Empire Earth

Other products by Vivendi Universal

Product Features

• Lead four epic campaigns that each follow a civilization's remarkable rise to power
• Engage in multi-player warfare throughout 500,000 years of actual history
• Play in empire building Standard mode or intense RTS Tournament mode

Product Details

• Our recommended age: 12 - 20 years
• Manufacturer recommended age: 0 months and up
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005A3I5
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches ; 1 pounds
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 14, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (255 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,842 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Edition: Standard

Amazon.com Review
Unlike Age of Empires, which takes on a single slice of history, Empire Earth offers you the whole darn pie! You'll start a civilization, directing your cavemen to gather resources such as food, wood, gold, iron, and stone. Eventually you'll advance through every era of history, all the way to the far-flung future where giant robots armed with lasers dominate the battlefield.

Empire Earth is the first game from Stainless Steel Studios and Age of Empires co-creator Rick Goodman, and is everything that hard-core fans who conquered the Age of Empires games could want. Stainless Steel Studios managed to pack more sheer gameplay, units, options, and replayability into Empire Earth than any other real-time strategy game had before it. Best of all, the game is very much based on the interface and gameplay concepts that made Age of Empires and its sequel so much fun, so players of the earlier games can jump right in.

The core concept should be familiar to any real-time-strategy fan. Empire Earth has your citizens (called peasants in Age of Empires) gather resources so you can build various buildings and units. You have to gather wood, gold, stone, and food, as in the earlier game, but Empire Earth adds iron to the mix. Food is gathered from various colorful animals dotting the map, wood from forests, and the minerals from deposits scattered around. Gather enough stuff and you can advance through the ages; there are 16 of them here, from humankind's prehistoric past all the way to the future some 200 years hence. At the beginning, you'll be fielding club warriors, and at the end, massive robot tanks. In the middle you'll build archers, knights, infantry, tanks, etc. All told, the game features 20 buildings and some 200 units.

One major innovation is the full 3-D graphics engine. The engine lets you rotate and zoom in anywhere, which yields some impressive visuals. More strikingly, the game engine can showcase huge numbers of units in full conflict, and you will see massive battles throughout the ages. The game offers full multiplayer, several historical scenarios, a campaign mode, and a random map generator that can be tweaked to play in any age against any number of opponents, which is a great option.

There are other key differences that set Empire Earth apart from the pack. You can build prophets, who can then summon mighty calamities on your enemy. Think of them as divine spells. You can start a plague, call a rain of fire, or summon a massive earthquake, for example. Artillery, aircraft, and naval powers are also represented. You can staff your outposts with citizens to make them grow into more efficient town centers, thus increasing your power over the map and control of resources.

This complexity is the game's greatest strength, but also its biggest weakness. This isn't a game for the timid, the new, or the slow. If you thought Age of Empires was complicated when compared to other real-time fare such as WarCraft, you haven't seen anything yet. This sophistication can be a bad thing for new gamers, but Age of Empires players looking for a new challenge are in for a treat. --Bob Andrews

Pros:

• Plenty of units and ages to explore
• Impressive new 3-D graphics

Cons:

• Too complex for casual gamers
• High difficulty

Product Description
This software is BRAND NEW. Packaging may differ slightly from the stock photo above. Please click on our logo above to see over 15,000 titles in stock.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a difficult, rewarding action/strategy history sim, December 7, 2001

By	Todd P. Villemez "sargon27" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I must admit the opening sequence won me over, to wit: "Few men have the ability to decide the lives of others" or something similar was what held my initial joy. Watching the video scenes that ranged from a shaman in a stone age culture to a world war captain fighting with lasers and pulse machine guns intrigued me.

This game is simply astounding!

The gameplay is amazing... it is the kind of game you have to get a full glass of icewater and maybe a snack and sit down and crack your knuckles then begin a TOTAL conquer of an enemy. As a superior (online anyway) veteran of AOE and AOK I must admit I was challenged beyond belief but not too much to make it not fun.

I need not go into minor details of gameplay...this is an RTS game BUT it has some important differences. Everything I hated about Age of Empires has been fixed:

1) The resources dont run out after like 800 gold...you get 30,000 for each mine. This means you spend more time on war strategy (which becomes important in 14 ages) once you secure (and usually fight for) resources later.

2) Normally in AOE you can choose a strategy you like (i.e. rushing to imperial and creating 50 paladins) and win. In this game there are so many counters to certain units you must learn and use them. It is more realistic this way.

3) Watching the little World War I units run around and make waste of your enemy. It is so awesome to have an "Age of Empires" style game that has machine gun units, snipers, bombers, fighters, tanks, Anti-aircraft (stationary and mobile), and many others.

