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Great Game - Highly Recommended!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 26
Date: October 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been waiting for Age of Empires III ever single I finally finished exhausting all of the fun from Age of Empires II. I really think it was well worth the wait.

First, it is VERY much like Age of Empires II. That is a HUGE bonus for me. I love the Age of Empires series and if they'd changed the whole gameplay a great deal, it would have lost a lot of what I adore about this series. I can literally play each of these games for months and months before I begin to get bored. That is the brilliance of a well designed real time strategy (RTS) game.

Next, the graphics are of course MUCH improved over previous versions. That of course means you need a much faster machine than you had before! Hopefully most people out there upgrade their computers regularly, to run ANY packages that come out each year - the newest release of PhotoShop, the newest games that come out. If you have a slow, old machine and can't run the newest games, well you really only have yourself to blame. I NEVER want game makers to make bad games just so they can run on ancient machines. It's their duty to make the best games possible. It's my job to get the machine that are current, to run them.

OK, so on to gameplay. You get a collection of fun cultures, each one nicely costumed and with appropriate vocals and sounds. I love the detail in the homes, the people, the environments. You can "skirmish" to your heart's content, learning about the strengths and weaknesses and looks of each group. But don't go thinking you can memorize what works in each situation. The game does nicely to add complexity to that cookie-cutter approach.

Instead, you have a great deal of customization ability, even on the fly. You can really build your style of culture to match your personal point of view, within cultural limits of course. This means when you face others in combat, you can never assume "Oh they're an X which means I just have to do Y". You have to watch, react, and implement a new plan.

I really enjoyed the graphics a great deal here, from the cantering horses to the forests and smoke and flames. They did a great job of really making you feel that there is a little world being run inside your computer monitor.

The sounds are equally good, with the voices and sounds, the background noises and alerts. I admit the trumpet calls get a little repetitive, but what can you do.

I suppose to some the downside is the fact that you need a modern machine. Again, I don't consider that a downside. It's an awesome game with a lot going on. It's not meant to run on a little 386. It's hard for old system owners to accept, but the world moves on. If you're going to play modern games, you have to move along with it. Believe me, it's only going to get worse as more games come out. It's time to grab that piggy bank and upgrade.

I did find it really amusing that the scenario begins with the Aztecs. We just spent Black and White II fighting those All-Powerful Aztecs. What is it with the Aztecs in modern games?? I guess these things come in waves :)

Highly recommended!

Far and away the best game of last year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: June 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Age of Empires III was largely slagged in the press for being "more of the same" and outclassed by the likes of such titles as Rise of Nations and Civ IV. Ironically enough, it also seems that some publications criticized Age of Empires III for straying too far from what Age II was. All that I can say is that they couldn't be further from the truth. Not only is Age III the best game -- console or PC -- that I played in the year 2005, it is one of the best games of all time, even surpassing its illustrious predecessors. It is fresh, it is polished, and it's one of the best damn games I've ever played (and believe me, I've played a lot of them).

I've been a fan of the RTS genre for awhile -- mainly the AoE series. From its inception to now, I've always purchased an Age of Empires game as soon as it's released. Ensemble Studios staffs some of the hardest working, brightest people in the industry, and it shows in their work. I've tried other RTS games, such as Starcraft, Civ II, and Rise of Nations, but none could hold my attention like the ESO team can.

The single player game in Age of Empires III will be familiar to anyone who played Age of Mythology (another classic, in its own right). You progress through a series of missions/civilizations, are told a fantastically unrealistic (and very entertaining) story, and learn about the game's nuances and intracies. Basically, the single player campaign serves one purpose: as a prep course for the real meat of the game, which is playing online. The single player is decent, but if that's all that you're going to play, then don't buy Age of Empires III.

Before I begin my pontifications about multiplayer, I'd like to address the technical side of the game. Ensemble is known for pushing the envelope in games -- look at the visual quality of the rest of the Age games as a reference -- and Age III is no exception. The graphics, even when turned down, are beautiful. The civilizations each have a unique architectural style, and the game is litterred with bloom lighting, brilliant shadows, amazing animation, and an absolutely unbelievable physics engine. Shoot a cannon into a group of soldiers, and watch as they scream out in pain and fly across the map. Attack a tower, and watch as the wood and thatch fly off the roof. It's a sight to behold, and really adds to the battles a lot. No skirmish -- or war -- will look exactly the same, and while it may sound like a small detail, it adds to the game's longevity. Oh, and did I mention the water? It is, quite simply, the best water ever witnessed in a video game. Sound wise, the cannons have nice, meaty explosions that accompany each of their blasts, the muskets sound like guns being fired, and the standard voice-overs for each civ (in their native language) is a nice touch as well. Nothing revolutionary, but all very solid. I turned the music down in favor of my own tunes, but by no means is it bad either; in fact, it's quite good.

