Empire Earth is a strategy game very similar to Age of Empires. You are basically the never dieing leader of a civilization. You are in charge of collecting resources such as food, wood, stone, gold and iron. You are also in charge of the military, which will help you conquer the world. In Empire Earth you also need to advance through the epochs in order to gain new technologies and advances.

Copying Age of Empires?
In my opinion Empire Earth does take a lot from the classic AOE but it just adds to it and doesn’t take away. I’m sure you have heard the AOE was much better and this game is not worth your money. That is not true. First of all in AOE depending on which version you play you can only go through about for ages per game. In EE you need to go from the prehistoric age to the Nano Age (2200 ad). In total there are 14 different epochs to advance through. That is much more than the classic AOE.

Empire Earth has a lack or technologies compared to AOE. What I mean by that is that in AOE every age you had to research at the blacksmith as well as all the other buildings. However EE doesn’t have that many technologies I think AOE had to many and this speeds up the game. The units are very different. For example in the starting age of EE the two units at the barracks you can create are the clubman and the rock thrower. However the clubman is the same as the first AOE the rock thrower isn’t. Many new buildings have been added to EE ranging from a hospital to an airport.

Game play
Basically you do the same thing in EE as you do in AOE. You start the game off with the designated number of villagers (1-20) and a town center. From there you and you allies (or you may choose to play alone) must build all the necessary building and collect all the necessary resources to defeat your opponent. Like AOE you can choose which age you would like to start and end in. I personally prefer starting in the prehistoric age just to make it a little longer and more fun.

Population
In AOE you start off with a population limit but you also need to build houses in order to create new units. In EE you can set the population before you start the game. Instead of chooses in the population limit for each person you choose the world population. It can range from 75-1200. Therefore when you only have two people playing their population limits are 600 each if you set it at 1200. However some units cost more to the population than other. For example a regular villager cost one population point but a prophet cost two population points.

You don’t need to build houses to make your population grow. However houses are not necessary they do help your civilization grow. A Capital or Town Center has a certain area of influence. If you build a house in that area it adds to the buildings and the units moral if the units are inside the area. The more houses you have the faster people work the harder people work.

Additions
I have added this category to tell you about the additions from AOE to EE. First of all EE has many more buildings than AOE. The new buildings are the hospital, the fortress, the tank factory, the different wonders, the airport, the cyber factory, the cyber laboratory, and the naval base. One disappointment was the loss of the castle, but I guess this isn’t supposed to be another AOE so you can’t expect it. Instead they have the fortress. The fortress is a place to store units, however it does not shoot arrows at enemy units. When you garrison units inside the fortress they are not added to your population limit. For example if your population was 92 and you had 40 points worth of units, when you garrison them in the fortress your population goes down to 50. The greatest number of units allowed in a fortress is forty points worth of units. In EE there a way too many new units to name them all but some of them consist of the many different types of tanks, airplanes, and ships.

Resources
I really like the resources in EE better than AOE but there are a lot more of them. For example in AOE each little gold mine block had 800 gold. In EE each gold mine has 300,000 gold and the same with all the other mines and farms. Therefore by the end of the game each mine still has about 290,000. The way the makers made is so you can’t just overflow with resources is they limited the number of people that can work on one mine at a time. Only six people can work on a mine at a time. I like this feature much better than using your market the whole game long.

Trading is nonexistent in EE. That is a letdown. You can send those trade carts across country to bring a small amount of gold back. The same thing with trade cogs. There aren’t any. I think that was a big loss in EE but EE is still a better overall game.

Multiplayer
I have played multiplayer a few times and there have been a few pros and a few cons. The system to access multiplayer was much easier than AOE. In AOE you have to go to the zone on the Internet. In EE you need to be connected to the Internet but from there you can access it all through a fast system in the game. Once you are in the multiplayer section it is the same as the AOE multiplayer. People have different games and you can join the ones you want. The only con about the multiplayer is the lack of custom scenarios. In AOE people have created enjoyable scenarios like Soldier Store and Archer Blood. I haven’t found any of this in EE probably because it is a new game and people haven’t had enough time to create new scenarios.

Conclusion
In conclusion I think EE is not a clone of AOE and it is a much better game. This game cost fifty dollars and it is copy able. I think this is definitely worth your money especially if you enjoy playing games like AOE and Civilization. The big thing that makes EE better than AOE is the ability to go beyond history and into the future.




Recommended: Yes