Age of Empires III

"Great game, a few flaws"

Ok, I'll start off by saying this: if you loved Age of Empires 1 or 2 or Age of Mythology or just generally like RTS games then buy this game. The game is definitely a must buy for lovers of Real Time Strategy games.

That being said, this game lives up to the standards set by the first two games. Great gameplay online and off, good campaign mode, and the multiplayer is awesome as always. The graphics are amazing, especially the cannon graphics; it never gets old seeing a cannon ball plow over five guys at the same time. I'll score the game in the important areas now to show why I gave it the score I did.

Gameplay 9/10

Awesome. It's just about like any other RTS ever made except that this time around they have thrown in Home Cities. Home Cities are basically the European country that sponsers your settlements and as such they will send supplies throughout the game. You can get a wide array of things from them including extra villagers, sheep, military units, and upgrades to units. One thing I really hate(and I may be wrong on this) is that you can only have 2 teams. WTF? What about 2 v 2 v 2 stuff? But oh well, two teams is actually pretty fun anyway. Other than that, it has everything you'd expect from an RTS.

Graphics 10/10

As I said before, the graphics are just amazing. When you shoot a cannon ball at a building it will sometimes just go right through it. It's fun to just see cannons mow over infantry units even if they are yours. That's about it... you can look at screenshots if you want to see them for yourself.

Story 9/10

I really liked the campaign this time around. In the past Age of Empires it wasn't much to talk about but this one is different. You play as the Black family, whose members trace back to the a group of Crusader Knights. Morgan Black comes to the New World in pursuit of an Ottoman explorer and discovers the fountain of youth. There are wars over the fountain and tons of fun to be had.

Multiplayer 8/10

Multiplayer is good but not as good as it could have been. Sometimes the games will just randomly shut down(they're fixing this hopefully) and of course like any other online game it has it's fair share of lag. Sometimes the lag is bad enough that I just leave the games. One good thing though is ESO(Ensemble Studios Online) is good at keeping pirates offline; good for them I say, those bums should buy the real game, not download it.

Sound 10/10

Not much to say here... good sound and music.

Overall 9/10

Not an average.. well kinda. I gave it 9/10 because although it's a great game, it's not perfect and therefore not deserving of a 10/10. Solid single player and multiplayer game play, great graphics, and good sound. I'd say buy it now if you have $50 burning a hole in your pocket.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/05