Review: Game: Age of Empires 3

This is a review fo the game "Age of Empires 3" (not including the expansion packs 'The War Chiefs' and 'Asian Dynasties').

Year Made: October 2005
Console: PC
Company: Ensemble Studios
Graphics: 5
Story-line: 7
Controls: 8
Overall: 8

- Details -

So what can I say? I am a big fan of strategy games like the Age of Empires. I play them alot, and I won't boast, but I aint bad at them.

The newest version of Age of Empires (3 if you didn't realise it) is becoming a bit old, where fans are crying out for a new game release. However, despite saying that Age of Empires till has managed to make it to the top real time strategy games.


Despite several set backs, this game has easily become on of my top ten suggested in this genre. Its highly addictive, and offers many challenges.




- Graphics -



The game itself features some pretty damn graphics. The game is old enough that most people's computers can run it without any lag, whilst still providing a very nice gaming 'board'. The graphics have been designed to appear more realistically (if you notice the water in this picture). And if you have only played Age of Empires 1, you will surely notice there is a HUGE difference in terms of graphics.


However, despite the improved graphics, many of the actions your characters and vessels undertake appear far from realistic. Sure you may actually witness rubble from buildings being thrown into the air when attacked, but a wall being scattered in such a way does not really grant the realism that many newer games offer.



The level of detail, despite the realism concept mentioned above, has been closely looked at. If you play the game and watch a couple of your people hunting, you can actually see them fire a bullet or arrow at their prey (depending upon your civilization level).

However, again to the detail, your characters no longer need to return to the town center or designated building to drop off resources. Somehow they have infinite pockets that go straight to the resource holding center.

I should point out I was shocked at part of the graphics. When I first installed the program, the very first screen you see is the Home City screen. Which graphics were amazing for this style of game. I was so excited, thinking these were the sort of graphics you would be dealing with in actual game play. But reality is so much harsher.

- Story line -

As most people know this style of game does not really have any true set story line. It has been designed more so for quick games and gaining points per account.

However, there are several campaigns for you to follow if you wish. These campaigns will base around a character (or a number of characters) who will generally lead your armies into battle. You still have full control over them, and your armies, as they end up acting more like Generals than anything else.

Again, the basic story line will follow for these. Something has been stolen from them, and they are trying to retrieve it. Or an invading army is threating the peace at home, and you must defend your country and culture. Throughout the campaigns smaller stories are thrown in that you must deal with to reach the overall outcome.

The gameplay works the same throught each and every game however, which I found was a fair bit of disappointment. You create your home base, send your villagers to collect your resources such as food, gold and wood. And from those resources you purchase and build more buildings, purchase building and army upgrades, or train fighters. And once you have enough resources behind you to support you through a war (which will provide a strain on the resources as you train more and more fighters) you send your army off into the distance and slaughter everything and anything in your path.

Going back to the point system for a while. You gain your experiance points according to buildings built, upgrades, and enemy units killed. You get your overall level points, which accounts for your home city level. These are slow to level up, and often require a number of games/battles before your level goes up. You then also have your home shipments, which require far less experience points and are used during in game play, where you get to select from a number of cards bonuses and extra resources to use throughout the game. You cards can be unlocked at your Home City screen, with a number of cards available per city level. You can also customise your city with flags, lights, different types of people, etc. But once they are out and about in your home city, apart from removing them, that's about all the interaction with them your gonna get. A nice pretty background for your menu structure really.

-Controls -

So this game can work entirely off point and click mouse controls, but it also supports many keyboard commands that often will create, select or destroy various objects and units within your city. So far with my experience, the controls have functioned pretty much flawlessly. You click on a unit, and it almost always select it, no need to be extremely precise and try and click them on their head a few hundred times (like a hammer).

One feature I did like, and which many new games do include now-a-days, is the drag and select military. Even if your armies are in the middle of the town surrounded by livestock and villagers, you can easily select them now. I hated the older games where you had to individually select them (a pain in the butt for when you were getting seriously attacked by enemies).

- Overall -

So what do I think overall? It's a very decent game, particularly for the year produced. It's about time Ensemble Studios released another game like it (which I believe Halo Wars will be the next similar game). However there are aspects to this game that many serious RTS players may not like. None the less, this game is DEFINITELY worth trying. Many people really enjoy it.

Note: all these pictures were obtained, and are still linked, from www.gamespot.com.au.