Age of Empires 3

Andrew's had enough of sticks and stones...

The Age of Empires series is steeped in a great deal of history which is a fair enough description since its content spans an enormous timescale whilst the first of the games was released way back in the 20th Century, (1997). For those of you unfamiliar with its premise, imagine Channel 4's Time Team minus Tony Robinson and his merry band of excavators and instead a cast of living, breathing characters ready to create a town, make some money and slaughter the enemy for you - all at a couple of clicks of the mouse. It's been six years since the genre-defining Age of Empires: The Age of Kings was unleashed onto an eager public so unsurprisingly the pressure piled onto the latest title to do the same is enormous. So does it?

Despite a few neat touches the answer has to be a no. Just as a week is a long time in politics, six years is a very long time in the world of videogames, (2190 days to be precise) and it seems that although Age of Empires III presses all the right buttons in so many aspects it fails to add anything awe inspiringly original to a field that's as chock-full as a Medieval swordsman's nervously aching bladder. That said, what it does do right it does as well as anything else out there, making a game that's certainly worth a blast (through the past).

Number three in the Age of Empires series is set further forward in time than any of the previous games, concentrating on events from the late 15th century discovery of the New World up as far as the Industrial Revolution. Since even the starting point is decades after the invention of the gun you won't be scrapping it out in such a tooth and knuckle style from the outset as in the other games. There are of course progressing levels of firearms and weaponry, just don't be expecting to be desperately gouging the enemy's eyes out with something as primitive as sharpened sticks and stones this time around. Campaign mode tests your skills as Morgan Black and his descendents in 24 scenarios across the timescale, though you'll probably want to follow the tutorial and practice level first just to find your bearings. A friendly narrator there will show you the ropes until a time when you're confidently able to explore all that the game has to offer.

First to mention is the lengthy single player mode in which your challenge is to take charge of an infant colony and nurture it into a self sufficient community that is capable of living off the fat o' the land by means of harbouring food, wood and coin, the game's three essential elements. With them safely in keeping you must build and strengthen your population through the accumulation of more people who will either work for you or defend your perimeters from the ever present threat of an advancing enemy. One of the new features implemented in Age of Empires III is the Home City feature. You have access to your own European Home City for economic, technological and military support by gaining experience points. Your Home City's success depends on you, while your city's improvements multiply throughout each stage of the game. Also worthy of mention is the inclusion of a simplified interface that makes playing the game more accessible than ever before; certainly a welcome addition to the game for real-time strategy newcomers. If you ever tire of the single player option there's always a fully customizable skirmish mode, the ability to play over a network and of course the ESOnline service which allows similarly ranked players to compete and interact in all manner of ways. Not forgetting the chance to create your very own landscapes to play in, Age of Empires III has enough content to satisfy even the most demanding aficionado of the genre.

In terms of appearance Age of Empires III is certainly one of the prettiest in its field. The environments are never anything short of vibrant and detailed with plenty of attention paid to making character animation interesting and scenery that evolves and collapses realistically. It is genuinely heartwarming to see your men cheer together after a victory or in a more sinister sense to watch them battering away relentlessly at an enemy's defenses, and these charming touches are apparent throughout the game. Amazingly, developers Ensemble Studios employed someone to work full time on manufacturing the most realistic water effects possible, and it shows. Watching the way that in-game waves ebb and flow is a mesmerising experience and if nothing else provides evidence that great care and attention has been taken to mould an experience as engrossing as possible.

Unfortunately, the immersive environments are spoilt by a less than stable frame rate that is apparent even on PCs more than capable of matching the required minimum specifications for Age of Empires III to run. This problem spills over into combat where it is often rendered difficult to control precisely what you want to do when a melee is in full flow. However, perhaps the most frustrating of the game's twists is that in order to advance you must completely annihilate your opposition. Every single last man and building must cease to exist before you can even think about giving yourself a well deserved pat on the back after hours of intense building and combat. Now I'm no historian but I'm sure that in school I was taught that battles were pretty much over when one side overpowered the other or forced them to retreat, not when they deteriorated into a juvenile game of hide and seek ending with the killing of a fearful Ancient who's soiled his underwear after seeking shelter behind a tree in a far corner of the map.

Apart from the aforementioned minor misgivings it is more a case of what Age of Empires III doesn't do rather than what it does. It is a finely constructed, accessible real-time strategy game with a brilliant soundtrack, tactical warfare with intricacies too long winded to go into here and highly addictive gameplay. The contrast in the environments across the three eras of play and the differing mechanics of each are all well implanted, too. Whether on your lonesome or in the company others you will find it easy to wile away the hours in order to create the perfect mini society of which you are master. It is only a shame that games anticipated as much as Age of Empires III could not bring something new and exciting to the genre or correct issues such as the frame rate problems that plagued its previous incarnations. Nonetheless it is easy to recommend this as a worthwhile investment for those cold winter mornings, afternoons and evenings where losing yourself in the mists of time is ever more appealing than going to work.

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By Andrew Macarthy