Hunting for food also plays a big role throughout Empire Earth. Most resources are found lying out in the open, in square-shaped deposits conveniently strewn about the map. A fifth resource, iron, has been added to further complicate the resource-gathering process. All four of Age of Kings' resources have been appropriated for Empire Earth. As in Age of Kings, in Empire Earth, you must spend a considerable amount of time focusing on gathering various resources. Those familiar with Age of Kings should be able to jump right in and start playing Empire Earth, which borrows most of that game's controls, interface features, and even some of its keyboard shortcuts. Empire Earth takes place in ancient history.Įmpire Earth is clearly designed to appeal to those who enjoy Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. In fact, Empire Earth is best reserved for hard-core real-time strategy players who won't mind the game's less-than-stellar graphics and sound but will instead relish the ability to relive 14 different epochs of human warfare. Real-time strategy is sometimes criticized for favoring shallow, action-oriented gameplay rather than strategic depth-but that's definitely not the case here. Similarities aside, Empire Earth is a huge game to say the least-it's much more time-consuming and involved than the typical real-time strategy game, and its staggering variety of units is as impressive as it is intimidating. Even the games' graphics look similar, though Empire Earth uses a fully 3D engine, unlike Age of Empires. Actually, Empire Earth has a great deal in common with Ensemble Studios' highly successful Age of Empires series. So if you're the type who appreciates ambitious game designs, then you've found one in Stainless Steel Studios' first game, which was conceived by the designer of the original Age of Empires. Empire Earth is a real-time strategy game that spans about a half a million years of human history, the last 200 of which take place 200 years from now.