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Product Description
Platform: PC | Edition: Standard
Age of Empires III will offer gamers the next level of realism, with advanced battle physics and unparalleled visual detail.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
149 of 158 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard
Fun:
4.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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.
26 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By Arseface
Platform for Display:PC| Edition:Standard|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fun:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For some reason, I never had my expectations set very high when it came to this game, and so, I held out on buying it until recently, when I noticed I could get this complete collection at such a great price. Perhaps it was because of the industrialization- something I detest whenever it somehow sneaks into a fantasy RPG which I often play. Maybe it was just because the formula for the Age series was already done, done again, then done again after that. Or most likely, I have always been terrible at real-time strategy games and found them frustrating, but fun at the same time. I guess I wanted something new, but still wanted something I knew I'd have fun with.
And I did get that. When I first started, I was very pleased at a lot of the new features that added more depth to the Age series' formula. The game is largely played in the same way as previous Age games, but with more depth and strategy. While a lot tend to compare it to Age of Empires 2, this game has most in common with Age of Mythology. You choose sides when you advance in age, create more special units based on your civilization, focus more on bonuses and units, etc. My favorite new addition was the home city shipment system, which allows you to choose units, upgrades, etc. to be sent to your town center throughout the round. You must choose which shipments will be available before each round starts, so there is careful planning involved before the game actually starts. This is mostly emphasized in skirmish and multi-player modes instead of campaign, but after the game starts is where the focus of the campaign should be anyway.
The game's main campaign series follows the Black family, starting with Morgan Black, set in around the 16th or 17th century (can't remember exactly). This part of the campaign was the most fun for me, simply because the story felt more like a medieval fantasy, chasing after the legendary "fountain of youth". However, my favorite mission was the one where you only have a set amount of units and have to move them through a dangerous mountain pass in the Andes (can't remember which one that was either, but I think it was the third act). In the War Chiefs expansion campaign, you continue to follow the Black family's adventures, including fighting in the American Revolution. The Asian Dynasties campaigns stray from the Blacks and follow three different Asian rulers, first Japan, then China, then India. There are many campaign scenarios to keep you occupied for a long time, or a very long time if you play like I do (poorly).
But then, there is skirmish mode, which allows you to play, practice, have fun in any way you want. I had to use this repeatedly just to get the hang of the game all over again, so that I could complete the campaign on "moderate" mode instead of "easy." But eventually, I gave up on that, and I just wanted the campaign to be over because skirmish mode can be much more interesting than the campaign anyway. One of the main reasons is the large number of maps to choose from, all with nicely detailed environments that are a huge improvement over the previous Age of Mythology. Another is the fact that you can choose any civilization you want, which means you will be able to choose from many different home city shipment sets, provided you have enough experience points from winning skirmish battles.
All that said about skirmish mode also applies to online multi-player, which is basically skirmishing against other players as well as computers, if you so choose. I tried it only once, but once I got stomped within ten minutes, I decided it wasn't worth practicing to join the ranks. But for those who are competitive, it's there for you. Online mode also allows players to share, duke it out, work together, or just screw around on custom player-made scenarios. Whether you go online or not, custom scenarios are fun to create and play on, and it's good to see this feature return again. I have only glanced at it, but if it's anything like the previous scenario builders, it should be great.
All that being said, once you try just about everything the game has to offer once, it is hardly worth doing it all again. The game's newfound depth is undermined by the fact that battling is extremely unbalanced. Does it break the game? No, I don't think so. It's still fun to battle, but when you play computer players, there is a surefire route to defeat them no matter what map you play, what difficulty they are set to, or what you choose to be in the beginning. The strategy is all the same because combat is unbalanced to where units' offensive power is overpowered, no matter what type they are. All you need to do is hold off your town with the best units you can create for a small amount of time until you have a larger army of your own, and this army can be of anything. Need to break into your enemy's town and raze his town center? 50 archers should do the trick. Seriously.
