CodeOptimist Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 "Epic is too small a word..." Review ThreeEmpire Earth was quite possibly the most ambitious game created. Starting in the Prehistoric Age and going into the Nano Age, it is simply an enormous game!BreakdownAnimation [Good]The animation in Empire Earth was definetly superb, especially considering the huge task of animating each of the hundreds of units in the game!Civilizations [bad]This is one of the big mistakes of Empire Earth. No civilizations are "defined" in the game, you can create them yourself by selecting combinations of various bonuses. On the surface, this is sounds like a good idea, but it adds another (un-needed) aspect of gameplay. Plus, it takes away the fun of choosing a civ!Gameplay [Neutral]The gameplay was a bit hampered by the engine, which seemed slow to respond to input. Plus, when you have 50 aircraft circling around your Airport, you're lucky to get 10 FPS.Graphics [Neutral]For some reason, the grapics seemed a little blurry or washed out in Empire Earth. I believe this has to do with the texture-blending method (alphablending, correct me if I'm wrong). The 3D models were somewhat low-poly, but that wasn't very noticeable unless you zoomed in real close.Interface [Neutral]The interface was OK, but still seemed a little slow to respond to input. Sometimes the research/upgrade GUI "panel" was a bit confusing as well.Multiplayer [Good]This game supported up to 16 players, and also supported DirectPlay 8, which was good news for NAT/router users! The NAT-tunneling was done completely invisibly (it appeared that all players were "visible" to the Internet), which was very impressive. Lag was not bad at all.Music [Good]I liked the in-game music as well as the menu music. An interesting note is, the DirectMusic API that Empire Earth used supported "on-the-fly" music "rendering". The music files that Empire Earth loaded were just instruction sets for "rendering" the music using DirectMusic. Another thing that is supported, although I never noticed Empire Earth using it, is switching tracks/branching halfway through a particular track.Pathfinding [Good]The old pathfinding problems from the Age of Empires days are gone! One kind of irritating thing however, was to see units (especially big units like siege weapons) bumping into each other, trying to get aligned. Not a big issue, though.Single-player [Neutral]The campaigns included were OK, but a little on the hard side. I never got past the first few scenarios, but I'm sure other people did.The "skirmish" AI was good, but if I recall correctly it seemed more like a robot than a real person.Sound Effects [Good]The sound effects were nice and clear-sounding. What sounded especially sweet was the sound of a nuke bomber over your enemies' town!Timeframe [Neutral]I'd say Good on this one, but Empire Earth was possibly "too big". It's definetly very hard to create a game of this magnitude and keep it fun to play on every Age/Epoch.Other/MiscEmpire Earth is a good example of two other points that aren't on my chart: PR and Publisher. I would tend to say that Empire Earth was "built up" too much, for too long (bad PR). It was going to be the "best RTS", with every feature that was ever left out of any other game. In the end, they had to cut a lot of good features from the game to keep it on schedule.Another reason Empire Earth wasn't what it could have been is due to the game's publisher, Sierra. Remember how everyone was begging for game recording and multiplayer scenarios? Stainless Steel responded saying that they would love to add these features, but the publisher refused. Good riddance.Lessons LearnedWhat it means for 0 A.D.Keeping tabs on what the general public knows and doesn't know is a very important issue in game development. In the case of Empire Earth, the public knew too much, too early.Also important is making sure the game engine responds to input as soon as possible, giving it as high a priority in the command queue as it possibly can.One problem that 0 A.D. won't ever have is the problem of a game publisher. Who needs them anyway? I guess you do if you want to make money, but the true pro's release their game for freeAnother problem that 0 A.D. won't have is keeping every Age/Epoch unique and fun to play.Empire Earth deviated from the traditional AoE-style civilizations, and in my book, that was somewhat of a bad choice. I think the idea of custom civilizations is a neat one, but it's very hard to make it work in the context of an RTS game.Empire Earth also implemented a very unique unit upgrade system that has not been done in any other game, as far as I know. By clicking on a particular unit stat, you could upgrade that stat. It's an interesting idea, but it takes away from the fun of researching unit upgrade technologies.Next Up: Empire Earth: Art of Conquest (Demo) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Petrius Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 One thing that really bugged me with EE was the fact that all of the civs looked exactly the same. IIRC, they even had the same heroes in the same epoch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses S Griffin Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 the thing that got me about EE the most was the generic civs, the lack of economic abilities(trade, team eco scores etc) and the fact the the ai "cheated" which was really hard to beat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quacker Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 Wow, GJ Nathaneal! Empire Earth would certainly be a hard game to rate in such a way, big congrats! 30 currency goes to you for this great, unbias review Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeZar Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 I love EE. Its so cool. BUT yes, the Civs are BAD.Look at "EE2", Empires: Dawn of the Modern World... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNtRePiD Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 Empire Earth did not support up to 16 players in multiplayer. It supported up to 16 players in single player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Petrius Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 I think it supported a single player in single player. It is singleplayer, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNtRePiD Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 A computer player is considered a player; hence Empire Earth supports 16 players in single player mode. Play that is not conducted online is referred to as single player. In this sense "player" is referring to the number of human players as opposed to the previous use of "player" which refers to either a computer or human player. Single player has been refined as a term over the years to constitute any play that occurs offline. I can see how using it in such a context can be confusing, but it really isn't meant to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Petrius Posted October 27, 2003 Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 You're right, I just should've thought about it for a few more seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeOptimist Posted October 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2003 @Marcus/Ulysses: The generic civs bothered me as well. I'd rather have predefined civs.Look at "EE2", Empires: Dawn of the Modern World... I have, and it's awesome I'm going to review the demo here soon. (stay tuned )@Quacker: Thanks Glad you liked my review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Op Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 Yet another good review!! I might actually decide on a new RTS game for Christmas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses S Griffin Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 I also got the EDMW demo. I have a lot of fun with it, i cant wait to be able to get the full version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeZar Posted October 28, 2003 Report Share Posted October 28, 2003 I get the FULLVERSION of Empires: DotMW tommorrow... I cant wait. Its so fun! Gonna make some Screnarios and stuff too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNtRePiD Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 If there is one thing that 0AD can take away from Empire Earth, it is how to build a proper editor. I would deeply disappointed if I saw a AoK/AoM style editor come out for this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeros Posted October 29, 2003 Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 We're actually working on something that you'll like if you don't like the AoK/AoM editor. One thing I think we can confirm is that we're not going to try to make our editor "like" [insert game's] editor, but rather it'll destinctly be known as the 0AD editor, not the 0AD editor that is like AOM's editor(am I allowed to be saying stuff like this? ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeOptimist Posted October 29, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2003 Hey, that gives me an idea for a future "breakdown point": Editor.Why didn't I include that before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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