Empire Earth III Updated Impressions - World Domination on Track

Almost two months after our exclusive first look at Empire Earth III, Sierra and Mad Doc showed off the real-time strategy sequel for the first time at a major event, in this case Sierra's Gamers' Day. Like its predecessors, Empire Earth III will cover the span of human history as you guide a faction through the ages. However, Empire Earth III will also introduce major changes to the series designed to streamline the gameplay.

Sierra and Mad Doc didn't announce any new details about the game. There are still three regional factions: Western, Middle Eastern, and Far Eastern. The game still has an oversized, exaggerated art style that is best described as a blend of Age of Empires and Warcraft. A lot of the complexity found in previous Empire Earth games is still stripped out, so now you don't have to worry about managing dozens upon dozens of workers gathering eight different kinds of resources. Now there are just two basic resources in the game, and each resource building has its own workers attached to it, so you have little to manage in that regard. The designers have listened to the feedback complaints that the previous games were just too convoluted for their own good.

Work on the game has advanced a fair amount since we saw it at Mad Doc's offices outside of Boston earlier this year. The skirmish and battle gameplay is pretty much nailed down at this point, and the designers are happy with the balance thus far. A lot of work is now going into the new-world domination mode, which links all the real-time battles with a turn-based campaign set on a 3D globe. You will be able to try to conquer the world--which will be divided into 40 to 60 territories--by moving armies into neighboring territories and defeating their defenders. World domination can be played on a globe of the Earth or on a randomly generated planet, so there are effectively an unlimited number of worlds to play on.

Mad Doc is planning a beta test of the game soon to gather feedback from players and testers. There's still a lot of work to be done, but Empire Earth III is on track for release later this year.