I don't mind the realism in other areas- gunshots are supposed to be harmful, but units can die so quickly, it becomes a game of quick numbers instead of battle strategy. Of course, that's only if they're not going against defensive buildings. In Age of Empires 2, the castle was a valuable defense. In Age of Mythology, they weakened buildings quite badly, making the forts easily destroyable, and this game continued that idea, which I believe is a bit of a flub. Not only that, you are severely limited on how many defensive buildings you can create. Most teams are only allowed ONE fortress and some (around seven or so) watch towers. Natives are allowed a slightly larger set number of war huts, which provide the same (but weaker) defensive function, but Asians are only allowed a measly five castles, which are not even close to the grand, powerful castles of Age of Empires 2, instead being as functional as obese watch towers.
Perhaps part of the reasoning behind these otherwise arbitrary limits is the fact that maps are TINY. I thought the game was about EXPLORING THE NEW WORLD? This, this was my biggest peeve with the game, that the maps are so cramped, you can sometimes see your enemies' buildings just by using your own buildings' line of sight. This should not happen. Even what they call the "large" maps are not large at all, for they feel like only a quarter of the size of the "giant" map setting on Age of Empires 2. Not only that, you cannot choose the size of your map in skirmish mode- "large" maps are preset only for a few certain regions, which is a shame because many of the other maps are beautifully rendered and deserve more glory (especially northwest territory, Honshu and the lovely turkey day-themed Plymouth). I know this is mainly a strategy game, but the map size limits strategy as well. Want to make a larger town that encompasses a few trade posts? Nope, "You cannot build too close to an enemy's first town center." The radius of that restriction would be fair if it didn't ban you from a third of the map. Wanna build two different towns on the same map to use a two-pronged attack technique? Why bother? Unless you play on a "large" map, your towns will be so close together, it will still basically be one town. The maps' size hurts the campaign drastically as well. The mission I mentioned where you fight mother nature through the blizzardy Andes mountain maze is fun, but so short just because of how small the map is. It's almost as if the developers wanted to limit themselves. Too many campaign maps are so claustrophobia-inducing, forcing you to cram your city into a corner (figuratively, since the maps are circles) or otherwise risk exposing your buildings to the multiple different directions your enemies can attack from. For an obsessive town-builder like me, this is a nightmare on almost every mission. But that's not all. If you have allies, the game clumps you right next to each other. Now, on a small map, that literally means "right next to each other". This is very annoying, especially if you are playing as the Japanese, who use animals to gather at shrines to generate resources. Your teammates will constantly try to hunt these animals, but can't because the game won't let them, and their angry mobs of hunter villagers will stand around in your town for pretty much the rest of the game unless you destroy your shrine and let them hunt.
Other things annoyed me about the maps other than the size too. Whenever the game pits your town center close to a trade route, you can't manually put a wall/gate over it, leaving a big gap for enemies to march right into your town. If you don't want to deal with this, you are forced to choose one side of the route of the other.
The edges of the map are still represented by a black abyss. I don't see why there can't be an endless sea, perhaps one with ravaging waves, raging river rapids, or waterfalls to prevent you from entering. Or why not surround the land ares with cliffs, never-ending forests, or something like that. The black abyss needs to go; it's outdated, unattractive and disengaging once you learn you can construct buildings that float halfway over this dark nothing.
When the cliffs do get high, it starts to feel very awkward trying to move around when there are varying heights. I don't know what causes this- maybe it's just me.
The maps didn't have to be exclusive to the Americas and Asia. Why not let us fight each other in the Mediterranean, Greenland, South Africa, Australia, Oceania (this one would be fun!), etc., at least in skirmishes?
(Potential Spoilers)As for the campaign, the antagonists (Circle of Ossus) seemed to shrink in relevance and (potential) power as the game progresses, which made the story quite disengaging. Read more ›
And I did get that. When I first started, I was very pleased at a lot of the new features that added more depth to the Age series' formula. The game is largely played in the same way as previous Age games, but with more depth and strategy. While a lot tend to compare it to Age of Empires 2, this game has most in common with Age of Mythology. You choose sides when you advance in age, create more special units based on your civilization, focus more on bonuses and units, etc. My favorite new addition was the home city shipment system, which allows you to choose units, upgrades, etc. to be sent to your town center throughout the round. You must choose which shipments will be available before each round starts, so there is careful planning involved before the game actually starts. This is mostly emphasized in skirmish and multi-player modes instead of campaign, but after the game starts is where the focus of the campaign should be anyway.
