Rating: 
Summary: MAGNIFICENT ! AN RTS THAT WILL LIVE ON FOR YEARS TO COME
Review: MAGNIFICENT! This game at first struck me as an advanced AoC with the few good points of Cossacks added in. The graphics are great. With a capacity of more than 1200 units the scope of the battles can be tremendous. Unlike the age-race that some envisioned, this game is an intricate balance of diversity and dynamicism. Even with the vast array of units, every single one has a formidable counter that can't be overcome by sheer numbers; Gone are the days of mass archer or knight rushes, a balanced army and economy are the only true paths to victory. There is not and never will be a standard opening in this game; Players will be able to evolve different but equal strategies based on their own preferred style of play. The micro-management has been shifted from the economic to the military side of the game, where it belongs; A poor general(player) WILL lose to a lesser force. The custom civ feature is a welcome addition to any who have ever had the frustration of deciding what bonuses would be most enjoyable (and exploitable) for their own play style. The AI is very strong and some of the good players haven't yet been able to master even the medium difficulty level (although I own the AI except when playing a team of hard AI players), it has a fluid plan that adapts to the strategies sent against it and is nearly as entertaining as a competent human player (lack of chat notwithstanding; although it does occasionally talk a little smack..."What a lovely wonder I will enjoy seeing it fall" , things to that effect). Every building and unit has a real purpose (no filler) and figuring out how to use them is but one of the steps on the path to mastery. This game will overwhelm the RTS world in the same fashion that Age did, but it will do it swifter and more completely. No other game on the horizon will touch this game until at least Age of Mythology and I honestly have to doubt it will be able to keep pace, despite it's more enviable (i.e. later) development allowance. I still will anticipate AoM greatly, but many will prefer the more realistic approach of this masterpiece of programming. For a game to attempt so much...and achieve it in totality is mind-staggering. Don't wait on this one as it will be the standard by which other RTSs are judged for the foreseeable future.
Rating:
Summary: An RTS that raises the bar!
Review: I gave Empire Earth five stars even though it is not a perfect game. But it is a great game, and it is damn close!Designed by Rick Goodman, the lead designer of Age of Empires, Empire Earth is closer to being Age of Empires III than Ensemble Studios' (the Developer of the series) newest entry Age of Mythology. Each of the original Age of Empires games allowed you to play through four epochs (ages) of world history. Empire Earth allows you to play through a total of 14 epochs - from prehistoric through the Nano Age (two epochs beyond current human civilization). The play of the game is extremely similar to Age of Empires, and players of that game should be able to jump into this game with very little learning curve. New players to either of these games may find the game complicated and overwhelming at first. However, Empire Earth compensates by having a great tutorial that will have you playing without ever having to read the 238 pg manual as well as having multiple difficulty settings that allow the player to customize the game to their skill level. The game ships with four campaigns - each taking place within a few handfuls of epochs in world history. The last campaign takes place entirely in the future so is completely fictional. The campaigns, while fun (and better than those found in Age of Empires) are short at 6 missions apiece (although some missions may take several hours to play). The real meat of this game lies within the skirmish and multiplayer modes. Skirmish is exactly like multiplayer except there is only one player and the rest is made up of computer opponents. Empire Earth features the same great random map elements found in Age of Empires which really add to the replayability of the game. While in the campaigns you only play through a few epochs, in multiplayer and skirmish mode you can choose to play through all 14 if you wish. This can make for some extremely long games (one of mine lasted over 15 hours), but if you don't have all day to play the game will let you save and comeback later (yep even in multiplayer). In addition, the game even auto saves the game regularly so you don't have to start over if one player crashes four hours into the game. The units (and their are many of them) are extremely well balanced. The game utilizes a 'rock-paper-scissors' philosophy with units that prevent overly typical strategies like build-as-much-as-you-possibly-can-of-the-most-powerful-unit-in-the-game-and-lay-waste-to-the-entire-map. In the beginning, it's rather simple - shock units beat archery units which beat piercing units which beat shock units. Later it becomes more obscured, but common sense should prevail (ie anti-tank guns beat tanks, etc..). The game plays well over the net. Massive amounts of units can cause lag, but this is more often because a player's computer isn't powerful enough to process the information rather than to bandwidth. I regularly play online game with two of my buddies and up to five computers (making eight player games) over my 56k connection while using voice-over-IP (Roger Wilco) and lag is minimal. Be prepared to have your video card taxed however. The game plays well on my machine (Athlon 1Ghz w/Voodoo 5 256Mb RAM) so users with similar set ups or better will have no worries. The past couple of years has seen the market flooded with real time strategy (RTS) games that have been mediocre at best. Empire Earth is NOT one of those games. I would not hesitate to say that this is one of the best RTS games since Blizzard released StarCraft and may easily steal from WarCraft III's (Blizzard's newest RTS) glory. If you've ever enjoyed an RTS and your system can handle it, then by all means pick up Empire Earth. You won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Complex Game with Limited AI
