Introduction

Rick Goodman, lead designer of Age of Empires, reportedly envisioned Empire Earth as the true sequel to the best-selling Microsoft real-time strategy game. This is truly an epic title, one that attempts to let players guide their civilizations through 500,000 years of human history. While it may overwhelm casual RTS players, those who are willing to deal with the extra complexity will probably find a rewarding experience.

Installation and Technical Issues

Empire Earth installed on my system without any problems; I just clicked a few buttons and watched it set itself up. I found it to be generally stable, although for awhile the game kept on crashing whenever I saved in the middle of a scenario. However, that problem seems to have worked itself out. Also, the largest maps are virtually unplayable on systems with lower specifications. Nevertheless, there are plenty of smaller maps for people with slower computers to enjoy, as well as the handy random map generator.


A mission briefing.	The world of the future.

Documentation

Empire Earth's manual is so long, 238 pages to be exact, that it comes with its very own index. In general it is a pretty good example of how a game's documentation should be done. It conveys the information needed to play, and provides useful features such as tables of hotkeys in the back. It is also clearly written and provides interesting historical tidbits. Nevertheless, some of these historical assertions are suspect, such as the one stating that the Holy Roman Empire was the direct successor of the original Roman Empire. (For those who are interested, the last Roman Emperor, at least in the west, abdicated in 476. Nobody else held the title until Pope Leo III gave it to Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800. Thus, according to Carolingian theory, the Roman Empire didn't end in 476; its operation was merely suspended. However, for most of its history, until Napoleon abolished it in 1805, the Holy Roman Empire was not a very stable political organization, and the emperors often did not exercise much authority. The most famous quotation about the Holy Roman Empire is that it was "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire".) The game also comes with a useful foldout that illustrates the technology tree, as well as a card that lists the hotkeys.

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