Age of Empires III: Complete Collection

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Stunning scenes
• Spectacular combat
• Industrial Age units like rifled infantry, cavalry and tall ships bristling with cannons
• New game-play elements

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B002L6HJCI
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 1 inches ; 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 15, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #1 in Video Games > PC Games > Strategy > Real-Time
  • #44 in Video Games > PC Games > All Games

Product Description

Age of Empires III will offer gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but AoE2 is more fun, March 19, 2010

By 

Sci-fi and history reader (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Age of Empires III: Complete Collection (CD-ROM)

This collection of the basic game and expansions is a good value for Real Time Strategy (RTS) game players. The War Chiefs expansion is ok, campaign short, and not a lot of depth. The Asian Dynasties Expansion is a lot of fun, three campaigns (Japan, India, China), with each nation having their own wonders giving them unique special abilities. The different nations are neat, but not having a United States colonial civilization to choose from in skirmish mode is disappointing, especially after playing the campaign game in War Chiefs. The campaigns are easier to complete and have less depth than Age of Empires II (AoE2). AoE3 campaigns were overall fun, but require much less strategy to win; build one small army to defend your base and when the large army is ready to go, overwhelm the computer.

The graphics have improved, but did experienced significant lag and even game freezing at times due to ship combat on the duo-core Thinkpad, even with all graphic options reduced to minimal levels. Other than naval combat, the game played well. Not sure why the lag occurred.

There are some improvements to the game play where a single large farm can be built and no need to worry about cueing or constantly checking if there is enough wood to re-task the workers to harvest food. The use of a home city for the campaign game is really neat with special cards to provide resources, upgrades, or units. Each nation has unique units and cards. The strategy of the cards is very important, does the player want to have early age villagers to gather resources faster or hold on for the late age military units for the end game battles? This adds depth to the game.

The basic resources are still wood, gold, food, with experience for home city improvement (cards). Experience is gained from killing enemy units, destroying structures, building units, and having a trading post.

The negative about the game is the combat options. The player no longer has the option for unit formations or commands such as defend ground or hold ground. Units will rush off when attacked and baited by the enemy. Worse yet, units will stay in large massed formations when attacking artillery units, to be blown apart. The player can not select skirmish mode or defend unit mode. Your healer will rush off and attack an enemy building or unit.

Another negative is artillery units being too strong to destroy and the targeting of units. Example would be attacking a group of enemy artillery units that are in marching order. Your cavalry can attack the artillery, but somehow, even the big siege gun, will be able to unlimber and fire, killing multiple units even though they are engaged in hand to hand combat against swordsmen and cavalry. Artillery does not cause splash or collateral damage to friendly units too. So if the enemy has their infantry attacking yours in hand to hand combat, their artillery will be able to fire through them and only kill your units, not theirs. This is a frustrating factor.

As we know in history, artillery units, when attacked in hand to hand combat, can not fire, also siege cannons, take a long time to reload and can not if the crews are attacked in hand to hand combat. But in AoE3, the game has super artillery being able to unlimber and fire multiple times, killing your units before being finally subdued while under attack the entire time. The siege cannons take a lot of damage to destroy too. This is a very frustrating experience that detracts from the game.

Given lack of combat formation / options and the lag time experienced in naval combat, AoE2 and Age of Mythology are still the preferred games. The massive battles with large armies between multiple players were a lot fun in AoE2 as each side slugged it out, but for some reason, lacking the same level of intensity and excitement in AoE3.

Unfortunately, Ensemble Studios was closed by Microsoft, which is not a good sign for us computer gamers. If Microsoft closes their only computer game developer, it becomes very clear that their focus is to make money from console games. The loss of Ensemble Studios means that we computer strategy game players will have fewer quality games to purchase and play in the future.

Thank you Ensemble Studios, your games have been fun to play and AoE3 was another enjoyable experience.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best RTS of all time, July 30, 2010

By 

Drag - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Age of Empires III: Complete Collection (CD-ROM)

This game is simply amazing!! and to add all the expansions to the game itself just makes it that much better!
The graphics for one is still up to par and its 2010! even when the cannons shoot there is realistic smoke comming out.
The gameplay is very smooth on and offline! you dont have to have an internet connection to play this game in single player and its sad to say that many games now including starcraft 2 has to have an internet connection to be able to play it.
The campaign is long especially with all the expansions
The sound is great
The online mode is simply flawless, i have been deployed in afghanistan and we have really slow internet, and to say that it runs smooth is just awesome! we have tried many other games online but sadly they do not run no were near as smooth. There is also lan for those of you who want to lan with buddies and play many at once.
It is constantly being updated and patched so the game cannot recieve anything less then 5 stars!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AOE III, September 7, 2010

By 

Anthony M. Pereira "AMP747400" (Livermore, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Age of Empires III: Complete Collection (CD-ROM)

Great game. Tough in the "hardest" setting, but I was finally able to finish it. I used some "gouge" (Navy slang for "answers") that I found on the internet, to help me beat it. My only gripe is that you are limited to how many troops, ships, and cannons by the computer, which is a bit unrealistic (especially since the computer doesn't seem to have the same limitations), and maddening--you have the money to buy them, but the game won't let you, so you are unable to defend yourself properly from the hordes generated by the computer, and get wiped out. Other than that, I loved it!