Quest!
During the battles on the strategic map, it may happen that the game assigns you secondary objectives, obviously optional: if you accept them, you will have to work to complete the most disparate quests, such as saving a princess, repelling an invasion horde or conquering a certain territory.
In case you are successful, the rewards can be decidedly tempting: they range from an alliance with a tribe, to a substantial bonus in terms of resources, passing through a certain number of free units; if, however, you fail, get ready to be submerged by a large invasion of enemies or to lose precious research points, essential for progressing through the Ages.
Nice intuition, but it doesn't break enough the monotony of the game.
Empire Earth 3 is available for PC.
Further cuts
Not happy with the simplification of resource management, Empire Earth can boast further cuts: the number of Ages, for example, has been drastically reduced to five (Ancient, Medieval, Colonial, Modern and Future) which, added to the simplicity in accumulating resources, will allow you to quickly advance towards the most advanced, quickly making a mockery of your digital opponents.
In the same way, the number of civilizations has been reduced: from the tens of the previous title, we have passed only to three, namely the Western, Middle Eastern and Eastern Civilizations (a real tribute to the imagination).
The differences, at least on paper, are definitely relevant: while the Western Civilization can boast more technologically advanced and expensive units, coincidentally the Eastern one (does anyone think of the Chinese of C&C?) Focuses on quantity rather than quality.
We almost forgot: Middle Eastern Civilization, always with a view to looking for something innovative, is an exact union between the two geographic extremes.
simplicity, therefore, wherever you turn this third chapter; unfortunately it borders on banality, and too early on boredom.
Further cuts
Having reduced the number of playable factions to just three has not, however, been balanced by a large variety of units available: in addition to sharing several, each side will be able to field unique units, but these are easily counted at the tip of the fingers and not they never clearly distinguish themselves from their counterparts; Furthermore, having removed the limit of recruitable units has only greatly facilitated the life of those who prefer, as a game strategy, that of barricading themselves behind solid defenses and amassing their army safely, and then launching in a quick rush against the enemy: a strategy that is valid in multiplayer, but which in the single-player campaign only makes our life too simple and leads us, quickly, to abandon any attempt to develop a tactic or strategy.
Simplicity wherever you turn this third chapter; unfortunately it borders on banality and too early on boredom.
Global domination
Comment
The Mad Dog title unfortunately disappoints in many respects: starting the main game mode and reaching the last Era available, boredom will assail you very quickly and you will not have any incentive to start, from scratch, a new game with a faction different.
Empire Earth 3 is a simple title, not to say superficial, and may perhaps please those who have never tried an RTS, but we do not feel to recommend the purchase or to hardcore gamers, who would be able to dominate the world in a few turns, nor to the casual player, who can devote his few minutes of play towards more entertaining horizons.
We all trust in a fourth chapter.
For
- Suitable for budding players
- Simple
- Over simplified
- Heavy graphics engine
- It disappoints fans of the series
Simplicity
We all agree that simplicity is not a negative element in a video game: immediacy, a learning curve as rational as possible and ease of control are certainly excellent strengths; on the other hand, if the developers aim to oversimplify, what could have been a strong point quickly becomes an insurmountable negative element.
In Empire Earth 3 exactly this happened: with the aim of simplifying, we have fallen into trivializing the gameplay, making the gaming experience particularly boring and without incentives after a few hours.
The simplification process saw the number of resources fall first: you just need to accumulate anonymous Raw Materials, exploring the game map in search of the appropriate quarries, and the evergreen Gold, simply by building markets scattered around the map, which they will take care of automatically generating a certain amount of gold metal, sending chariots to your Town Center.
So forget about setting up carpentries near woods, checking farms for food production and looking for stone quarries: two unique resources, easily accumulated and without any need to interact with the surrounding scenery.
All this obviously leads to a huge lowering of the level of difficulty: the developers, by facilitating the accumulation of resources in an excessive way, will allow you to quickly dominate against the (however lacking) artificial intelligence, making you deploy a great number of units and allowing you to resort to the now abused technique of Tank Rush, which consists in amassing an increasing number of units and then sending them, all together, to the slaughter, regardless of any bonuses or malus, strengths and weaknesses that characterize them.
Your game, both the first and all those to follow, will consist of a few simple steps: build a village center, accumulate an exaggerated amount of resources in a few minutes and start churning out soldiers after soldiers, and then launch them on the attack. .
The computer, on the other hand, does not seem to react to your actions, and will limit itself to letting you calmly grow and become strong without annoyances, only to defend itself from your attacks: it must be said that, given the peace in which you will be able to develop your settlement, generally your first assault will also be the one that closes the game, quickly taking you to the victory screen.
PC - System Requirements
Empire Earth 3, while not showing particularly exciting graphics, deploys a decidedly heavy engine: by setting all the options to the maximum, the framerate settles on 10-15 FPS, enough to play an RTS of this mold, but which still leave space to slowed down animations and delays in movements.
By lowering the details and the resolution you gain a few frames.
Minimum requirements
- Processor: Pentium 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent AMD
- RAM: MB 512
- Video Card: 128 MB, compatible with Shader Model 2.0
- Disk space: 6.5 GB
- Processore: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz o AMD 3400+
- RAM: 1 GB
- Video Card: 256 MB, compatible with Shader Model 3.0
- Disk space: 6.0 GB
- Processor: Intel Core Duo E6700 at 2.7 GHz
- RAM: 2 GB
- Video Card: GeForce 8800 GTX
- Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
It must be a trend, but hopefully quickly passing: we refer to the bad habit that the developers have taken in recent months, that of taking a brand and removing it of all the elements that made it famous.
What did the players of the Empire Earth series like? Probably the high number of Ages, the different skillfully characterized factions and a decidedly exhilarating level of challenge.
What's left of the old school in the third chapter? A little. Or nothing.
