Empire Earth II

"Sierra remains strong with solid RTS"

Introduction:
Throughout the history of gaming there has been several flagship titles in the real time strategy genre. Sierra brings another soon to be classic to the table... Empire Earth II. Similar to other real time strateg games, especially Age of Empires, you build units and research technolgies. Harvest resources, build an economy, build an army, build a defense, and you will suceed. Failure means the end of your ruling. Progress through the "epocks" and your civilization will surely prevail.

Gameplay:
Well lets start out by talking about the game first. It is similar to your stereotypical real time strategy game when it comes to building units and moving them. There is diplomacy and all that fun stuff. However, they add a whole bunch of features that really defines this as a game. You can coordinate attacks with allies as well as coordinate attacks with your own units. There is also a wide variety of weather effects that will deter your plans. Technologies aren't researched in individual buildings as well. Instead, units are placed inside the university and temple and tech points are generated. Then you can purchase the advances and after a while you can advance to the next epoch. This is one of the more defining features of Empire Earth II. Unlike games such as Age of Empires, you start as cavemen and you keep advancing all the way until present times. Then you continue to advance even further with futuristic units. As times goes on the units keep changing from macemen to eventually musketeers and sooner or later tanks and bombers. There are also many civilizations you can play with. There is a campaign, scenarios, and skirmish mode with several different modes of play. Even as a veteran real time strategy player, Empire Earth II seems to have a somewhat original feel (or somewhat of an intricate, heavily adjusted spin off) that might actually take a while to get used to even if you are extremely good at games such as Starcraft. This difference leads to a refreshing feel of a real time strategy game that will entertain you even more due to the learning curve. There is also crowns you can win and this grants you a special ability and hero unit.

Story:
In the campaign, you can follow several civilizations throughout history. The tutorial campaign is severely instructive and will bore you with overwhelming details of the game. However, the scenarios are fun to play and there is much more than the standard build a base and destroy the enemy mission. These missions are somewhat different and will entertain you due to the variety.

Sound:
The sound effects are good and the music is fitting as well. However, the voices aren't very impressing. Especially when it comes to the hero units from the crowns... the voices are very corny and do not fit the civilization's accent. For example, the military hero of Korea sounds like an American football announcer. But when it comes to explosions, gunfire, the clashing of weapons, and other sound effects, the game is beautiful.

Graphics:
The graphics of the game are pretty decent. The game is in 3D and everything is detailed. It isn't the most beautiful game I have seen but the units and buildings look pretty impressive. The environment is good as well. However, one of the better aspects of the graphic department is the seasons and weather. When it blizzards, you feel the full force of the blizzard. It is difficult to see your units and the units are even affected themselves. Whenever the severe weather is over, it truly is a relief. I'd have to say I am impressed by the overall graphics of the game. Not too graphically stunning but a very pretty game. I'm glad it was this way as well for the simple fact that I'm not sure if I would appreciate the incredibly ridiculous hardware requirements if it was that detailed.

Flaws:
The game is pretty solid and doesn't have very many flaws. However, if I had to name one complaint it would definitely be the artificial intelligence of my own units. The enemy's artificial intelligence isn't much to complain about but its the pathfinding of your own units that are troublesome. Some units get stuck, don't follow orders, etc. Sometimes in those very important moments they become stubborn and it throws off my entire strategy. For example I had an army attack a base and half of them got stuck between a mountain and a forest. A few units ran ahead and attacked and there were some others that simply walked into battle.

Replayability:
This game has many hours worth of gameplay. I'm sure if you play the campaign you will play the skirmish mode. Even if you decide to skip the campaign mode you might get dozens of hours out of the skirmish mode. With the amount of epochs, civilizations, maps, and missions, I'm sure you will be occupied for a long time.

Conclusion:
Empire Earth II is a slid and impressive real time strategy game. It is far from perfect but it is a solid title as well as a solid game. I was very happy with this game and I'm sure you will be too... especially the real time strategy game fans who might want a slightly more sophisticated and complex RPG rather than building a bunch of units, highlighting them and sending them to the enemy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/05