Empire Earth II: Improved, Better Graphics, Better Game Play, and More Fun

Empire Earth II: Improved, Better Graphics, Better Game Play, and More Fun.

By

Jim Zaworski

Computer software games for PC have been getting better and better over the years.
For those fans of strategy gamer who also enjoys history, games like Age of Empires, Age of Conquerors and Empire Earth filled the niche. Of course, as it seems to be the case in the competitive world of software, games are often released in a not fully “finished” form. Money and profit drives the market, and the competition is there to get your company’s game out quickly and distribute it widely. Empire Earth II, like a number of other “II” games, is more of a “finished” version of what was sought in the first installment, and it is a really cool game.

I downloaded the trial version of the game for free, but liked it so much that I ended up purchasing the full game.

I had previously purchased Empire Earth and its expansion module, and there always seems to be room left for improvement in these games. Well, they surely improved the game with Empire Earth II!

Game Specifications and Features.

Software Company: Sierra, Stainless Steel Studios, and Mark Churms The Art of History.
Rating: T for Teen, with Blood and Violence.
Minimum System Requirements:
Pentium II processor PC
128 MB RAM
450 MB Hard Drive Space
Super BGA monitor supporting 1024 x 768 resolution
AGP 3-D video card
CD-ROM Drive
Microsoft Compatible Mouse
28.8 bps Modem or higher
Direct X Compatible Soundcard (for Direct X 8)
Internet Play: ISP provider
Cost: $34.95-49.95

Game Play and Game Highlights.

Empire Earth II is basically like the other strategy games, where you start with some villagers, gather resources, build up your city, build defensive and offensive structures, priests, soldiers, cavalry, etc., conquire territories, fight battles and the like. Empire Earth II builds upon this framework, but also adds so many features to it.

There are 15 different epochs that you can go through, from Neolithic Age to “Nano” Age, in the future. To advance from one age to another, you must get technology points. Building a university and garrisoning citizens in it is one way to get these points, but you can also build a religious building and garrison priests in it to get additional points.

The technology points will improve your sophistication, capability, and effectiveness of everything in your civilization, such as offensive and defensive effectiveness, ability to gather more resources.

The game is paced at whatever speed you wish, and there are a seemingly infinite number of variables that you can input into the game to make each time you play a new experience.

For example, you can start the game at epoch level 4, and have it conclude with level 6. This way, no one of your opponents will get ahead of you. If you play on hardest and have 7 computer opponents against you, and you all begin on epoch level 1, you might be wiped out before you ever reach level 2, and your enemies are already on level 4 with much greater technology. I have found that when I first played, I would be far behind the technology level than the other players, using wooden triremes against modern battleships!

Game play allows up to 8 players, computer or human, with other variables tacked on, such as terrain, climate, map size, size of starting forces, amount of resources, etc. You can choose options such as “unbreakable treaties”, “lock teams”, etc. The scenario rules are determined when you choose them before game play. Of course there are “cheats” built into the game, but I don’t know them and would rather play the game and win or lose on my own merits.

The perameters by which one can achieve victory are many. You can choose conquest, and the only way to win is to eliminate the other players completely. You can choose “wonders”, and build and keep intact, one, two, or three wonders for a certain period of time to achieve victory. You can choose “territory”, and have to keep and hold x number of territories to win the game.

Empire Earth II is really an involved game. You can play for hours upon hours and be totally engrossed and engaged the whole time.

Improvements over Empire Earth I.

There now six difficulty levels: easiest, easier, easy, normal, hard, and hardest. The AI is very dynamic in Empire Earth II, and the hardest level is nearly impossible to overcome.

New full campaigns and “turning points” in history have been added. Korean, German, and American campaigns are the three full blown campaigns, consisting of up to seven individual scenarios with specific objectives to be met before one moves onto the next scenario.

There are four turning point games, which are sort of like “death matches”. These are the battle of Normandy (D-Day), and the Three Kingdoms from China’s history. In Normandy, you can be either allies and attack, or be axis and defend. In Three Kingdoms, you can play either Wei or Wu. Each “turning point” game has timed specific objectives, particularly Normandy. If you don’t capture or attain the first objective on time, the scenario ends. It’s really a challenge, even on normal game play.

The number of options that make the game more interesting and more challenging are also improved.

Features unique to each civilization are an added bonus, such as unique units.

The units themselves are improved. The graphics are better, and the interface runs more smoothly in the game play. It is much less choppy as was the case before.

The minimum amount of RAM is increased as part of the base amount you need for the game to play smoothly. However, 128 MB of RAM seems a bit low these days, and I upgraded my laptop to 1 Gigabyte and the game plays incredibly smoothly.

Things the game could do better.

How do you improve on a great game like this? I wish they put in a feature as in Age of Empires, where the unique civilization speaks that language. For example, the Koreans speak Korean, the Chinese speak Chinese. In the Empire Earth games, they all speak English, which is kind of silly.

That’s my only suggestion on game improvement, and is why I give this game 5 stars.

So, all in all, Empire Earth II is an incredible game! It is one of the best PC strategy games on the market today. It has incredible graphics, engaging and dynamic game play, nearly infinite possibilities of game play variables to make game play fun and interesting and unique, historical aspects which may teach you something about the world and its different cultures, and is a lot of fun.

The drawbacks are that you will waste a lot of time playing this game, whereas you should budget your time and play in moderation.

But, that’s all part of how we budget our time. Devoting our time to what we have to do, and deciding how to enjoy our free time.