
So nice real time strategy game
The Bad
One game is too long and can be more than 30 hours
The Bottom Line
Often the same way to win against IA is to build towers evrywhere
Windows · by adamo · 2023
Trivia
Epochs
The 14 Empire Earth epochs are:
- Prehistoric Era (500,000 BC)
- Stone Age (10,000 BC)
- Copper Age (5000 BC)
- Bronze Age (2000 BC)
- Dark Ages (0 AD)
- Middle Ages (900 AD)
- Renaissance (1300 AD)
- Imperial Age (1500 AD)
- Industrialization (1700 AD)
- World War I (1900 AD)
- World War II (1930 AD)
- Modern Era (1950 AD)
- Digital Era (2000 AD)
- Nano Age (2100 AD)
Server shutdown
The official online servers were shut down on 1 November 2008.
Awards
- GameSpy
- 2001 – PC Game of the Year
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by -Chris.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, jean-louis, Patrick Bregger, Plok.
Game added November 19, 2001. Last modified May 23, 2024.