Empire Earth III for PC: Review

Fans of the Empire Earth series have been waiting since 2005 for the next installment to emerge. Empire Earth III (EE3) was finally released in early November 2007. Does it live up to the reputation of its predecessors or does it fall short? Read this review and find out for yourself if EE3 is everything fans hoped it would be.

Developed by Mad Doc Software, EE3 is a real-time strategy (RTS) game for the PC. In this single or multi-player game, players choose between three different factions, including Far Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Western. Each faction has it's own type of game architecture, technology and units. Each faction is then broken down into the countries that lie within those factions. There is also a World Domination game play that changes from RTS to turn-based. The object of the game is simple enough: conquer the world. This is done by taking your civilization from the ice age through the future as it passes through five distinct eras of history.

The graphics on this version are better than earlier ones but fall short of what they really should be. Some of the units look good and buildings look good as they get torn apart but you'll sometimes have trouble with some of the units starting and stopping across the screen. Basically, most of the graphics look decent but their performance often falls behind most other games currently available.

The soundtrack for EE3 isn't bad and I found it enjoyable. What I found annoying was the bad one-liners that are continually spouted out by units. An occasional comment is fine but these come out often enough to detract from game play. On the other hand, if you like bad puns and light-hearted humor, you just might appreciate the comments and jokes. In either case, the game gives you the option to turn off the voices. With this in mind, I found the audio in this game to be pretty good.

Where this game truly falls short is game play. I'm not sure where to begin here, so I'll just jump right in. In order to build units, buildings or anything else, you'll need to gather resources. This system has been over-simplified to the point that any kind of resource can be used to build anything. For example, you can use fish to build cavalry or mechanized warriors. This is nice if you like a streamlined system, but if you're into realism you'll find this a bit of a turn off.

Another problem this game suffers from is path finding. Trying to lead more than a couple of units across a field is fine but anything more than that and you'll find yourself "unit wrangling" as you pick up strays and bring them back to the formation. I wouldn't bother with anything like leading them through buildings, this is a real-time strategy and you'll discover you're spending too much time picking up wandering units.

Building armies is another disappointment. The game has only a few different kinds of units to choose from. This means that once you understand the right combination of units to keep, most battles get repetitive and boring. What should have been the best part of this game has been turned into a dull routine. Players can't amass giant armies either, which may be a good thing because it helps keep these boring battles from grinding on forever. The enemies' artificial intelligence (AI) is a little spotty as well. There are plenty of times when your enemies fight like untrained farmers, even on the more difficult settings.

Fans of the first two Empire Earth games will be very disappointed in EE3. Earlier versions were longer and more complex. Everything about EE3 has been over-simplified compared to earlier versions. Tech trees are way too simple and have deviated away from historical accuracy in an unpleasant manner. The game has dropped from more than 12 different eras to five, meaning all those great bonuses are gone. The amount of playable civilizations has dropped considerably as well. If you're looking for a good RTS world domination game, walk past this one and pick up Rise of Nations.