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Empire Earth III

An Exercise in Ruining a Series

Unfortunately, the short answer is "no." Empire Earth 3 has reduced gameplay to the bare essentials. World Domination, the main single-player campaign, is centered on a turn-based meta-game of global conquest, much like the single-player campaign found in Microsoft's Rise of Nations. Starting with one of three available regions - Western, Middle Eastern or Far Eastern - a player must successively conquer provinces through real-time battle scenarios, with the ultimate goal of controlling at least 60 percent of the globe's provinces. The premise has potential, but each region has just three unique technologies and only one unique "Combat Action" - special abilities which can be used to aid an army in battle. Each region also plays by a different set of rules when it comes time to construct buildings and control territory.

The Western region, for instance, requires dedicated Builders to construct buildings within controlled borders, while Middle Eastern buildings are made within a city center and are available to be deployed anywhere on a map, regardless of territory ownership. There are other minor differences among the regions, such as how population growth is handled, but they are of little practical value when the core gameplay is so formulaic. Advancement through the five eras - from Ancient to Future - is afforded by the collection of Raw Materials, Wealth and Technology. The usual smattering of technology upgrades, such as roads and military specialities, are available at the provincial level, though the global upgrade system is cursory and lacks depth. World Domination isn't fundamentally broken, but it's a basic design which needs more detail to offer any engaging gameplay.

Battles are unspectacular and hard to manage, thanks to quirky controls and a too-close zoom level.

Gathering resources is a silly affair: no matter the type, all collected resources are pooled into one catch-all "Resource" bin.

Scenarios play out predictably, and can be painfully long, thanks to the lack of a cap on resources and wealth (a hard-limit population cap, however, is in effect). Actual gameplay harkens back to an earlier era of RTS development. Far from being a quaint return to the basics, however, Empire Earth III is an oversimplified, unbalanced mess. The map is littered with different resources, from fish to lumber, but inexplicably all resources are pooled into one catch-all resource bin. Regardless of region, there are few unit upgrades available, and the small number of units overall requires little strategy to build an effective army. Token diplomacy options are available, and it makes little sense to engage in relations with an opponent when the only international stances are "War" and "Alliance". There's little reason to do anything other than declare war on all opponents and launch a massive offensive. Once a scenario starts, it's a mad rush to control territory, secure resources, build markets and amass a large fighting force. When resource collection begins to ramp up and markets start to haul in the wealth, there's no stopping the exponential returns. Without such unchecked growth, building defenses is generally a waste of time, and battles have a tendency to devolve into multi-hour slug-fests between armies.

A decent number of maps ship with the game, but the lack of variety in design hampers gameplay.

The default World Domination campaign is driven by a number of menial tasks.

Pathfinding: What's That?

If the muddled gameplay is a kick to the shins, then the game's technical problems are a punch in the face. The pathfinding routines are a lesson in how to not program unit movement AI in an RTS. Even on flat, open terrain, selecting two or more units and directing them across the map is a frustrating affair. Units will get hung up on each other and on the most minute terrain features, spinning wildly and jumping from position to position in an attempt to manoeuvre around the only rock on the map. Moving larger groups into combat is similarly farcical, only on a larger scale. Without few exceptions, units move and attack with all the organization and continuity of a Benny Hill chase sequence. The numerous other gameplay glitches, from clipping issues to rendering anomalies, speak of insufficient testing. Worst of all, even a release-day patch doesn't address the game's most pressing concerns: random crashes and a memory leak that limits gameplay to short bursts before the game comes tumbling down in flames.

Simply issuing orders for units to move is cause for confusion.

Notice the aiming on the turrets: combat units are buggy to a fatal degree. Units rarely attack as directed.

Sending units to patrol defense walls is great, but they have a tendency to fall off the wall - or walk on air

Collision detection between units leaves much to be desired...

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Performance and HardwarePage 4: Audio, Summary and Scores

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