Empire Earth (PC) > Reviews (21)

In summary, Empire Earth is a game where you manage resources, buildings, and units throughout the ages (from prehistory to the 'Nano Age', which is something like the 2100s). Throughout the game, you perform upgrades, explore, construct, and produce units to battle enemies in order to win.

I've played both EEI and EEII (not EEIII, though it seems to be garbage), and I must say that I would prefer the original over the sequel. My main qualm with this game is that with a little more effort, it could have been much better. It seems as though as with EEII and EEIII that the developers rushed in the end, but in this case, they managed to release a game that is at least fun to play despite being sometimes frustrating.

Because this game was released in 2000, I'm definitely going to be a bit more lenient on it than I would be on newer games.

Sound - 8. Strong soundtrack, but got repetitive after awhile. Certainly not bad, though.

Gameplay - 7. It was pretty fun most of the time. The campaigns were also fun (particularly Novaya Russia), and could get a bit tricky if you didn't use the right tactics. This made for an experience that was a bit more than just sending mobs of random units at the enemy.

Some minor and major problems in different areas:

Unit AI: Medics, AA, and other non 'direct-combat' units have a tendency to charge right into the battle and get killed. It was really, really annoying to have to carefully select all my stinger soldiers out of a mass of troops as they would stupidly charge right into a battle. By the time I could pull them out, most of them would be toast. Also, there's another problem in that when enemy units are just barely out of your units' range, your units will just sit there and do nothing.

Enemy AI: The Enemy AI has a major penchant for building walls everywhere. Around cities is fine, but all over the map gets annoying, tedious, and frankly really doesn't do anything. The AI also knows exactly where you are and loves to spam you with tons of units, which makes skirmishes pretty unfair on larger maps. It also seemed as though on harder difficulties that the AI's strategies did not improve; simply it mobbed more units and 'cheated' even worse in terms of resources. Many times even playing pretty seriously I've gotten a big base only to have my civilization swarmed by powerful units RIGHT at the worst time. It's impossible for the computer to acquire so much resources in so little time, especially since they're spaced out all over the map. Raiding their base doesn't work well either, especially since somehow they manage to send army after army towards you out of nowhere.

Units: Some units/buildings are too weak. The towers would be one. They fire far too slowly for the amount of stone you pay for them. Stone acquisition can be a big problem on many maps. This makes defensive playing quite difficult. Some units have a range that is too short, some too long.

Buildings should be more involved. There are only one or two upgrades you can research in each age, which is quite linear and an unnecessary game play mechanic...

These upgrades do not have much of a recognizable effect on units in the game, at least much of the time. More upgrades in number and complexity that could possibly interact with each other in multiple ways would be a good implementation. A few more buildings would have also been nice. Having the artwork change more frequently throughout the ages would have also helped.

SCRATCH THE PRIESTS AND PROPHETS. I'm not asking for perfect realism, but I hate having my laser tanks stolen by some preacher wielding a sign that says "THE END IS NEAR". It ruins the civilization feel of the game and just seems quite corny. Maybe having defenders have a bonus near a temple would be okay, but not this. Thanks.

Upgrade units more (with corresponding graphic changes). Especially in the later ages, this was a big problem. I don't like using bazookas and stinger soldiers in the 'Nano age'. It gives me a feeling that this was just plain laziness.

The movement of units needs some work too. Troop squads would have been a better idea, and having them a bit closer instead of scattering about would have also been nice.
A more conspicuous flashing on the map when being attacked would have also helped SO MUCH. I swear, when I have a lot of bases, I sometimes won't see until it's too late.

Better resource and citizen management would have been a great improvement. I had a lot of trouble managing all my colonies and 'mining' areas. Combine this with difficulty seeing what area is under attack, this can be quite frustrating.
Also, citizens should ideally change their 'mining methods' , clothing, style, etc more. This isn't that important but it adds some much needed variation. Being able to mine other areas aside from patches in later ages would have added more strategy and a more 'civilization'-like feel.

Also, the games should have started small scale in the beginning, and gotten bigger during later ages. It hardly happens in the game. You have the same buildings, and same size cities throughout. Maybe, just maybe, the first two 'prehistoric' ages are unnecessary. The bronze age would have been fine as a start, because before then you don't really do anything.

It's also REALLY frustrating having to gather stone the whole game to build towers. Small things like this do add up. More things should be automated, resources should change a bit more, etc.

The transition to all 'lasers' seemed a bit hasty. After the 'atomic age', pretty much everything goes star wars style. The futuristic units are also often named very stupidly which makes this part of the game corny. I would suggest having people with real creativity design them. Maybe have three future ages? One from 2000-2030, 2030-2060, and 2060-2100 perhaps?

Lastly, Nuclear bombs barely make a splash. Anti-missile systems would have been nice, too.

Graphics/interface: 6

The graphics were not bad at all for the time, but the 'zoom in' feature is utterly pointless. It feels more like 'legos' than playing an RTS game because the graphics weren't good enough for it.

The in game cinematics also were unnecessary, or could have at least been restricted to a top down view to prevent the 'lego effect' I discussed previously. Independently made cinematics such as the really cool one in the introduction would have been even better. I also would have greatly appreciated being able to zoom out a LOT more, especially on big maps. Being so zoomed in made it nearly impossible to fight the computer.

Value: 8

Check your bargain bin. You probably won't pay more than $5 now and it can provide you with a bit of fun.

Tilt: 8

Overall, this game is good; the units can sometimes be interesting, the campaigns were fun and interesting, and the battles can get intense sometimes. At first especially, there was a bit of a 'wow' factor if you had not played games like this before, at least seven years ago when it came out. However, Empire Earth could have been amazing if a few RELATIVELY small mishaps were corrected. Keep in mind that I KNOW that there are already sequels out, I just think that instead of correcting these mistakes, the developers instead made the same ones at far higher frequency in the sequels. So I guess what was desired in sequels really didn't materialize, and unfortunately this franchise is pretty much dead (empire earth III got a 3.5 on gamespot). However, if you're bored for a few days, I'd definitely recommend this game, especially for the campaigns. Just steer clear of the others.

Also written for gamespot.com