Empire Earth 2

Since I hadn't played the first Empire Earth, I first tried out the tutorials. Oftentimes, tutorials don't really help all that much in demonstrating a game's main features, but this was definitely not the case with this game. These tutorials were very helpful and gave just the right amount of information needed to get started in the campaign modes. The single-player campaigns consist of three civilizations, Korea, Germany and the U.S. Each of these has eight missions. There is also a Turning Points section, which offers two famous battles that can be played to determine the ultimate outcome.

The interface is the one of the most streamlined and elegant I've seen in an RTS game. The menus are all very similar to each other in design, and are logically organized. The menu choices slide out to the right in a grid, then back again with a click. Each menu choice has a hot-tip pop-up when the cursor is over the item. The game design also has a ton of features ready at hand, such as a Picture in a Picture, which allows a camera view to be assigned to various places on the map, even tracking units as they move around; War Plans, a feature to design and send war plans to allies; Citizen Manager, a very handy tool for the micromanagement duties; and Scenario Objectives, a "to-do" check list of mission goals. And these are just a few of the features!

Each of the missions has a main goal, which can be reached by either diplomacy, war, or a combination of both. Sometimes players will be asked to build up a civilization, conquer nearby territories, or declare war to take over the world. Battle is the main brunt of the game, but it's not a matter of building up a large force and throwing all of it at the enemy, this will fast get players nowhere. Strategy is the key, and the different units will have to be assigned different tasks in the battles, plus the timing and location is important, as well. Couple this with the fact that the AI opponents aren't just waiting around, but are busy fighting and taking over key locations as well, and it's truly a contest of wits. This is where the Picture-in-a-Picture window really comes in handy to keep track of everything going on.

An interesting component of the game is the Epoch aspect, which doesn't automatically advance with each mission. Rather, players get to choose when they want to advance their society to a higher level. Staying for a longer time in an epoch allows more research via the Tech Tree to gain more experience in certain areas to upgrade units and buildings; however, advancing to a higher epoch also allows for better units and buildings, as well. Choosing which to do when can be tricky.

Even the weather plays a part in this game, with bad weather slowing down units. Weather reports can be gathered from Outposts, which are defensive buildings that also garrison troops.

While battle is the main brunt of the game, resource gathering, trading, making alliances and researching in the tech tree are also important. If there is one drawback to this game, it is that the scope and pace of the game can make it difficult to keep up with all the things that must be done. For slow, turtling players (me), the single-player modes work the best, as the multiplayer can be murderous in the speed with which some people can play. However, for fast-paced play with the added edge of Machiavellian tactics to unseat opponents, multiplayer is the way to go.

This is a humongous game! While I'm more of a turn-based strategy player, a good RTS game is always fun to play, too. There is just so much to do, it's impossible to describe it all. Each time it's played there is something new to discover. The strategy is all-important, and players will have to think about each decision. This is where the grandness of the scale of the game can also be a detriment, in that there is almost too much going on, at too fast a pace. It's difficult to keep up with the resource and building, while at the same time trying to keep the opponents from taking over the map before you do.

A truly heroic game, and Mad Doc has done a superlative job of designing a fun game that offers a wealth of deep and engrossing gameplay. Kudos!