Empire Earth II Hands-On

By Jason Ocampo, GameSpotPosted Feb 2, 2005 4:59 pm PT

We guide several civilizations from the Stone Age to the Space Age to see how this sequel is shaping up.

Gameplay Footage

An army based on 18th century technology is no match for VTOL gunships.

2001's Empire Earth is still one of the biggest real-time strategy games we've ever seen. In it, you controlled a civilization from the Stone Age to the Space Age and beyond, all within the space of a few hours. During that span, you explored the world, settled it, and then raised armies and waged war against your neighbors in the ruthless quest for survival and dominance. Now, Vivendi Universal Games is readying a sequel, and we recently had a chance to check it out. Judging from the time we've spent with it, Empire Earth II looks to be every bit as epic as its predecessor. It should be noted, however, that Empire Earth II isn't just a simple follow-up. Mad Doc Software, the company that inherited development duties from creator Stainless Steel, essentially started the game from scratch. As a result, Empire Earth II promises to be a whole new game.

Even the mightiest of empires have their humble roots in Empire Earth II.

The premise hasn't changed much, though. Your goal is to take a fledgling civilization and guide it from the dawn of history to the future. You can choose from one of 14 civilizations, including the Americans, Germans, Romans, Greeks, Turks, Egyptians, Chinese, and Koreans. Each civilization not only has its own unique units and special bonuses, but also regional bonuses that are shared by similar civilizations. For example, the Japanese get faster fighters and fighter-bombers as one civilization-specific bonus. And since the Japanese belong to the Far-Eastern Region, along with the Chinese and Koreans, those civilizations get regional bonuses that they all share, such as having city centers with 25 percent more capacity. (At this point, we should note that we played with a beta version of the game, and all specific details are subject to change based on play-balancing.)

In terms of single-player gameplay, you have a couple of options available. The first is the campaign. There are actually three different campaigns. The first is set in ancient Korea, where you must defeat the bandits that infest the peninsula and then unify the tribes. The second covers the German civilization from the depths of the Dark Ages to the formation of the modern German state in 1871. The final campaign deals with America's rise as a global power. It begins with the Spanish-American War of 1898 and ends well into the future. Your second option deals with the conventional skirmish game, where you can set up your own custom match. There are oodles of different settings available in the setup screen, and you can choose which civilizations you want to involve, what sort of game to play, and the various different rules and options you'd like to adhere to. Some of the modes will certainly be familiar to you if you're a fan of real-time strategy, like conquest, capitols (which involves knocking out an opposing player by conquering his or her capitol), and regicide (which involves killing the other player's king while at the same time protecting your own).

The citizen manager lets you quickly assess your resource-gathering needs.

When you start the game, you'll be presented with the familiar task of having to gather resources, explore the map, and expand your base. There are numerous resources available, including food, wood, and gold. There are other resources that come and go depending on the age. Early in the game, tin is important, because it can be used to create bronze. However, by the Middle Ages, tin is replaced by iron, which is used for steel. Finally, near the end of the game, oil, the lifeblood of modern civilization, and uranium, which has its obvious uses, make an apperance. This can create a situation where you're doing incredibly well in one age, but after you level up, you soon discover that you lack the new critical resource. Meanwhile, it's incredibly easy to gather resources. All you have to do is click on the resource in question in the bar at the bottom corner of the screen. Mouse over a specific resource, and the game tells you how many citizens are currently gathering it and how many citizens are idle. You simply left-click to assign an idle citizen to collect that specific resource, while you simply right-click to unassign a citizen from collecting that specific resource. This lets you quickly respond to shortages and surpluses without taking your focus off combat.

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