Rating: 
Summary: Beta tester also, I LOVE IT! (and so does my honey...)
Review: (...)My fiance and I have been participating in the Public Beta, which has been going on since August (i think). I've played various RTS games over the years (Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Starcraft, C&C, AOE2) and I really loved AOE2 Age of Kings/The Conquerors. My fiance's favorite game of all time is Starcraft, which I only mildly enjoyed. I was skeptical and was dragged into it by my beloved, but as it turns out, both of us love this game! We've been playing it every night for the last month. It's incredible addicting and rates very high on the fun factor because it combines all the best qualities of some other treasured games. I would describe this game as a combination of AOE2+Civilization+SimCity with Black&White graphics and better (and getting better) AI. The Beta version is a work in progress and really has gotten much better and more balanced with every update. Neither of us can wait 'til the final release comes out. The Beta Version of the game only covers 4 epochs or "ages" (Renaissance Through World War I), while the final version of the game is supposed to have something like 12. I was already amazed with the sheer number of units and diversity of the kinds of units and upgrades you can use in the 4 epochs. It's going to be even more overwhelming when you have access to all 12 epochs. EE has similar units to those in AOE2, but with several extra specialized units (like prophets, medics, snipers, bombers, etc.) The cool part about this is that you have much greater flexibility in customizing your own strategy against other players. For example, I've been building tons of prophets, which can be really frustrating for your opponents (hehe), and snipers, which are excellent for hiding in the foliage and foiling your enemy's expansion plans. Also, upgrades are done at the unit level, not at a building, and are very specific. This means that you can spend resources upgrading only the units you use, instead of, for example, upgrading all infantry units at the Blacksmith like in AOE2. Additionally, you can use the custom civilization feature and customize all your own civilization bonuses. My fiance and I always use this instead of choosing the predefined civilizations. EE also has some unique types of building in addition to the types that are available in AOE2. Some of these buildings have an "area of influence", like in SimCity, that provide some special bonus to the units/buildings within it. These buildings include (but are not limited to) the capital, hospital, university, and temple. This means that you need to do a little bit of city planning to get the most out of your buildings. You can build Wonders, like the ones in Civilization, which give you additional special bonuses. Also, buildings become obsolete as you progress through the ages, while others become available. One last thing that I really like about EE are the "Heroes". You can build either a warrior or a strategist, which is a special unit that has tons of hitpoints and can do a lot of damage. However, you don't really want use this unit to attack since you can only build one of each. Instead, Heroes have an "area of influence" and troops that are within this area of influence are super-energized for some reason or other. Neither of us can pinpoint exactly what it is yet, but we just know that our units are definitely more effective when a Hero is around. Also, a Hero can emit a "battle cry" which totally ruins your enemy's troops' morale. I'm not sure if all the Heroes have it, but Elizabeth definitely has one foul mouth.:) The one negative thing I can say about this game is that every now and then the AI does something really irritating, like have a few units wander from the pack, chasing a citizen, into the line of fire of a tower, but this is to be expected I suppose. (Nothing really can be more irritating than having a monk in your group trying to convert an enemy unit you're attacking instead of healing your group, and then converting the enemy unit right before it dies... argh. Good news: EE doesn't have any monks. Yay! Instead, there are medics and priests.) EE is such a complex game (already, and this is just the Beta) that I don't think I can cover all the things I already love about this game. I think it will be replacing AOE2 as my favorite game. If you love RTS games, I think that you will definitely enjoy EE's complexity, customizability, and scope.
Rating:
Summary: For true RTs gamers --- this is the game to buy!
Review: Am speaking as one who has played the game, and is currently participating in the Beta-Test. This game is like 14 RTs games put into one, has an absolutely wonderful user-friendly editor with almost every feature imaginable, each and every unit is very diverse and well balanced. What stands out the most about this game isn't the graphics, even though the graphics is one of those things that you really realize the beauty of them as you play, the gameplay and plain fun of this game is what really stands out. At first sight, I was really uncertain, than after a half an hour it started, where hours passed by and this game totally sucked me in, it is very fun, and every time you play is like playing for the first time, you can't get bored of it easily. The replay-value is extremely high, has so much to it. After you've played the scenarios through and through, and have played countless hours in multiplay, you can go to the incredible editor and design awesome campaigns and scenarios. The scenario itself is quite incredible, your able to use the exact type triggers used by the developers for their scenarios and campaigns. There are 100+ units/structures specifically made to be used in your self-made campaigns, such as two types of "Missile Bases", one in the modern epoch, and one in one of the future epochs, which you can decrease the nuclear ballistic missile firepower to simply destroy a small area of structures when launched, or increase the firepower to destroy everything on the map. So much to it, so definitely, for any true Rts gamer, this is a great game to buy with much diversity and uniqueness. You may find similarities to Age of Empires, but it goes far, far beyond it.
