| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: Empire Earth II
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Scroll down for our Kid Factor. 
Most real-time strategy games take the easy route. They settings are single wars, campaigns, often epic, but the confine themselves to a fantasy world, science fiction, or a single human historical period. But the makers of Empire Earth II aren't content with a single slice of history, they want the whole pie, and like the original Empire Earth (from Stainless Steel Studios) it's a lot to swallow, but unlike the original game the sequel goes down a lot easier.
First off, the goals: Empire Earth challenges the player to guide a nascent civilization from early human history to the future. Along the way the player has to pick research goals, gather resources, maintain an economy, build an army, keep it current, patrol borders, repel invaders, trade, pursue diplomatic options, maybe conduct military campaigns to stunt the enemy's growth or for conquest, all while keeping an eye toward advancing through history so the player isn't left using slings and arrows against machine guns and tanks. There's a lot to do and the learning curve is dauntingly steep, but once you get the hang of things the game can be very rewarding, especially in multiplayer. When broken down, the components of the game are quite simple. Basic resource gathering allows for a well-rounded empire, and the military component boils down to rock-paper-scissors, meaning that infantry is good against cavalry, cavalry is good against ranged opponents, and ranged opponents can cut a swath through infantry. This theory is carried through the game, and applies, cleverly, to sea units as well as eventual air units. It's a thrill to watch your civilization go from clubs to nukes to massive lumbering giant robots and laser beams, but ultimately the player with the fastest hands at the hotkeys, greatest knowledge and confidence during the build up, and the knowledge of when and where to strike an opponent is the winner. The pace is blistering, the balance has been refined, and the game proves to be an intense and intelligent struggle. It's just not a great game for the methodical, the thoughtful, and those with slow reaction speed to frequently changing events.  That isn't to say the designers at Mad Doc haven't put in the tools a player needs to succeed without yanking their hair out. Unlike the original game, and like the similarly themed Rise of Nations game, Mad Doc has refined the game and created a series of innovations designed to make a sprawling game that much more manageable. The new Citizen Manager lets players keep track of their peons without a lot of hands on management, the new War Plan lets you share tactics with an ally, and there's a picture in picture window that lets you track key areas, like the Western Front or your home base, while attending to more pressing matters. Players can even command units inside the picture, even accessing building queues! They've added concepts like borders and made diplomacy more of a factor. Be careful who you allow access, because no civilization needs to let a serpent in their bosom and players will find enough tactics, strategy and headaches to deal with the new diplomatic options and espionage. Diplomacy is about average for an RTS game, notable mainly because it's better than the first Empire Earth. The War Plan deserves special mention because in single player it actually lets you tell your computer controlled allies what to do and where to do it, and in multiplayer it lets you co-ordinate with human allies quickly and easily. This could be the single greatest invention to come to RTS games since building queues. Consider this, you can make multiple Alliances with human players, send them different war plans, and then cancel treaties and attack where you know each foe is weakest. Finally a game that fully exploits the true nature of the Internet player. The list of further innovations and complications to the game go on and on. Meeting certain goals earns a player Crowns which lead to rewards. These range from leaders who help units in combat, to time-limit rewards that boost productivity. The weather isn't just there for graphical flourish. Heavy rain seems to impede cavalry and archers significantly, and these bonuses and drawbacks are different for each era. For example, planes don't fly well in heavy weather, and you don't want to conduct a military campaign in the middle of winter. There are even blizzards that help the you or the enemy infiltrate territory unseen. Lots of innovations that lead to a number if interesting options. There are 14 civilizations, each is different in some way, and the game can be played as a series of campaigns, the single player ones are historical, or you can pick an epoch and run with it. Since some civilizations are better in certain epochs than others, this allows savvy players to handicap their performance in multiplayer or take advantage by picking a civilization that best suits the map and era. The single player campaigns lack depth and learning a game this complicated is just not fun, unless you're a quick study or enjoy punishment. There is a nice range of difficulty levels, and the tutorial is decent, but the manual could have used more strategy and game theory and less simple explanation.  The graphics are very good and the interface is a snap, the game performs well, but there is some slowdown on slower systems. Especially when you've got picture-in-picture running. There are also pathfinding issues with units where they don't seem to use roads and bridges well, negating the benefit of adding these concepts to the game. Fans of the first Empire Earth are going to find a very improved game here and fans of rival series Rise of Nations will be impressed by some of the new concepts. But a high difficulty level, small issues and problems with pathfinding and ease of use, and a slight clumsiness in execution (Rise of Nations is still superior simply because of its elegance) make EEII hard to recommend to new or casual RTS players and a bad idea for gamers new to the genre. 
Aside from all kinds of killing and dying on the part of detailed but ultimately toy-like animated figures (that do, admittedly, bleed) the game is par for the course and the emphasis for much of the game is on building, expanding, and doing it with a tranquil soundtrack. Then things explode into a war seen from afar thrill of real-time gaming.
Violence aside, the main consideration here is complexity. This is a gamer's game and that means it's out of reach to younger players. This is complex, strategic, and requires patience. Of course this makes it a decent learning tool and a great way to spark a conversation about history, empires, and the evolution of culture in the world. Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Empire Earth" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Empire Earth II |
Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
|
Please Note: GamerDad is not intended to be read by anyone under 18. We stay clean, but be warned! Content Management System developed by Redbird Solutions. |
