Age of Empires III E3 2005 Preshow Impressions

We had a chance to sit down with Age of Empires III, the next strategy game from publisher Microsoft and developer Ensemble Studios, just in time for E3. The new game will take place in North and South America during the European colonization of the New World. As we saw, battles in Age of Empires III will be fought with musketeers, cavalry soldiers armed with sabers, and cannons that can both cause buildings to collapse and infantry to be blown sky-high, thanks to the game's modeled physics.

One of the new gameplay features is the "home city," essentially a European capital city that funds your progress in the New World. Ensemble is attempting to make home cities similar to role-playing-game characters that grow and improve over time. You'll be able to hang on to your home city (in both single-player and multiplayer) and gradually improve it with technology research, resources, and experience points, which can be earned by killing enemies in combat, constructing new buildings, establishing trade routes, and a number of other activities.

Each of the game's eight nations (Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and the Netherlands) will have almost completely unique sets of different technologies to research that will make sense historically. For instance, Britain was a very powerful economic nation during the 17th century, and its technologies will reflect this power. Home cities will be where you research technology upgrades, and they will also be the source of supplies if you need to send extra food, guns, or funds to your colonies overseas. You'll even be able to customize the appearance of the buildings in your home cities by changing the colors of tiles and roofs, for those players who prefer to put more focus on the building aspect of the game.

Age of Empires III will also have a new combat system that takes into account all the rules of engagement of the day, as well as automatically accounts for several tactical considerations. For instance, musketeers march in two-line ranks, and when ordered to fire, the first row of soldiers automatically drops to one knee to let the rear ranks fire. While you'll still be attempting to counter some units against others, such as sending swift cavalry to break up infantry lines, you'll also see units taking intuitive formations around their targets. As we saw, ordering multiple companies of musketeers to attack an enemy cannoneer squadron will cause them to automatically encircle the enemy by stationing troops both in front of and on the flanks of the opposition. But as we saw, having unassisted infantry attack cannons is a bit like asking your opponent to send your troops on a free ride through the air. So you'll need cavalry to charge past the slow-firing cannons to kill off their operators.

In the meantime, the game will also continue to feature a strong economic component that involves using peasants to construct buildings in the New World, as well as to gather resources to develop your holdings until you can "age up" (that is, advance to the next technological age). Like with Ensemble's last game, Age of Mythology, advancing to a new age will give you a choice of which bonuses to choose, such as focusing on being a field general, which adds bonuses to land operations, or being a naval officer, which adds bonuses to ship combat. You'll also be able to augment your economy by forming trade routes across the new continent and by making contact with neutral Native American tribes, which, if approached peacefully, may let you recruit special units, like horse archers, or may improve your economy by teaching you better ways to grow corn. And, yes, you'll still be able to achieve victory through economics and development rather than combat, if you prefer. However, instead of building a "wonder of the world," you'll instead seek to create four fully upgraded trade routes, which will bring your nation the benefit of the "iron horse," a locomotive train that ensures your trade routes are the wealthiest.

And in addition to all these new features, Age of Empires III will feature a powerful all-new graphics engine that models highly detailed environments and units. Spanish frigates are appropriately huge and sway with the tides at sea, while home cities bustle with townspeople, and soldiers charge into battle until they're cut down by cannon fire and musket fusillades that discharge with plumes of white smoke. Age of Empires III's graphics show an immense amount of detail, in line with Ensemble's intent to, as lead programmer Dave Pottinger puts it, "make Age of Empires III the best-looking PC game ever." The game is scheduled for release later this year.