Age of Empires 3

The original Age of Empires packed a stunning visual punch and backed it up with solid gameplay. Back at a time where most strategy games were chunky and 2D, the first Age game pulled aside the curtain to reveal a world that was sunny, animated, colorful and lifelike. Strategy games were never the same. Age of Empires III presents a similar leap forward for real-time strategy fans. As Half-Life 2 did for first-person shooters, AoE III shows just how inspiring these games can be when lovingly crafted with outstanding artistry and solid gameplay fundamentals.

Age of Empires III doesn't redefine real-time strategy gameplay. You're still scurrying to collect more resources than your opponents and rushing to field a giant army, and the game still rewards frantic clicking and unit management. But the presentation is unmatched, and even though the game is rooted in RTS conventions, there are enough new elements and strategic variations here to addict even grizzled veterans. If you're a fan of the genre, you owe it to yourself to check this game out. And if you've never played a real-time game before, this is the place to start.

The Majesty of the Frontier

Graphically, the engine that powers Age of Empires III has a laundry list of the latest graphics technology: real-time shadows, high dynamic range lighting, you name it. There's even bump-mapping on the barrels of the cannons. But the real impressive thing about the technology isn't that it's there, it's that you don't notice it. From the moment your Home City first appears on the menu screen, or a new map loads up to reveal pale grey waters lapping quietly against rocky New England shores, you become lost in the game world. The latest in technology is coupled with truly beautiful art.

Age III pulls out all the stops to depict the sweeping majesty of the old west or the unspoiled beauty of the colonial-era Americas. One of the single-player campaign cutscenes, done in the game engine, pans across rolling hills of golden grass while huge herds of buffalo amble along like waves of water. Another level depicts a small Caribbean port picking up the pieces after a devastating hurricane, with citizens milling about amidst wrecked ships and broken docks. Yet another level has you picking your way through a dense swamp looking for the ruins of Spanish treasure ships half-buried in the mud and dripping with gold doubloons. You're never lacking for eye candy.

The music is equally impressive. Done in full orchestra, it moves effortlessly from majestic scores highlighting the beauty of the landscape to pounding battle drums accenting the fury of battle.

Of course, the combat is equally spectacular. The goal of the game is to devastate your opponents, and said devastation is accompanied by deeply satisfying images of destruction. A large part of this has to do with the real physics incorporated onto the game engine. You can feel the impact when a cannonball shatters into a wooden frontier building, breaking it into pieces that fly off in macabre arcs. Smoke billows from muskets, cannons leap back as they expel their fury, building spires burst into flame and collapse into themselves, and the masts of ships crash to the deck as the vessel shudders with the impact of enemy fire. Every game of Age of Empires III drips with spectacle

Age of Empires III also introduces some new elements -- home cities, native tribes, trade routes and such. Taken individually none of these are profound innovations but their cumulative effect makes the game feel fresh and strengthens the appeal of the core design.

Players can visit the Home City screen to request a wide variety of shipments -- either crates of resources, soldiers, settlers, or military and economic improvements. The number and type of shipments you can get depend on the amount of experience you've earned during the mission and the advancement level of your town center. I like the way new, more powerful shipment types open up later in the game because it tends to keep things in the right proportion. Being able to get 13 musketeers late in the mission is as significant as getting two settlers at the very beginning. In between missions, you'll be able to purchase new shipment types, giving your Home City even more options for support.

In general the AI is very strong. You can find some exploits here and there but, for the most part, the AI knows how to make a good army and how to lead it. While the computer opponents in some RTS games send out trickles of units from time to time in order to keep things interesting, the AI in Age of Empires III tends to rely more on groups of units and will hardly ever use them in pointless, suicide attacks. In my games the AI has had a good handle on when to press an attack and when to retreat. The only real weak point in the AI is its tendency to leave some of its settlers too isolated. (Since there are no resource dropsites anymore, it's also hard for human players to keep tabs on where all their settlers are.)

The range of technologies and units is relatively broad here. In the early ages, players will have to make do with troops that are very similar to the medieval set from Age of Empires II. Crossbows eventually give way to muskets as the ages pass by. Soon players will be fielding long lines of musketeers and using mortars to bombard enemy towers. While it may seem that some of the unit types are redundant, you'll find that each type has a specific role to play on the battlefield. Like the other Age games you'll have a variety of ranged and melee-focused cavalry and infantry as well as a nice range of artillery units. Identifying the counter units and building a balanced force is just as important as knowing where and when to strike the enemy.

Like the rest of the games in the Age series, the naval element is merely there to support the land battles. The handful of ships and maritime technologies don't offer many options. You will find that the naval side of the game is fairly compelling early on while you're dealing with pirates and chasing your enemies across the Atlantic. Once you start fighting in the interior of the American continent, you won't really miss the naval aspect of the game as much.

Pathfinding seems to be a bit of a problem here and there. Huge formations can easily find their way through the most densely packed settlements but my one hero unit can't seem to find his way out of the middle of a line of infantry. There are cases where the pathfinding is a little too good. Units are able to predict the best routes through a maze even when large parts of that maze haven't been uncovered yet. This is most telling during missions where you're leading a small force through a series of winding canyons. As long as you click on their eventual destination, they'll make their way through the labyrinth with nary a wrong turn.

While we're on the subject, it seems odd that you can't select a single unit out of a group by clicking on their portrait at the bottom of the screen. Trying to grab a specific hero unit out of a large formation should be easier than this. Luckily, there's an option in the game to disregard any non-combat units when you click and drag to select a group. This helps to keep your settlers from marching out with your soldiers.