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5stars
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36ratings3stars
16ratings2stars
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8ratings
Good graphics100% agree
Compelling gameplay97% agree
Good value100% agree
174 reviews
Age of Empires III Great Idea, But Needs Work On Combat
Age of Empires III has a great idea of advancing units and cities through eras of history, but is lacking control during battle.
I am a diehard Blizzard Entertainment and Command and Conquer fan so I am comparing this game mostly to those previous titles. AOE has interesting units with a complete navy with ships that are easy to load/unload with troops. There are also war wagons, different types of calvary, and unique mercenaries you can ally with. The only real problem I have with the game is the lack of control during battle. Most of the troops dont have any problem engaging the enemy, but it is very frustrating the few times a group of soldiers walks up to the enemy and cant quite get close enough to shoot until after two or three seconds of scrambling around. Also the cannons are very hard to use sometimes, they can get stuck behind rocks or each other, and sometimes spin around in circles instead of firing. Cannons being one of the most expensive units it drives me crazy when I lose them in battle because of some glitch.
One of the best parts of the game is the ability to customize your home city and the supplies/resources that can be sent. When the main city increases size after a certain amount of experience points players may pick one card; which can be sent infinitely for resources, or once for units or a special ability. The use of a home city sending supplies really creates a colonial feeling that can be taylored to your style of play. You can also customize the look of the home city by picking colors and designs. This is really uneeded however because it has no affect on the game.
AOE III also has an interesting story to follow which advances through the the three acts you must complete in the campaign. It tells of the history of people involved and gives a pretty reasonable excuse for sometimes restrictive objectives.
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Age of empires 3 game review
This game is a historical fiction strategy game follow up to the popular age of empires and age of empires II. I was a player of both games and loved them for what they were. However as soon as you begin playing you are immediately blown away by the graphic detail that is now able to be utilized since the release of its previous counterparts. While the single player campaigns are rather short, and the player vs computer skirmishes are not good for anything over a newer player, the free online gaming is what still makes this game one of the best pc games. Control of many unique civilizations offer wide advantages and disadvantages to each make this a thinking game yet does not require a rocket doctor to play once you find your groove. And online game play ranking allows you to easily find players in your skill level to provide for an educational and fair battle. Great game that has maintained popularity as few other pc games has and will continue to do so until its next release and beyond. As there are still a lot of people that still play AOE II online. A great game worth every penny of the origional retail price not to mention what it can be had for used. One word of warning be sure that when buying a used copy the origional user did not use the code to make an online profile as there is only on profile allowed per key. you will be stuck using there profile which will track rank, win loss ratio's and so much more.Read full review...
Age of Empires III (PC)
This game is a challenging and somewhat realistic real-time strategy simulator that makes a reasonable attempt to be
historically and tactically accurate. Historical background information is provided for the playable civilizations,
though the characters in the strange single-player storyline are fabricated.
This game is much like AOE2, but lacks some of the more advanced tactical commands of AOE2.
The main difference from AOE2 is the "home city" concept. In this version, you are playing the role of a new world
explorer who has been sent by a European power to establish a colony. As you accumulate XP (experience points) by
building units and buildings, exploring the map or destroying enemy units, you earn "shipments" from your home city.
The home city sends resources, units, and improvements that can speed up resource gathering or strengthen military
units. Your home city gains levels as you progress through the game, and you earn more powerful shipments as you
gain levels.
The three resources are coin, wood and food. There are no mines or lumber camps in this version, as settlers just
harvest from the resource piles continuously without needing to carry the resources back to a town center or camp.
There are no farms in this version, only mill-and-farm combination. Plantations can be built to create coin, and
factories can be built to produce artillery or any needed resources.
The seige units (artillery) are all gunpowder units in this game, as are most of the infantry and cavalry. Archers
and hand infantry are good and cheap units early in the game, but after advancing a few ages, you will want to make
only gunpowder units.
If you decide to purchase this game, enjoy playing Age of Empires IIIRead full review...
Very Good Plus!
Better than previous installments 'but' could use a bit of tweaking, especially the construction (my favorite part of strategy games). Book included leaves some to be desired as well. Very detailed on game op - very little devoted to user made game/map construction and several confusing 'add on's' included in various cats...make it difficult to properly set up user made games.... -AI's as dumb as rocks (no big surprise) but would've thought updated improved version would do better job with AI component etc....
Game itself nicely done, especially cannons (both on ships (broadside attacks) and on the ground)! Fixed gun a bit too large and doesn't work well with placement building. All in all though, game scores B+ to A- Well worth playing!Read full review...
Stradegy at its best...
This game in general is very much the key to online stradegy games in the future. Each and every thing you do has a impact on your rating and growing power. I think the fact that your home (port) or city growing with each and every game played. Makes players rush to get back on and play again!!! Its almost like you want your city level to be higher then any others you come across....(so each win is very important)
The game play is great as well. Thanks in large part to how good the graphic's seem to be. The detail is rich and fluid. (with the proper video card) The real downside with this game is you really MUST have a PC that was designed for gaming. It takes up a lot pf memory and the graphics do need a HIGH end card.
