Empire Earth

"A Horrible Age of Empires Ripoff, and yet they managed to make it worse"

I was confused when I first saw the signs of this game. It seemed a lot like Age of Empires. Then I found out why: It was made by Rick ''Grinch'' Goodman, a major designer of AoE and Tony Goodman's younger brother. Well, that ''Grinch'' stole Christmas and started his own company and betrayed his own brother, ripped AoE off and created EE. Why? Was he stupid? Evil? We'll never know. However, anyone who buys EE expecting AoE is sure to be disappointed.

Gameplay: Sigh...let's see...what's there to say about the gameplay, besides having a very shoddily made 3D engine? Actually, a lot, but first, the engine is just a failure. You can't even rotate the camera, and zooming in/out was very confusing. Most of the time, thanks to the engine, controlling units was a pain (and made more painful by the weak AI).
As for units...being a ''epic game that spans 5,000 Years'' you'd expect there to be a ton of units. Not so. Not counting the heroes, each age has a sparse amount of units. Also, unlike AoK's complex but sensible system of strengths and weaknesses, a unit's effectiveness at defense is determined by a triumvirate of elements by their...weapons? Frankly I found this insulting and stupid. Also, the designers threw in a Hero system (very unimaginative), some of them simply being stronger, some of them giving off Battle Cries which lower Morale...that's it, the only spell of all the heroes.
Speaking of which, let's not forget the ''morale'' system. Basically, some buildings and heroes give off Morale which makes troops stronger and able to withstand damage. This amounts to more difficult base-building (if you place the morale-giving units in the wrong spots, it makes it easier for you to be conquered as your units die faster) and constant scurrying of your units, as your units are very stupid and will abandon the safety of your heroes and go off to get killed (along with a myriad of other dumb things).

Graphics: Completely horrible. If this game were made 3 years ago, the incredible amount of Polygons would be excusable, but once again, SSSI showed no effort. So many Polygons, so little time...texture detail, even on the highest settings, is weak. Units look like rock, have hideous faces (look at the Red Baron's scenario...when that wife comes for ya...OY!) and make strange poses...if they were going to make a Zoom In as far as they did they could have made the units look decent. Also, buildings look like...well, my god, they look of paper. Graphics shouldn't be a major issue, but in many games they're so horrible that it makes gameplay that much worse...this may be one of those times.

Sound: Well, first off, the units have a speech impediment; only two select phrases and two ''Aye Aye, Sir'' phrases. Again, lack of imagination. Also, the music track for this game pales in comparison to AoE/AoK. I won't balk about opinions of music, though...

Overall: Ripoffs are often bad news enough, but one would expect an Age of Empires ripoff would be almost as good as the original, especially when coming from Rick Goodman, who used to WORK for Ensemble Studios. Not so. Sadly, this game is a complete waste of time and not worth the cardboard it's packaged in. 3/10.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/26/02, Updated 02/26/02