But on the whole, Empire Earth plays a lot like a hundred and one other real-time strategy games. It’s a very old school game. It tries almost nothing new. But manages to add lots of good stuff to the old. System Requirements: PII 400 Mhz, 64 MB RAM, 8 MB Video, Win 98/ME/2000. Empire Earth II: Prepare to serve up worldwide conquest on an epic scale once again with Empire Earth II. Become the greatest conqueror of all time by creating, building and forging the grandest.
| Empire Earth II | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Mad Doc Software |
| Publisher(s) | Vivendi Universal Games[a] |
| Designer(s) | Ian Lane Davis Steven W. Nadeau |
| Composer(s) | Michael G. Shapiro |
| Series | Empire Earth |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Empire Earth II is a real-time strategyvideo game developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Vivendi Universal Games on April 26, 2005.[1] It is a sequel to Empire Earth, which was developed by the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios. The game features 15 epochs, 14 different civilizations[2] and has three playable campaigns: a Korean, German, and American one, as well as several other playable scenarios. The game received a positive reaction, earning a 79% average rating on GameRankings.[3]
Gameplay[edit]
Empire Earth II has several new gameplay features from the original gameplay of Empire Earth, such as the Picture-in-Picture window, a small window within the game interface which allows the player to control activities such as unit and building construction. The Citizen Manager can be configured to tell a citizen what to do if they have no set task, and the Diplomacy System allows the player to make tributes and manage alliances and wars with other players. The War Planner is another new addition, which is a map of the game that the player can display and use to coordinate attacks with allies. The crown system grants strategic bonuses to players who are first to master an epoch's military, economic, or imperial paths at the cost of losing a faster age progression. Weather, another new feature, changes over time on the map and affects the look of the map and performance of units and, in the case of airplanes in thunderstorms, hit points.
Besides campaigns and special scenarios, there is also a skirmish mode where the player can play against a computer player. The player can also play against other human players, however, the common EULA clause that each player needs his own copy of the game is actually enforced, even for LAN games. Unlike campaigns or scenarios, the winning conditions never change. There are eight different game modes in skirmish mode, which can also be played in Multiplayer.
There are 15 epochs in the game, each representing a part of history. As the player advances through the epochs, new and improved units and structures become available. Some of the epochs in Empire Earth II are identical to their counterparts in the original Empire Earth—one exception is that Empire Earth II does not allow players to expand their empires into space. The epochs are the Stone Age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Imperial Age, Enlightenment Age, Industrial Age, Modern Age, Atomic Age, Digital Age, Genetic Age, Space Age.
Before buildings and units can be made or created, resources must be gathered. There are two kinds of resources: the main resources and special resources. The main resources are available in all epochs and they are food, wood, gold, and stone. To collect resources, a citizen (or a band of citizens) is selected, and are directed to a resource. The citizens thus begin harvesting it.
The special resources are available in only some epochs. These special resources are tin—available until epoch 6, iron—first available in epoch 4 and is no longer used after epoch 9, saltpeter—first available in epoch 7 and is used until epoch 12, oil—first available in epoch 10, and uranium—first available epoch 13.
Empire Earth II has technologies to improve each player's civilization. Technologies are divided into three groups. The first is Military, which provides benefits mostly to military units. The next is Economic technologies, which increases resource gathering rate, decreases cost and building time for units and buildings and decreases tribute tax amount. The final group is Imperial, which provides benefits mostly to special units and increases the health of units and buildings.
There are four technologies of each group for each epoch. Technologies can be researched by spending tech points. To get tech points, an appropriate number of citizens must be garrisoned in a university and/or an appropriate number of priests must be garrisoned in a temple. Technologies are researched through the main interface (no longer through a building) by clicking the Technology Tree button. When the correct amount of tech points are available, the tech tree button will light up and new technology to research can be chosen. However, when research is no longer used (at the highest epoch specified before starting a game), the garrisoned units will become idle.
In Empire Earth II, each civilization belongs to a particular world region, each having its own regional powers. These can be activated on the game interface by clicking on a crown in the top right corner. All of the regional powers are timed; once the time is up to use it, it takes a long time for the regional powers to be recharged to use again. Each regional power can only be used in a respective group of epochs. For example, the regional power of Overtime can only be used by a player using a Far Eastern civilization in epochs 11–15.