I seriously feel that any gamer would enjoy hours upon hours of these historic battles!!Read full review...
Age of Empires III (pc games)
This is a great game. Although it is not what I am used to in a RTS, it is just another type of strategy game. When rise of nations came out I didn't want to give it a chance, but finally I gave in and found out it is awsome. I did expect it to be more like aoeII but it has one of the best features of a rts I've ever seen, the Home City. This feature alone makes this game one of my top picks but at the same time the villagers with an iq "of a fish" do make gameplay just alittle more complicated than it needs to be and the fact that this game does not allow you to pick all the settings for a skirmish or custom type game also add to the reason I give it a 4/5. Reguardless of its few flaws it makes for a great RTS, try it out and see for yourself.Read full review...
Awesome Graphics and
Im a big fan of all the Age of Empire Games, especially this one. It has extraordinary life like graphics. The water moves and ripples, the boats actually loose parts when attacked. All of these features are new to the Age Of Empires trilogy. The only problem I see with the game is that there is so much you can do with little time. So many upgrades! Unlike the other Age of Empire games it is hard to keep track with every building and upgrades and resource. Everything is up close and personal graphic wise. Compared to games like age of mythology this game is way better by far. These graphics even actually remind me some of the XBOX 360 graphics. Good job Microsoft! Highly recommended!!!Read full review...
Good upgrade from AOE II
Like: It has much improved graphics and each civilization has more unique attributes than before. The home city addition makes it even more multi-task oriented (not good for men, better for women). The battles are much more fun to watch, especially boat battles.
Dislike: I mostly play multiplayer with friends on a local lan, on AOE II you could save the game, however, AOE III would not let us save. I am hoping there is a way to save that I haven't figured out. The game can get pretty long, and saving is an essential option. This is why I gave it a good not a great.
Why I bought it: My friends and I had a lot of fun dominating AOE II in multiplayer mode. We were at the end of our fun with the game and decided to upgrade to the AOE III.Read full review...
A Game that screams "I'm bipolar!"
This game is bipora, almost schizophreniac. What I mean by this is one part of the game (graphics, A.I. new features) is so incredibly awesome while another part of the game (villager automation, customization, RTS basics) falls behind even those of AOE1 and AOE II.
To start off, this is the best graphics I have ever ever seen on an RTS. Incredible. My jaw still won't close to this day. When a cannon strikes a building, chunk of it falls off exactly where the cannon hit it and it stays that way. The graphics make it seem like you're there in the battlefield yourself. And the weather effects such as fog and snow are incredible.
New features like home city and experience points make Batttle For Middle Earth seem like imitators and is a great advancement from older Age of Empires games.
But personally, I prefer Rise of Nations or even Age of Empires II.
Reason 1: I need to zoom out more! It's nice to see all this jaw-dropping graphics up close but this is a strategy game not a movie. Let me zoom out! Please!
Reason 2: Your villagers have an IQ of a fish. Even with the new automation command system, if you tell your villagers to build barracks here and dock there, he/she will build the barracks but will stop there. He/she'll just stand there, doing nothing, even after an hour. If he/she was gathering food and you told him/her to build, he/she will build and then stop. He/she will build one thing, and ONE thing only.
Reason 3: It's not really clear which unit is superior to which unit and I just end up just training every unit there is, mixing them in a group and going headlong into battles. This works to some degree but it's not what RTS should be. In this sense, the Empire Earth franchise is superior though EE can be way TOO complicated.
Reason 4: No wonders. No special bonuses.
Reason 5: Age of Empires 1 and 2 had more customizable stuff for quick scnearios.
Reason 6: No fun modes. Rise of Nation had great modes like defending a nuclear base for 15 minutes or spy infiltration missions with a band of rebels in 25 minutes or things like that. This game doesn't have any of that.
Overall, this game starts out with great ideas but the only thing appealing is the graphics and the new features. Other than that, this falls from being an RTS. It's hard to play because your villager IQ makes Forest Gump seem like a child prodigy. I wasn't able to play long with this game. If you're an RTS fan, stick with Rise of Nations, which, though outdated, is still one of the best RTS game ever.Read full review...
AOE 3: Buy now or wait for a price drop?
Game Play
3 of 5 stars
Graphics
4 of 5 stars
Sound
2 of 5 stars
A.I.
3 of 5 stars
Pros:
Cons:
Overall:
This is a good title and will provide several hours of entertainment.
Had to install an automatic update to allow the game to resume from pause mode after a saved game load.
Please note: this title was reviewed using a Dell XPS Gen 4, P4 HT @ 3.20 GHz, 4 Gig RAM, Dual 160 SATA RAID(0) hard drives and a nVidia GeForce 6800 256mb PCIe video adapter. It is important to read and understand the minimum and recommended system requirements for any PC video game. Systems that are faster than the minimum may provide significantly better performance and improve your gaming experience. Some PC video games list specific video card requirements and will not function without.
It is also important to mention (because we sell video games on ebay) that we do not sell titles as NEW once they are opened and installed for testing. Most test games find a home with one of our testors (employees) and in rare circumstances, we will sell clearly marked as opened and used.Read full review...