Rating: 
Summary: Demo wasn't very fun to play
Review: Let me preface this by saying I'm a die hard AOE/AOK player...I wish/hope Ensemble Studios will put out the follow up to AOK, perhaps title it Age of Revolution to span up until the 20th century. This Age of Mythology they are working on looks like a lot of nonsense! Back to Empire Earth...I was initially attracted to the idea of being able to play the whole span of Human development from the start to the present in one game. I figured I should play the demo to see what the game is all about. Boy, was I dissapointed. The graphics are not as smooth as AOK and in fact, it looks a lot like a AOK wannabe, but without the fun. I've watched my husband play Starcraft enough to recognize some of those elements in there as well, so perhaps the developers thought they could mesh the two together to get something greater. It just does not feel right to me. The demos are scripted, no leeway to have you put the villies to work to see what their capabilities are or to work with the tech tree. The demo involving the 2 WW1 German pilots was a rip off, I thought I was going to be able to fly the planes, the 'scenario starts' when the plane has crashed! The EE demo was not convincing enough for me to buy the game (when released) and fool around with...they have less than one month to release and I can't see how they are going to make any major changes from the demo. So in the meantime, I'll stick with my AOK the Conquerors version, thanks very much.
Rating:
Summary: Dont believe the hype
Review: Ok I know theres 50 reviews up here with 4 or 5 stars already, that always makes me curious when the game hasnt even come out yet. Yesterday I downloaded the demo with my DSL and after an hour or so of anticipation I was able to play. The demmo consited of a 4 tutorials and 2 senerios. I have to admit at first I was pumped for this game I thought it would be a cross between a new type civiliztion game and age of kings. Unfortunatly from the demo it's not as good as either of those two. Frankly I am suprised that a company would try to pass of something that is obviously an Age of Empires type game a year or so after AOE has been out and not have it be at least as good as AOK. Now I am not an age of kings fanatic but I just dont see how this offers much more. You may get more building types and some speacialty stuff and get to go through many ages, but the graphics are worse in the sence that to see all of whats going on everything is so small and frankly unit graphics just dont meet AOK standards. Also units move relativly fast and they are not as ballanced as AOE units for instance your 10 shortsword men will be cut down by 10 javeliners in a heartbeat without doing the slightest dammage to the javeleners. There is a whole unit type combat system that forces you to fight certain units with only other types if you dont wished to be completely slaughtered, it's a somewhat reasonable system in theory but in practice it's entirely to black and white. You also have heroes, but they are rather bland to me. combat takes an imence amount of micromanaging which wouldnt be bad if there were not a huge number of fastly moving units all over the place. Also AI is not nearly as good as AOK.
Sadly this game isnt up to my expectations, I will be buying Civ 3 most likely and I am downloading the Star wars battle grounds demo which uses the ensemble engine with star wars universe. Also there is age of mythology coming out next year.
overall its an ok game but if you dont have Age of Empires your money would be better spent there.
Rating:
Summary: I've played the demo and it rocks
Review: Let me preface this by saying this game is going to be the best RTS game in a long time. It's funny; there are quite a few games coming out now that are just going to make these companies even more rich: EE is going to be number 1 for a long time. In the Demo, you have 4 tutorial missions and then 2 regular missions from a campaign. The visuals are stunning. If you liked Age of Empires II, you will love this game. There are citizens who are your villagers, and they are smart, just like they are in The Conquerors X-pack. There are many new features that will be new to RTS players: 1. Hospital: It heals your units if they are close
2. University: Just like any ole' college, except if your units are close to it, they cannot be converted by priests/monks/etc.
