Empire Earth

Title: Empire Earth
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: November 12, 2001
Date Played: 2002
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 3/5



Opinion:
Empire Earth came out around the time that the strategy games were making a shift from the sprite based to polygonal graphics.

At its root Empire Earth was trying to capitalize on the success of the Ages of Empires franchise by having a similar premise; however done on a more epic scale. What I mean by that is the fact that while Age of Empires allows you to transition from prehistoric tribal to medieval ages, Empire Earth expand that progression all the way to the 21st century (14 epochs in total, nearly 60,000 years of evolution). Of course this is not something we have never seen before, Civilization had a similar setup more than a decade prior to Empire Earth; however Empire Earth was the first time I have seen a real time strategy take on such a scope.

To be honest it was hard transitioning from the perfectly drawn sprite based RTS games such as Age of Empires 2, and Red Alert 2 to blocky and crudely drawn 3d models of Empire Earth. Even though technologically more advanced and offering more potential they looked vastly inferior and as a whole simply turned me off the game. Nevertheless the ability to race your opponents technologically through so many epochs made me stick with Empire Earth all the way to the end. It was an interesting mechanic that I have never experienced in a real time strategy game before. And I will admit that its hell of a lot of fun to roll tanks into a city being protected by pikemen.

Aside from polygonal graphics and impressive 14 epoch inclusion Empire Earth was just run of the mill RTS. Everything you know about Age of Empires held true here. Build a base, build an army, and kill the other guy before he kills you.  Overall the campaign is completely forgettable and doesnt come even close to the campaigns of games such as Red Alert 2 with its full motion video cinematics and Star Craft's novel worthy epic story.

I would say Empire Earth is passable. With great looking Age of Empires 2 there is no reasons to venture into Empire Earth's territory. Yes the ability to prograess all the way to tanks and rockets is appealing; however, the inferior blocky graphics, basically meaningless campaign and lack of genre innovation does not make it worth it.