Like many games before it in the same genre, Empire Earth II has civilizations for players to lead to greatness. Each civilization has a unique power, giving it an advantage in a particular field. Each civilization also has a unique unit, which is a more powerful version of a given unit type. The Greek Hoplite, for instance, is a more effective heavy infantry than the other tribes' counterparts. The western civilizations are the Americans, British, Germans, Greeks, and the Romans. The Middle Eastern civilizations are the Babylonians, Egyptians, and the Turks. The Far Eastern civilizations are China, Japan, Korea. Finally, the Meso-American civilizations are the Aztecs, Incas, and the Mayans.
Campaigns[edit]
Empire Earth II contains three single-player campaigns, a collection of scenarios called 'turning points' and a tutorial campaign. The tutorial campaign features the Aztecs, featuring four scenarios to allow players to learn the gameplay. The first scenario is about the founding of the city of Tenochtitlan, followed by a scenario about the Spanish conquest of Mexico, which ends with the Aztecs driving out Hernán Cortés and his Conquistadors. These scenarios are followed by ones about an Aztec alliance with the United States and a war with the Incas, occurring before World War II.
Korean campaign[edit]
The Korean campaign is about early Korean history, from 2333 BC to 676 AD, divided into eight scenarios. The first two scenarios are about the founding of the state of Gojoseon and its first contacts with other Korean states and China, followed by scenarios about Korea's first wars with the Chinese and other Korean states. The next scenarios follow the Korean civil war and the state of Silla's decision to ally with China, and its eventual conquest over the other Korean states. The last scenario for this campaign is the final war with China.
German campaign[edit]
The German Campaign deals with the years between 1220 and 1871 in central Europe. The first four scenarios are about the struggles of the Teutonic Order and the knights' eventual downfall. The next two scenarios are about the rise of Prussia and the Seven Years' War. The next scenario is about the war with Napoleon I of France. The final scenario is about the war with Denmark, Austria and France and the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismarck.
American campaign[edit]
The American Campaign is part-fact and part-fiction, set between 1898 and 2070. The first scenario is about the Spanish–American War in Cuba, followed by one about the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I. The scenarios are about World War II, featuring the North African Campaign and a fictionalized version of the Ardennes Offensive. These are followed by Cold War spy missions against the Soviet Union. The next scenarios are fictionalized, about an attempted coup led by a disillusioned General Charles Blackworth against the US government; the player is charged with stopping this coup, eventually engaging Blackworth and his followers in the Amazon Rainforest. When the player wins the last scenario in this campaign, there is a short film about mankind and the Earth. When that film ends, the credits for the game are shown.
Special scenarios[edit]
There are four special scenarios in Empire Earth II called turning points. These scenarios can be played from either side of a battle or war which changed the course of history. The Normandy scenario takes place during the D-Day invasion, where the player can play as the Allies to repeat the success of Operation Overlord, or play as the Germans to stop the Allied invasion force from breaching the Atlantic Wall. The Three Kingdoms recreates the period after the end of the Han Dynasty, where the player can play as the Kingdom of Wei or the Wu Kingdom, either winning historically as the Wei or changing history as the Wu.
Development and release[edit]
Empire Earth II was developed by Mad Doc Software as a sequel to the 2001 game Empire Earth and published by Vivendi Universal Games on April 26, 2005.[1]
An expansion pack, which was released by Mad Doc Software called Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy, was released on February 14, 2006.
End of support[edit]
The Multiplayer servers by GameSpy were taken offline on October 10, 2012.[4]
After the end of the official support the game's community tried to take over the support and produced unofficial patches which are still updated.[5] Among other things, the unofficial patch supports all possible screen resolutions, fixes maximization problems on Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10 and enabled DirectX 9 support to fix problems with only integrated graphics card being detected on Nvidia Optimus laptop under Windows 10.[6] On 16 October 2015, Dr.MonaLisa (the creator of Unofficial Patches) released Unofficial Version 1.5.5 which brings back the old Multiplayer Lobby,[7] which is now hosted on a new server.
Reception[edit]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| GameSpot | 8.0/10 |
| IGN | 8.9/10 |
Empire Earth II garnered generally positive reviews, and holds an average of 79% on aggregate web site GameRankings.[8] The game also scored 8.9 out of 10 by IGN,[9] and 8.0 by GameSpot. Shortly after the game's release, it was generally complimented for good gameplay and the options players had to customize the game.'[2] Criticisms of the game included high system requirements, issues with unit pathfinding, modest graphics, a poor unit counter system, a clunky, complicated, almost non-existent mission editor, and the increased complexity caused by the new game features.'[2] Others included poor in-game music and few terrain types.