The game's main campaign series follows the Black family, starting with Morgan Black, set in around the 16th or 17th century (can't remember exactly). This part of the campaign was the most fun for me, simply because the story felt more like a medieval fantasy, chasing after the legendary "fountain of youth". However, my favorite mission was the one where you only have a set amount of units and have to move them through a dangerous mountain pass in the Andes (can't remember which one that was either, but I think it was the third act). In the War Chiefs expansion campaign, you continue to follow the Black family's adventures, including fighting in the American Revolution. The Asian Dynasties campaigns stray from the Blacks and follow three different Asian rulers, first Japan, then China, then India. There are many campaign scenarios to keep you occupied for a long time, or a very long time if you play like I do (poorly).
But then, there is skirmish mode, which allows you to play, practice, have fun in any way you want. I had to use this repeatedly just to get the hang of the game all over again, so that I could complete the campaign on "moderate" mode instead of "easy." But eventually, I gave up on that, and I just wanted the campaign to be over because skirmish mode can be much more interesting than the campaign anyway. One of the main reasons is the large number of maps to choose from, all with nicely detailed environments that are a huge improvement over the previous Age of Mythology. Another is the fact that you can choose any civilization you want, which means you will be able to choose from many different home city shipment sets, provided you have enough experience points from winning skirmish battles.
All that said about skirmish mode also applies to online multi-player, which is basically skirmishing against other players as well as computers, if you so choose. I tried it only once, but once I got stomped within ten minutes, I decided it wasn't worth practicing to join the ranks. But for those who are competitive, it's there for you. Online mode also allows players to share, duke it out, work together, or just screw around on custom player-made scenarios. Whether you go online or not, custom scenarios are fun to create and play on, and it's good to see this feature return again. I have only glanced at it, but if it's anything like the previous scenario builders, it should be great.
All that being said, once you try just about everything the game has to offer once, it is hardly worth doing it all again. The game's newfound depth is undermined by the fact that battling is extremely unbalanced. Does it break the game? No, I don't think so. It's still fun to battle, but when you play computer players, there is a surefire route to defeat them no matter what map you play, what difficulty they are set to, or what you choose to be in the beginning. The strategy is all the same because combat is unbalanced to where units' offensive power is overpowered, no matter what type they are. All you need to do is hold off your town with the best units you can create for a small amount of time until you have a larger army of your own, and this army can be of anything. Need to break into your enemy's town and raze his town center? 50 archers should do the trick. Seriously.
I don't mind the realism in other areas- gunshots are supposed to be harmful, but units can die so quickly, it becomes a game of quick numbers instead of battle strategy. Of course, that's only if they're not going against defensive buildings. In Age of Empires 2, the castle was a valuable defense. In Age of Mythology, they weakened buildings quite badly, making the forts easily destroyable, and this game continued that idea, which I believe is a bit of a flub. Not only that, you are severely limited on how many defensive buildings you can create. Most teams are only allowed ONE fortress and some (around seven or so) watch towers. Natives are allowed a slightly larger set number of war huts, which provide the same (but weaker) defensive function, but Asians are only allowed a measly five castles, which are not even close to the grand, powerful castles of Age of Empires 2, instead being as functional as obese watch towers.