Review: Being a big fan of the Age of Empire series, I didn't hesitate to buy this game. Although there's a certain level of complexity in having the game evolve through different ages and technology, I found that the AI in the game had similar shortcomings as with Age of Empires. If one is playing through ages, the game is pretty tough with 7 other AIs playing against you. As with Age of Empires, however, the game gets pretty dull if you're playing a fixed time period. The highlands terrains are always the most difficult because you have porous frontiers but, once you establish your territory; the AI seems to lose its will to fight pretty quickly. What you have then is just hours of expanding your territory without much resistance; the time taken is just to move your units and finishing off what's left of the AI. The graphics are great and the game is difficult in the evolutionary mode: but the advantage is in the overkill of the technology and not the AIs sophistication: this is made evident in the fixed period games. The graphics are great though and the weaponry is extensive.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-Compensation for Poor AI
Review: BOTTOM LINE: This game has tremendous potential that it simply does not live up to. The Age of Empires series is a tremendous testament to what can be done with real time strategy. Microsoft stuck with their level of excellence in the realm of computer games with this series. Empire Earth is an obvious addition to this series of games, unfortunately, done through Sierra this time. Sierra is notorious for enforcing release date deadlines with their developers, and quality is usually the first thing to suffer. This game remains virtually unpatched (a patch was released to fix a problem with multiplayer, that was it) However, to state the positives. The graphics are excellent. As far as design, the potential is excellent. It's the familiar resource-collecting, structure-building, population-growing, military training sort of game that the AoE series created so well. Basically, gather resources to build up a good empire, and take out the other players (human or computer) The tech-tree is good, the potential for strategy is good. The AI is ridiculously stupid. A huge advantage has been given to the computer players (i believe building costs for computer players are around 5% that of a human player) and the computer is given the default ability to cheat.. ie, advance in epochs at whim, because it is losing. This leads to a game that is unbalanced, with the computer playing doing things tremendously impossible in relation to the human player. Through some tricky maneuvering you can disable the computer cheating, and then the game becames amazingly easy and unchallenging. Overall, good concepts, great graphics, good to play once or twice, and then quickly becomes either boring or stupid. Stick with the "Age of.." games
Rating:
Summary: The greatest strategy game on the face of the earth
Review: If u think Age of Empires or Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is the best RTS game on earth, THINK AGAIN! Empire Earth is one of the best, if not, the best, RTS game. Instead of being confined to 1 age like in Age of Mythology of Age of Empires, you command ALL 500,000 YEARS OF HUMAN HISTORY, FROM THE DISCOVERY OF FIRE TO THE DISCOVERY OF NANO TECHNOLOGY! You can take on a civilization wit hordes of cavemen, bring a grand army of swordsmen to fight to the death, bring on a lethal arsenal of Penzer Tanks and Talon Fighters to battle against China, or take on cyborgs, Cybers, and laser turrets. Reenact all 14 ages of human history! Pros: 3 historically corecct campaigns (actually 4, but one's in the Digital Age)
14 ages, reenact human history
Can make multiple settlements quickly and turn them into Town Centers, then Capitols
Very cool display, (can zoom in a lot)
Cool graphics
call on calamities with Prophets
people talk normally (in later ages) Cons:
No marketplace like in every other RTS game
They could work harder on the campaign cinematics
Rating:
Summary: The best RTS ever!
Review: From the lead creator of Age of Empires comes this great 3D RTS. Although similar to Age of Empires II in many ways, it's much more complex and has 3D graphics - the ability to zoom up close and have the same viewpoint as your army in battle, to zooming out in order to see the entire base or battle. Although it's a bit complex for beginning RTS Gamers, it's still a very quick learn, and simple tutorials teach which units are best in battle against certain unit types of your enemy. (ex. pierce weapons vs. missile weapons.) Ever since I got this game i've been playing it non-stop! It's so addictive and advancing through the 500,000 years, 12 epochs, to research more and more and improve your units is just incredible! Until now I haven't found any negative aspects to Empire Earth. If you are a fan of the Age of Empires series then I greatly recommend this game. Even if you are just a regular gamer and want to try a great RTS game - Empire Earth is the one.
Rating:
Summary: hours and hours of game play :-)
Review: this game is awesome!!! a ton of people make bad comments on it but, those aren't true! here are some good stuff abut this game spanning 500,000 years from the prehistoric age to the middle ages to the WW2 age and to the nano age of the future! lots of different units from rock throwers to swords men to archers to tanks to atomic bombers to bazookas and robots! different maps like highlands, mediterranian and small islands! some bad things are... 4 different campaigns are litterally impossible when playing against the computer it is impossible to win unless you use cheats EMPIRE EARTH ROCKS!(...)