4) Let 's not forget the enormous fun of prehistoric age...Normally we all enjoy "starting fresh" in AOE with the stone age. Well! In this game the stone age is an achievement. We start in PREHISTORIC age!!! You can fight with guys that chunk rocks and guys with clubs and branches (literally this is it until you get 1,122 food for stone age and it is AWESOME fun)

5) Let's not forget the little details most of which I cannot possibly remember. It's the little gameplay details that are so improved that I love. The zooming, the "explore" function (even citizens or "scout canine patrols" can explore the unexplored and fight what they find. To illustrate, remember those online AOE games where you have destroyed him but he wont quit? Send 12 or 13 soldiers on "explore" mode to seek him out. Just wait until you purchase it, the explore mode is a stunning achievement for RTS.

6) Remember, You can start out at any age, or choose any sets of ages for game (i.e. only Renaissance to WWII or any combo).

I can't say enough good things about this game. I probably love it because of my history background but I don't know if I could not love it under any circumstances.

BUY IT NOW...cmon...its enormous..you normally buy crappy games with little to 'em, get something engaging now!

Buy it and play for 2 or 3 weeks like I have and then you will be right here like me, writing my first amazon review. The only reason I come out of internet anonymity to write this review is because I love this game that much. Think seriously about getting it...I mean it.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredible game! A must buy for expert and novice gamers., November 20, 2001

By	"joshmonster" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

If you can only pick one game to buy this christmas, it should be Empire Earth. This game is like having 10 games in 1. When you compare the scope of Empire Earth to Age of Kings, Age of Kings has 4 ages while Empire Earth has 14. In addition, the 14 epochs of Empire Earth have as many or more units that age of kings!

Now, I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon, and I've heard everyone raving about this game. I thought, 'sure, I bet it's great'. I must say, after playing it for almost a week solid, I have to jump on the bandwagon, this game IS incredible! I don't want to put up the huge list of features, but in short:
Great multiplayer, great AI, great single player campaigns, and an amazing scenerio editor are just a few.

In fact, the only negative for the game is that the multi-player online system (won.net) could be better by adding more chat features and ranking systems. But that has nothing to do with the ingame play. On modems, the game runs smooth as silk! I just can't say enough for this game.

I'd easily recommend this over Civ 3, Star Wars battlegrounds, and Battle Realms.

So if your looking for a 'sure winner' game, you can't go wrong with Empire Earth. People will be playing this game for years to come.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Age of Empires 3++, December 1, 2001

By	Jeffrey R. Tilley Jr. "goatman_1" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This game might be called "Empire Earth" but in all reality, it's the next bold installment in the "Age of Empires" saga. While it sports a different name and a new home (Sierra), the lead designer of "Ages" has done much more than make a mere sequel. While AOE2 was the next logical step from AOE1 historically and technically, Empire Earth takes a giant leap forward encompassing all aspects of human history and even takes a stab at the future (which is a little depressing considering there are only a couple of ages after the modern age. Are they trying to tell us something?)

The interface is basically the same as AOE with many of the same old buttons and features, but the graphics are now 3D, and it allows you to take your perspective all the way to the ground to get an up-close view of your troops, your buildings and the combat in progress. The 3D graphics really do make a huge difference in visual quality. I was never really disappointed with AOE1 or 2's 2D stuff, but now I'm spoiled.

The scope of the game eclipses the AOE series so completely that there really is no going back for me. While both the previous games only had 4 "ages" each, Empire Earth gives us 14 total "epochs" to play in. Imagine starting in the stone-age with cave men tossing stones and beating each other to death with clubs, then potentially transcending to a future where giant mech's wreak havoc and cyborgs rule the earth. My personal favorites are in the "Atomic era" which includes WW1, WW2 and the modern era.

With 14 eras to play in, there are hundreds of units to build. Advancing to the next epoch can make all the difference between victory and defeat. While most of the era's prior to WW1 offer new versions of old favorites (cavalry, archers, siege weapons, etc.) the Atomic ages offer aircraft and the game takes a real leap forward. There's something special about building a fleet of Aircraft Carriers, parking them in a safe spot, launching dozens sometimes hundreds of F-14's like a huge swarm then sending in a squadron of B-29's or B-52's to drop nukes on your enemy. Airports and carriers work a little differently from other units; relying heavily on waypoints, which can take some getting used too.

The future ages present yet another level with cybernetic units. In the "Nano-epoch", the last age of the game, you can build 10 different types of mechs, all with their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. Of course, there are also futuristic versions of all the previous units to play with as well.

I've been playing this game religiously for a little over a week and I've only begun to scratch the surface. I've yet to play all the epochs and there are some units I haven't even seen yet. I haven't even begun any of the historical campaigns yet. Playing any one epoch is worth the price of the game and can stand on its own as a quality product. With 14 epoch's, the variety seems almost endless.

One thing worth mentioning is the difficulty of the game. Amazon mentions it in their review and I must agree. I've been playing the AOE series since the day the first one came out, and I'm fairly decent at them, but Empire Earth is kicking my (...). Even set to "easy" this is a very complicated game. The computer seems to take advantage of it's ability to multi-task, something that I can only try to keep up with. The skirmishes seem to take hours to finish, and often I find myself being defeated after hours of play. It can be a little frustrating at first, but if you're not afraid of a real challenge, with extremely dynamic game-play, this one is for you. A must buy for ANY old Age of Empires fan.

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