Age of Empires III

K. Fields
2013-02-16T16:02:34-05:00
Video Games

I never played the original Age of Empires. However, I did play Age of Empires II, both The Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion. AOE2 is one of my all-time favorite real-time strategy games. I even played Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, which used the same game engine as AOE2. I received Age of Empires III for my birthday last year and finally got around to playing it.

AOE3 had one large campaign similar to Age of Mythology, rather than the multiple historical campaigns of AOE2.The single player campaign started in the late sixteenth century and finished in the nineteenth century. Much of it took place in the western hemisphere. It told a fictional story of the Black family and its fight against the Circle of Ossus over several generations. The story had three Acts entitled Blood, Ice, and Steel. The three protagonists were Morgan Black, John Black, and Amelia Black, respectively. One new game concept introduced in AOE3 was the home city. There, you choose cards to add to your deck. The cards provide various units and enhancement, which ship from your home city to town centers or forts. It reminded me of Rise of Nations, which also had the touches of a board game.

The graphics were much improved over AOE2, which was fitting for a game six years newer. Surprisingly, it felt quite a bit easier than AOE2 on the normal difficulty level. Overall, I found the game very enjoyable, as I knew I would. AOE3 has two expansions: The War Chiefs and The Asian Dynasties. I am interested in buying them to continue the fine AOE3 series.