Rating:
Summary: This is a difficult, rewarding action/strategy history sim
Review: I must admit the opening sequence won me over, to wit: "Few men have the ability to decide the lives of others" or something similar was what held my initial joy. Watching the video scenes that ranged from a shaman in a stone age culture to a world war captain fighting with lasers and pulse machine guns intrigued me. This game is simply astounding! The gameplay is amazing... it is the kind of game you have to get a full glass of icewater and maybe a snack and sit down and crack your knuckles then begin a TOTAL conquer of an enemy. As a superior (online anyway) veteran of AOE and AOK I must admit I was challenged beyond belief but not too much to make it not fun. I need not go into minor details of gameplay...this is an RTS game BUT it has some important differences. Everything I hated about Age of Empires has been fixed: 1) The resources dont run out after like 800 gold...you get 30,000 for each mine. This means you spend more time on war strategy (which becomes important in 14 ages) once you secure (and usually fight for) resources later. 2) Normally in AOE you can choose a strategy you like (i.e. rushing to imperial and creating 50 paladins) and win. In this game there are so many counters to certain units you must learn and use them. It is more realistic this way. 3) Watching the little World War I units run around and make waste of your enemy. It is so awesome to have an "Age of Empires" style game that has machine gun units, snipers, bombers, fighters, tanks, Anti-aircraft (stationary and mobile), and many others. 4) Let 's not forget the enormous fun of prehistoric age...Normally we all enjoy "starting fresh" in AOE with the stone age. Well! In this game the stone age is an achievement. We start in PREHISTORIC age!!! You can fight with guys that chunk rocks and guys with clubs and branches (literally this is it until you get 1,122 food for stone age and it is AWESOME fun) 5) Let's not forget the little details most of which I cannot possibly remember. It's the little gameplay details that are so improved that I love. The zooming, the "explore" function (even citizens or "scout canine patrols" can explore the unexplored and fight what they find. To illustrate, remember those online AOE games where you have destroyed him but he wont quit? Send 12 or 13 soldiers on "explore" mode to seek him out. Just wait until you purchase it, the explore mode is a stunning achievement for RTS. 6) Remember, You can start out at any age, or choose any sets of ages for game (i.e. only Renaissance to WWII or any combo). I can't say enough good things about this game. I probably love it because of my history background but I don't know if I could not love it under any circumstances. BUY IT NOW...cmon...its enormous..you normally buy crappy games with little to 'em, get something engaging now! Buy it and play for 2 or 3 weeks like I have and then you will be right here like me, writing my first amazon review. The only reason I come out of internet anonymity to write this review is because I love this game that much. Think seriously about getting it...I mean it.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked Age of Empires...
Review: then you'll like Empire Earth (EE). The game engine of EE is amazingly similar to Age of Empires (AOE). The lead designer of the AOE series left, purportedly to build EE. EE is a real-time strategy (RTS) computer game. This genre includes WarCraft, StarCraft, Total Annihilation, the Command & Conquer series, AOE, etc. Essentially, RTS games require a player to harvest resources, construct buildings and units... and destroy opponents. Games differ primarily in millieu, graphics and complexity. EE is a big RTS. The game moves from prehistory to the post-modern future in classic "Earth" settings. The changing epochs bring different units and buildings... but no real surprises. The units are essentially the rocks, scissors and paper of infantry, cavalry and bowmen. Of course, in later epochs, these have new labels like machine guns, tanks and artillery. Resource management involves the familiar villagers of AOE, now citizens. EE allows citizens to take a more meaningful role in self defense. If you think you have a work ethic, watch the EE citizens pound on the same pile of rocks for millenium without a single coffee break. EE adds the resource of "iron," to the familiar wood, stone, gold and food. The players uses the resources to buy buildings, units and advances. EE adds a few new wrinkles like prophets who can invoke catastrophes like volcanos or hurricanes. Unit management is fairly easy because most units automatically upgrade from epoch to epoch. EE does not offer many options for "base defense," so the game usually focuses on unit development and combat. As with most RTS games, the game is essentially over once one side gains a solid edge in production. EE does offer a number of features including the ability to customize a civilization. Unit balance is good and the game, with patches, plays well. The computer AI is solid, though still uses a fair amount of cheating. Before writing this review, I played a few games from cave days to the nano epoch. Despite having a custom civilization with super-productive villagers, the computer harvested more resources. The computer managed this trick even though I raided heavily during the last half of the game. EE is an enjoyable RTS game and a worthy expansion of the award-winning AOE series. For serious RTS fans, this is a "must buy" title, however, the casual gamer may struggle with the size and time investment required to play.
Rating:
Summary: solid
Review: It is just an all around good game from an educational standpoint and a action and strategy player standpoint. It covers so many years you get to see how the world reletively developed.
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