As a big fan of the Empire Earth games I was quite thrilled when Sierra announced their next sequel in the series, simply labeled Empire Earth 3. The gameplay of the last one, Empire Earth 2, already was unbeatable, and building up your civilization was great fun in this game. And now things can only become better, right? More options, more features, new races and improved graphics, wonderful things to make your RTS heart beat faster.
Earlier this week Sierra released a playable demo of the game. They also revealed more about the game’s features and while I was reading those my enthusiasm already started declining ( the declining part ended up in utterly disappointment when I played the demo, but first things first ). Sierra in all her wisdom, or marketing eagerness, aims to attract new gamers to the series. And they think the way to achieve this is to simplify the game mechanics. The empire earth games were labeled “to complex” and this would prevent new fans from playing the game. So they stripped the game down to the basics, just a few economy features, just three races etc…
Sure they implemented some new things, like the 3D globe, and the world domination map. But these things don’t effect what the original game was all about. Facing a challenge, build your empire slow and careful, planing your attacks, controlling the troops and tinker on new strategies, both economical and military. The complexity of the game was what made me, and I am quite sure many players, come back to the game, over and over.
The Empire earth 3 demo doesn’t reveal everything of the new title. What it does show is a rather simple RTS game, in almost every aspect, including the graphics. And that is not what I am looking forward to, so yes I am very disappointed. And I really don’t know where game developers get the idea that an RTS like this should be simple. I really feel they underestimate their playing audience delivering such a product. I know I must keep my judgment until the final version is released, but things doesn’t look bright for this game at all.
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