Perhaps part of the reasoning behind these otherwise arbitrary limits is the fact that maps are TINY. I thought the game was about EXPLORING THE NEW WORLD? This, this was my biggest peeve with the game, that the maps are so cramped, you can sometimes see your enemies' buildings just by using your own buildings' line of sight. This should not happen. Even what they call the "large" maps are not large at all, for they feel like only a quarter of the size of the "giant" map setting on Age of Empires 2. Not only that, you cannot choose the size of your map in skirmish mode- "large" maps are preset only for a few certain regions, which is a shame because many of the other maps are beautifully rendered and deserve more glory (especially northwest territory, Honshu and the lovely turkey day-themed Plymouth). I know this is mainly a strategy game, but the map size limits strategy as well. Want to make a larger town that encompasses a few trade posts? Nope, "You cannot build too close to an enemy's first town center." The radius of that restriction would be fair if it didn't ban you from a third of the map. Wanna build two different towns on the same map to use a two-pronged attack technique? Why bother? Unless you play on a "large" map, your towns will be so close together, it will still basically be one town. The maps' size hurts the campaign drastically as well. The mission I mentioned where you fight mother nature through the blizzardy Andes mountain maze is fun, but so short just because of how small the map is. It's almost as if the developers wanted to limit themselves. Too many campaign maps are so claustrophobia-inducing, forcing you to cram your city into a corner (figuratively, since the maps are circles) or otherwise risk exposing your buildings to the multiple different directions your enemies can attack from. For an obsessive town-builder like me, this is a nightmare on almost every mission. But that's not all. If you have allies, the game clumps you right next to each other. Now, on a small map, that literally means "right next to each other". This is very annoying, especially if you are playing as the Japanese, who use animals to gather at shrines to generate resources. Your teammates will constantly try to hunt these animals, but can't because the game won't let them, and their angry mobs of hunter villagers will stand around in your town for pretty much the rest of the game unless you destroy your shrine and let them hunt.
Other things annoyed me about the maps other than the size too. Whenever the game pits your town center close to a trade route, you can't manually put a wall/gate over it, leaving a big gap for enemies to march right into your town. If you don't want to deal with this, you are forced to choose one side of the route of the other.
The edges of the map are still represented by a black abyss. I don't see why there can't be an endless sea, perhaps one with ravaging waves, raging river rapids, or waterfalls to prevent you from entering. Or why not surround the land ares with cliffs, never-ending forests, or something like that. The black abyss needs to go; it's outdated, unattractive and disengaging once you learn you can construct buildings that float halfway over this dark nothing.
When the cliffs do get high, it starts to feel very awkward trying to move around when there are varying heights. I don't know what causes this- maybe it's just me.
The maps didn't have to be exclusive to the Americas and Asia. Why not let us fight each other in the Mediterranean, Greenland, South Africa, Australia, Oceania (this one would be fun!), etc., at least in skirmishes?
(Potential Spoilers)As for the campaign, the antagonists (Circle of Ossus) seemed to shrink in relevance and (potential) power as the game progresses, which made the story quite disengaging. Read more ›
32 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By Drag
Platform for Display:PC|Edition:Standard
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
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!
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!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
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Haven't played the game much yet, but most everyone is familiar with it. I did want to state that it does work on Windows 8. Read more
Published 3 hours ago by Teranne
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great deal
Brand new for such a good deal, comes with all three bits. Classic game and is still fun to play.
Published 3 days ago by PerpetualZer0
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works on Windows 7 :)
so at 1st I had difficulty getting this program to load. I entered the keycode but it seemed to do nothing. after about 10-15 minutes it did indeed work.... Read more
Published 11 days ago by H. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great!
Great game, highly suggest it if you like games like stronghold. Definitely worth the price, shipping is a bit pricey, but its definitely an awesome game to have.
Published 11 days ago by Brandon
3.0 out of 5 stars
it's ok but not the original
This game is good but surely not the original aoe, they tried to make it too complex and took away the fun build up time to get massive armies, scenarios seem quick and not much... Read more
Published 21 days ago by Call me KID
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tons of fun
I like strategy games and this is on my top 5 list of them. The gameplay is very good but the things that you can do in terms of creativity is rather high for a role playing game.
Published 1 month ago by 30 rounds of doom
1.0 out of 5 stars
does not work
downloaded it two different times and both times it didnt work but i had the disc version of the game and its awesome
Published 1 month ago by Shane Correll
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun. Fun. fun.
Yeah, I still play the older games. And love them. All sorts of cool new stuff. Wonder if version 4 is in the works.
Published 1 month ago by Robert Eugene Slick
5.0 out of 5 stars
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After install, It created no desktop icon or progrem menu item on my Windows 7 OS. Read more
After install, It created no desktop icon or progrem menu item on my Windows 7 OS. Read more
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