Empire Earth II was a finalist for PC Gamer US's 'Best Real-Time Strategy Game 2005' award, which ultimately went to Age of Empires III.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ ab'Mad Doc Software E.E.2 announcement'. Mad Doc Software. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2007.
- ^ abc'GameSpot review'. GameSpot. Retrieved April 27, 2007.
- ^Empire Earth II at Game Rankings Retrieved February 22, 2007.
- ^empire earth 2 server down? on ee2.eu (10/10/2012)
- ^Empire Earth II / Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy - Unofficial patch 1.5 - Multilanguage on ee2.eu (3 August 2014)
- ^Games based on DirectX 8 and older versions of DirectX will only run on integrated graphics in an Optimus laptop under Windows 10
- ^EE2.eu - Multiplayer - Online Statistics on ee2.eu (16 October 2015)
- ^'Empire Earth II Reviews'. GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 25, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
- ^IGN Review 25 April 2005. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
- ^Staff (March 2006). 'The Twelfth Annual PC Gamer Awards'. PC Gamer US. 13 (3): 33–36, 38, 40–42, 44.
- ^Released under the Sierra Entertainment brand name
External links[edit]
- Official website (archive.org - the original redirects to Activision's website)
- Empire Earth II at Mad Doc Software - (archive.org - original domain expired)
- Empire Earth II at MobyGames
- Michel Bohbot Illustration at www.mbohbot.com
Empire Earth is one of the real classics when it comes to the RTS genre. As I write this the game is getting very close to celebrating its 20th anniversary which is just nuts and makes me feel very old. I am sure there will be some kind of special release when the game hits that 20-year mark, but for now, I thought it would be fun to look at this game and see if it is as much fun today as it was back then.
Five Ways To Play
As far as game content goes this is a game that is stacked. Rather than just giving you one campaign to play, Empire Earth gives you a phenomenal five. Instead of just having a standard tutorial mode, you get a tutorial mode that is disguised as a campaign. This is a fantastic idea and one I am surprised not more games have done. It teaches you how to play, but the narrative makes learning about the resources, units, and what you need to do so much more fun.
Once you get through this you then have four other campaigns to complete. These campaigns are based on certain countries. You have an English campaign, a German, Greek, and Russian and each one has its own stories, challenges, and so on so, they do feel unique. A ton of work went into making much of the campaigns as historically accurate as possible.
Half A Billion Years Will Give You A Crick In The Neck
Empire Earth 2 Game Download
The scope of Empire Earth is what blew so many people away back in 2001 when the game was first released. You are going to be starting out during the prehistoric era, you then want to evolve all the way up to the future. The changes are really cool and it is something many other games have done since, but I would argue this one has done it first in this kind of scale.
As you move through the game, no matter the campaign you are doing. You will notice that each “era” that you are in brings its own set of unique challenges. While the gameplay may not change a great deal, how you go about things certainly does. The technologies you are able to use the way people are and things of that manner are greatly different. Changing with the times is one thing you have to get used to
This Is My Time!
As you play Empire Earth there will be a moment where you go from just wanting to survive to wanting to be the ultimate civilization that rules the rest of the world. You have over 20 civilizations to deal with and dealing with them all is rather challenging. Some it feels like no matter what you do have it in for you, but that is to be expected.
Getting resources and making sure that your army is ready are the two main things to get used to keeping an eye on. However, this game is very deep and has these rather unique heroes and that can have a dramatic effect on the way a battle is going. Like other RTS games, each person who plays will develop their own strategy for success.
While I feel the sequel offers more, I still enjoyed my time with Empire Earth. It is very impressive what they were able to do back in 2001 and while it may not be as deep as modern RTS games, this is still a fun time. The fact it has so many campaigns to get into is going to keep you busy for a very long time. If you enjoy strategy games be sure to check this one out.
Final Score
Pros:
Empire Earth 2 Game
- There is a lot to do in this game
- I like how it goes through have a billion years of history
- You have five campaigns
- There are many ways to play the game
- It is very challenging
Empire Earth 2 Game Download Pc Full Version
Cons:
Empire Earth 2 Game Download Free
- More modern games offer a similar and better experience
- It can take a while to get the hang of battles