Empire Earth III [PC]

Empire Earth III makes use of the rock-paper-scissors approach to unit design. As long as you've got the right balance of units to take on cavalry, infantry and support units, you can rest assured that you'll have a good chance of taking on any challenges. Throw in a couple of units designed to destroy buildings, and you'll be set for base assaults. The problem is that there are so few units to choose from and so few tech upgrades for them that each battle plays out pretty much the same. There are some significant adjustments you'll have to make as you more from era to era, but even then the battles start to take on a repetitive nature, especially when you consider that your enemies will be using the same types of units. There is a bit of variety, of course, because of the differences each culture brings to the table, but it's not enough to mix up the individual battles all that much.

Even though it takes such a radical departure from the previous games in the series, we're still willing to evaluate Empire Earth based on the strength of its new concepts. Even there the game comes up short. To begin with, the pathfinding in the game is terrible. Forget units that can't find their way through narrow passes or cramped buildings; the units in Empire Earth III can barely find their way across an open field without tripping on each other. We've even seen units move off in exactly the opposite direction that the rest of the army was heading. The only reason we can see for the constant traffic jams is that units might be trying to rearrange their formations before moving out and if they can't get in place before they head out, they'll just sit there in a big useless clump. In any case, the only cure is to lasso small groups of units on the leading edge of the formation and lead them out one by one.

The enemy AI also seems unable to put up a strong fight. Now it's true that the imbalance in your starting strengths can mean an early rush can crush your dreams, and it's equally true that the limitless resources and fortresses can cause battles to drag on and on as you try to build up enough forces for a decisive victory, but the real problem here is that the enemy will just batter themselves to death against your defenses without any real consideration of how to outmaneuver you or lure you into a trap.

Empire Earth III also includes a new World Domination mode that works along the same lines as Rise of Nation's Conquest mode. Players fight for control of dozens of territories on a map of the world. Each territory generates income that can be spend for tech upgrades, new armies, and other strategic resources. It's a fun enough mode with plenty of dynamic missions that give the player some specific objectives to shoot for. On the downside, the mode is really missing a historical flavor that would help to make the game feel more substantial.