Since performance seems to be one of the biggest problems for people, I'm dedicating an entire paragraph to it (along with my experiences). I've been running the game at 1280x1024, on a system with an AMD 64 3200+, nVidia 6800GT, and 2 GB Corsair XMS RAM. I built the system from scratch myself at the time of the game's release. Cost? Twelve hundred bucks. Anyone claiming that they can't get this game to run well is either incompetent or lying; I had everything but antialiasing turned up all the way, and I was hitting 30 FPS on the low end, and about 45 FPS average. When cranked down all the way, the game never dropped below 60 FPS (average: around 100 FPS), even with close to a hundred units on screen. There is no reason why any reasonably powerful computer built in the past two years can't run this game. If you drop a thousand bucks on a computer (which is on the low end) right now, it should be able to handle this game easily. Ensemble did a fantastic job optimizing the game, and it really shows. For those trying to play it on a 1.6 GHZ P4 with 256 MB RAM and GeForce 4 MX, please stop complaining and upgrade. Clearly those who can't get this to run efficiently know zip about computers, and are expecting way too much from their aging or budget rig.

The multiplayer...ah yes, the crown jewel, as they say. The multiplayer is absolutely brilliant, even trumping Age of Mythology's amazing online battles. The strategies, the intracies...all of it is enough to make the game playable for months on end. The game is extremely well balanced; no matter what people on various web forums may say, each civilization can effectively hold its own in any match, provided the player is up to the task. The introduction of the Home City and a deck of cards ensures that no two battles will be the same, and that players must adjust on the fly to the situation at hand. Getting rushed by a hoarde of Russian Strelets (light infantry)? Call out the free 3 Hussar (cavalry) card and mow 'em down. Desperately need villagers? Click on the 5 free villager card, and watch your economy soar. If your opponent's deck looks like a "boom" deck, then use your early cards to rush him and destroy him before he can advance through the ages. It's a thinking man's game, and you must be smart to win online in Age of Empires III. Employing one strategy will not be enough to get you by; only playing one civ will not cut it either. You must adjust constantly, and ESO is ever-tweaking the online experience with patches that affect various units, ensuring that no cheap players try to abuse certain advantages too much. And to all those saying that you cannot have formations, they are there. Simply turn them on in the options menu. These are essential for playing online, offerring your troops the ability to stagger their ranks (to avoid getting reamed by cannon fire), or to engage in melee mode (effective against fighting a cavalry onslaught).

Simply put, Age of Empires III has the most dynamic multiplayer I have ever seen in an online game. It requires you to think on the fly, to "run 'n gun" so to speak, and it all adds up to a frenetic and tense pace, even after you've played over 400 games. If you lose, you have no one to blame but yourself; your fate (to use a cliche) is entirely in your own hands. It's absolutely brilliant, and I am so enthralled and addicted to its multiplayer that I keep coming back for hours a day, more than 8 months after the game has been released.

You will not find a better strategy game than Age of Empires III, period. Those looking for a fast paced, tactical RTS should look no further. Those who enjoy a good chess match should stick to Civilization IV, and those who like a mixture of tactical and real time action should check out Rise of Nations. But for pure strategy, pacing, and production values, then look no further than Age of Empires III. It has refined the RTS genre to near-perfection, and I, for one, am left wondering but one thing -- how the hell can Ensemble ever top this? I've been left wondering that question before, and they've always delivered, so I suppose that, in the meantime, I will continue to indulge myself in one of the best games in recent memory.

Wow

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: January 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is absolutely amazing. I don't understand how people can't get great graphic settings. I have my graphic settings maxed out on an Athlon 64 3200+, 1 gig dual channel DDR RAM, and 256mb Radeon X800xl and it does not lag unless there is a huuuuuuuuge and i mean huuuuge battle going on between maybe 400 units. The gameplay is great, the graphics are great, mostly everything about the game is fantastic. ESO, the online servers, are still sorting out the bugs, but i highly recommend this game. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

An Excellent Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 19
Date: October 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying this: DON'T BE SWAYED BY THE AWFUL REVIEWS HERE. Most of the problems people had that they are complaining about in reviews here only apply to a small percentage of people who got the game. In other words, most people didn't have problems because of Windows 2000 because most people didn't get this game with Windows 2000 computers. And people with choppy gameplay and such, well their computers are just awful apparently. I played for hours so far on a 2 GHZ comp with 512 MB ram and a 256 graphics card with NO choppiness whatsoever, at all, on almost max settings. Either people have problems changing settings or their computer is terrible. But anyway, on to the game...

