Age of Empires III Review (no fat)

Game Description

Ensemble studios return with a sequel of the AoE series, The Age of Empires III. In terms of the evolution of the game’s system, it picks up from where the reputed Age of Kings left off…completely redefining the meaning of Real Time Strategy games. The quality of this venture can be gauged by the feel that it will be the base of many other RTS games to come.

Picking up from hundreds of years after its prequel, Age of Empires III introduces the home city concept. A concept that gives it a unique touch while indicating the colonization of the new world. The card upgrade system is also introduced from which you can call reinforcements from the home city respective to the experience points you earn. There are eight different civilizations from which you can chose and each has its own unique features while some features are shared by all of them.

Age of Empires III Gameplay

Although AoE III may boast a lot of improvements, the main area that required improvements is still somewhat the same. The game still plays like the old one meaning after all the improvements made in the visuals, sounds and etc. there is not much difference in the gameplay.

The key to AoE III is the strategy you inevitably make as soon as you start. Most of your time will be spent establishing your civilization. Your economy will effect your position the most and it will indirectly command your attack forces and defense strategies.

However, if you don’t balance your concern between your economy and your military powers, you will be in for a rude awakening when another civilization perceives your weakness. Both the aspects have to be simultaneously handled and taken care of.

In order to win you must eliminate every single unit of the opponent meaning if there are some peasants left harvesting on trees and their base is destroyed you will not have won. There is, nonetheless, an option allowing the loser to give up before every unit is destroyed.

Age of Empires III Modes of Play

The single player campaign consists of a lot of missions and some odd situations that can help you get some experience on how to handle the game. This game mode is divided into three main events.

The skirmish mode consists of fully customizable features down to the number of computer opponents you face. There are five levels of difficulty on which you can set the computer opponent giving some great gameplay for even the less experienced gamers.

The multiplayer fun, however, can be experienced best against human opponents. Age of Empires III satisfies us with network gameplay as well as the ability to compete online. Through the online engine called Ensemble Studios Online, or ESOnline, you can compete with gamers from around the world. The downside is that you don’t get to keep your experience points from your single player campaign which makes playing single player pointless even if it offers practice…you get practice online as well. Strategy is all that counts in online gameplay.

Age of Empires III – Taking Sides

As is the case with most strategy war games, you have the choice of picking the civilization you want to play as. There is a choice between eight different European civilizations including British, Spanish, Ottomans, Germans, Dutch, French, Portuguese and the Russians.

Each civilization has its own characteristics that set it apart, allowing you to choose the one that suits you the best. While you can switch your alliance, its best to stick to one nation throughout the campaign or you’ll lose all the upgrade cards and the experience points.

Choosing sides, however, is not just a matter of choosing the color. There are pros and cons attached to your choices that enhance the diversity in the game. Some civilizations have advantages that others can’t boast of, such as the British automatically getting workers with every structure they build and the Russians being able to train a large numbers of light infantry in short periods of time and etc.

All the same, these advantages are not found in the battlefield because most of the time the units are all similar, give or take a few exceptions. The exceptions are the British longbows, who turned out to be a lot more efficient than expected, and the huge artillery of the Ottomans.

Age of Empires III Harvesting Resources

Ever since the start of the campaign you will be in a race to harvest the most resources although there are some improvements relating to the harvesting of resources. In the previous editions of the game there were dropoff points where the workers would go back to store the harvest but now all that has changed meaning the workers don’t have to go back to town and can continue on chopping trees.

You use these resources in turn to establish your colony by making more villagers, training more soldiers and other military units and increasing the size of your settlement.

Age of Empires III Military Establishment

The establishment of the militia of your civilization on the other hand is quite different and requires a lot of strategy as you can use your home city reinforcements to either defend your colony or to attack some of your foes. Nevertheless, there is a catch; you only get limited usage of these reinforcements.

You can train three types of units; artillery, horsemen and the infantry…each being trained in a different structure. The adjustment to the training of the infantry in AoE III is such that you can train five units at a time. This is a welcome feature as its really a waste of time to sit and wait for each unit to be trained before you get on to the next. Surprisingly enough, it takes the same amount of time to train five units as it does to train one.

Age of Empires III Economic Powers

Those who have played AoE before, will know that only having a big army doesn’t mean that you’ll be successful. You have to be an all-rounder to make an impact. One main area of concern is the actual establishment of an efficient economy.

To achieve your goals, you’ll have to make a market place to boost your colony’s economy and have a center of trade. Building mills and factories for the survival of the residents of your colony, ensuring they get food and other necessities, is another part of the job.

Age of Empires III Defensive Structures

Once the foundation of your economy is laid you can stop worrying about such things and concentrate on the attack pattern or the defense strategy. This is only possible if your marketplace doesn’t get ambushed and bears damaged. Keeping this under consideration you have to strengthen your defenses along with the economy. Again, AoE vets will remember the watch towers protecting your bases, save feature protects you here. Apart from defensive structures, you will also be required to make other structures and buildings as the ever increasing population of your colony will have to be efficiently accommodated.

Age of Empires III Graphics:

If the gameplay is immersive, Age of Empires III looks superb. The beautiful landscapes, units and cities have a very ‘authentic’ look, and are very pleasant to look at. When it comes to some of the combat, it’s certainly a step above and beyond the rest. Setting cannons against enemy buildings will result in explosions, split timbers, fragments of rubble and stone flying from the targets, and cannon balls spinning off along the ground creating a very lifelike effect.

The downside is , however, the frame rate which suffers greatly when there are a lot of units involved in a battle, so the side with the quickest guns is most likely to win. The evolution of this games graphics has been great and surely is a feast for any gamer’s eyes (…if only there was no lag!)

Age of Empires III Audio

The audio is as good as you’d expect from a ‘cutting edge’ RTS. The somewhat annoying muttering of the villagers from previous games has been dampened – fans of the AOE series will be pleased to hear that giving out orders is no longer accompanied by an irritating grunt. The sound effects are exceptional and there is even different background music relating to the culture or the situation.

Age of Empires III - 2cent

Age of Empires III is an extremely impressive RTS. Graphically, it’s far beyond anything else on the market. It’s ‘Home City’ concept works wonderfully in adding a new and different slant on the traditional RTS Structure.

However, combat is a little disappointing. Ultimately it’s what any action in the game leads up to, and it’s a bit of a letdown. As always the ‘paper-scissor-stone’ setup leaves very little room for strategic or tactical combat, and it’s simply a matter of clicking, watching and waiting. Nonetheless, the game is still definitely a collectable.

Age of Empires III Price

Age of Empires III currently retails at $37.99