Antique Game Table

Age of Empires 3 Gold Edition Review.

Age of empires has been of the most groundbreaking real-time strategy games which I have come across. This series has typified this style of gaming in many respects. It has also laid down the path for many more historic real time strategy games to come. The very fact that most people prefer explore real, historical situations rather than having Orc’s and elves fighting it out laid down the success of this series. After the immense success of the second installment The Age of Kings, Ensemble Studios surely had their work cut out to improve something as good as that was, in its time. The Age of Empires 3 Gold Edition here refers to a combined pack which includes Age of Empires III and its expansion pack, Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs

Age of empires 3 basically advances further into the future trading swordsmen and catapults for musketeers and heavy cannons. Although I still managed to find archers in the game, this was very unusual. The basic gameplay and the signature of this series still remain the same. This game portrays the European colonization of the Americas, between approximately 1492 and 1850. The game features some spectacular visuals and an interesting, inventive twist in its persistent home city system. Age of Empires III moves the action to the New World, letting players lead a variety of European powers from the Age of Discovery through the Imperial age. Eight nations can battle across a wide variety of geographies ranging from the swamps of Florida to the snowy passes of the Rocky Mountains to the dense forests of South America. A new feature here is that you can recruit different Native American tribes and produce military units to fight for you without having to worry about the population limits. You can also create trading outposts on the trade routes to cash in on various resources. Support from the home city will keep coming as the game goes on. This will game should be proudly displayed on your antique game table.

Gameplay hasn’t changed dramatically since the Age of Kings six years ago. Microsoft’s Ensemble Studios preferred to keep its authentic style intact with the advancement in technology. This game is all about resource collection, building construction, technological development, and real-time combat. A typical games starts of with 2 to 4 villagers and a town center which will be the forefront of your advancement through the ages. Resource gathering has been improved. In the beginning you would do the regular stuff by killing animals for food, chopping trees for wood and collecting gold from mines. In the later ages you can get a mill for unlimited food source and a plantation for unlimited coin source. In the industrial age you can build a powerful factory that produces any one of the three resources at a great pace. They also produce heavy artillery for absolutely no resources.

The AI is at times bugged, for example when you build a wall the AI once breaks a part of the wall, instead of running into our base tends to destroy the rest of the wall for no rime or reason. They also tend to attack the same area over and over again even if that area is heavily fortified. The improvement in the naval battles has been great. There are new ships which you can build right from frigates to powerful monitor ships. The graphics of this game are very eye catching for a real time strategy game.

To get the most out of this game you should get your self a Razer Deathadder mouse which has extremely high sensitivity so that you have good control in moving around the map. If you’re into multiplayer you should use exclusive gaming headphones. This adds to the fun while playing with your friends on LAN. Over all this game is pretty impressive with the visuals, but when it comes to the game play and AI it does disappoint a bit

This game scores a 3.5 out of 5.

Guest Blogger: Anil