3. Wonders: Now the wonders you build actually do you some good. For example, building Alexander's lighthouse will enable you to see every naval activity on the oceans and rivers. Building the Colliseum will increase your build limit and DECREASE your opponents build limit. Very cool.
4. Unit balance: Never before have I seen such balance in military units. AOE tried to combat this, but you could still wreck ungodly havoc on your enemies with a herd of Paladins. No more in this game. You HAVE to support your units with auxillary units or they'll be crushed. Tank rush has been 100% eliminated because of this. In other games that boasted this, it was true to a certain extent, but this game actually delivers true military balance on the battlefield. Some other new features is the addition of prophets/evangels/etc. They can call upon the wrath of God and unleash earthquakes, firestorms, all that good stuff. The visuals are beautiful, the sounds are better than any other RTS game on the market right now. Enemy AI is better than any I've seen too, and I've seen most every RTS out there. It's almost like the producers took the best features from AOE, Starcraft, and the Command and Conquer series of games and rolled them into one, giant, kickin' game. I would download the demo and play it while you're waiting for the release date. This game is going to be very special indeed.
Rating:
Summary: This game looks graet
Review: This game looks great I bought age of the empires 2 and an other one they were both great I played them for long hours after school every day I think Empire Earth will be even greater becuase all the ages you can do from Dark ages to future ristic ages it sounds great I think I will love it and so will you all that love wars and building your impire.
Rating:
Summary: I Have Been Beta Testing This Game For A While Now...
Review: MAGNIFICENT! This game at first struck me as an advanced AoC with the few good points of Cossacks added in. The graphics are beautiful now and they are still improving them. With a capacity of more than 1000 units (I think it will settle at 1200 or 1400, but it may be even more), 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 prefered style of play. The micromanagement 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 brilliant and some of the top players haven't yet been able to master even the medium difficulty level (although I own the AI except on hardest), it has a fluid plan that adapts to the stratagies sent against it and is nearly as entertaining as a competent human player (lack of chat nothwithstanding, although it does occassionally 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 overwelm the RTS world in the same fasion 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 forseeable future.
-true__ibnFrey
Rating:
Summary: Looks nice!!!!
Review: This game looks great, and I cant wait for it to come out, that is the hardest part like always, waiting! Well I have played Starcraft, RA2, and Age of Empires 2 recently and I love all of those 3 strategy games. This game will combine all of them into one game and I think it will work great. My favorite from those 3 games was AOE2 and this game is made by the creator of AOE2 so that is another plus. There are already 200+ units and another 100 for single player in the game, so you will never get bored with using the same units and tactics to search and destroy. You can even create your own civilization to your taste. 5 different resources can be gathered, the game supports up to 16 players in multiplayer, and you can enroll all kinds of famous people from History, all the way from Napoleon to the Pope. Well this is all for now, my main point is that it looks a very beautiful and fun game and I cant wait till it comes out in November!!
Rating: 
Summary: Same concept, improved engine
Review: The game is fun to play if you haven't exhausted yourself to death playing the AOE sequels. For those of us who have, it's a small novelty that now you can play the same game in 3D, which btw was available in Home World for ages, and you can play the whole history of mankind. These are great improvments, but basically the same old star craft idea behind the "strategy" part.
Rating:
Summary: I have played it - and it's AWESOME
Review: First of all, let me reply to the criticism this game has received. How can one review it if they haven't played it? Well, there are screenshots, movies, and info all over the internet you can find. Also, many people have already tried the game at an electronics expo, and they are all equally stunned by the huge scope, great graphics, and overall perfection of this game. And, since the middle of August, thousands of people (including me) are participating in the public beta testing of Empire Earth. Trust me, I've played it, I've seen it. Also, someone said that this is just another Age of Empires, boring old RTS. Well let me tell you: this game is NOT Age of Empires. The gameplay is very different, and takes some time to get used to if you are an Age of Kings player. The sheer scope of this game, with 14 historical epochs, makes it much much larger than any other RTS ever. When playing the ancient epochs, it feels like Age of Empires. When playing the middle ages, it feels like Age of Kings. When playing the world wars, it feels like - nothing else out there. When playing the future epochs - it's even cooler. Now that I've addressed that, there's not much more to say except: BUY THIS GAME. If you like strategy games, you will LOVE this one.
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