The game is awesome. Although most of what I have done is skirmish mode so far, I have played almost all of the sides for at least one full game, in addition to everything in the demo before it came out. The graphics are incredible, and the thrill one gets from seeing your cannons blast away the enemy is awesome. The sides all have a unique feel to them, and have many different unit selections and economic advantages. The game is a thrill to play, and is extremely entertaining with plenty to do in each map. The home cities are spiffy and exciting, with plenty to send, and, I would imagine, plenty to customize eventually. The physics are incredible, with cannon balls rolling and bouncing in a manner reminiscent of The Patriot, buildings falling apart as they are hit, and trees falling over. Men throw torches at buildings instead of shooting them until they blow up like in Age of Empires 2, and it is very exciting to watch infantry and cavalry duke it out. The game truly feels like Age of Empires 2 and 1 to me, both of which I played since they were released to the present. The game works very similarly, but has a refreshing setting and excellent graphics. Age of Empires 3 is an awesome game!

Equipment

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: January 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

To play this game in it's full splendor you need an nVidia 6800 or 7800 video card. It is the card they designed the game for and I have a 6800 and it makes the graphics smooth as glass. For slower machines get the 7800 because the Video Card takes a bunch of work off the processor and RAM. This game has less capability than AOE 2 but it is still fun.

Great Fun, Great Graphics, Great Sound

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: May 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I don't pretend to be a Gamer, but I love these new developments in the system. A word of Warning, you need a High End Graphic card, and if you look at the Back of the AOE 3 pack, it will tell you what you need just in case you need to upgrade that as well.
Whatever the case, if you like AOE 2, then this will be a blast, its fun for many levels of gamers, lots of detail, lots of sound, very cool interactions.
Some Parents may not like all of the detail in the graphics, but thats a parental decision, however, I find the amazing package as basically great fun, and each game you play builds on a larger "Game", and you can progress your home City.
Very Cool in a Major way.
May 22nd: I have been using the game rather intensively, and the detail at a medium graphics settings has been amazing. The interaction, as well as the ability to zoom into events, and see action, such as a cannonball hit a building and then see the actual inside of the building, makes the whole experience rather more fun. Kind of presses me to get the NVIDIA card upgrade. If you don't, then you might get some video display issues after the game is shut down. However, since I am running a large number of programmes, this may be an issue for people running many apps. If you have a dedicated Game PC, with more than 1 gig of memory, the issue might be of less concern, however the rendering in full graphics mode is still restricted to a high end NVIDIA card, where you probably are looking at a price tag of 200 dollars US or so. But the issue is not so much the price tag, but can the card do what the specs require, and once again, the back of the AOE 3 box will tell you the requirements.
JUNE 1: A cool, but maybe minor element, is: when you play a good game, your Home City raises in levels. As your City raises, it can get more fun things, for example, the resources of a level 11 city is different than a level 30 city, and I must admit, even at the easy level I play, picking the "Cards" for each addition is kind of a good extension of the AOE 2 concept. The whole experience just gets better the more I play it.

It's kinda like crack

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: August 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is not a perfect game. It is unbalanced and at times over reliant on youu being able to micro the hell out of your villagers rather than creating any viable military strategies. Yet, for a period of about 2 months I did nothing but play this game. I would play alone. I would play with my roomates, then alone again. Once one of my roomates was bitter when I played alone, after saying earlier that I would play with him. It was collective addiction. All of us were addicted and obbsessed with the game. We would play till the early morning and also between classes, when we had 20 minutes or so to spare. This game consumed our lives and a soundtrack of power metal and elegies to the greatness of this game filled the air. We would speak of the intensity of addiction. We would mention all of the times that we thought about the game in the least opportune moments. I would lie to my girlfriend that I had essays to write in order to get another few hours to play the game. In fact, I would sneak out of her room at 12 in order to play the game till 4 or 5 in the morning.

The funny thing is that not all of us were even that good, but we were still addicted. That alone demonstrated the levels on which the game could be enjoyed. One of my roomates loved to cheat at the game and would always want to play multiplayer games with cheat codes. Another one played only one map, over and over again at the same level of difficulty. The third liked to tinker with every single team and see which was the best. I just stuck with one or two teams and tried to beat expert.

Speaking of which, expert is really hard in this game, but it is beatable with enough effort. A lot of things are hard, but all of them can be overcome with enough perseverence. I liked to play with one of my roomates against 5 hard enemies, fortunately though our internet connection was powerful enough to handle the intensity of such a battle.

All in all, I recommend this game, but I warn you. It could consume me, so it could just as easily consume you. You have been warned.

Very Cool Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: December 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Cool graphics and gameplay. I've mostly played the Empire Earth series of war RTS games, but with the disappointment of EE2, I thought that this game was a better alternative.

After downloading the new updates from within the game, I've had no issues with any part of the game. Graphics are really defined and crystal clear.

I'm playing on a Athlon 3400+ (FSB 1600 BUS) system, with 1GB of SDRAM and an AGP video card by nVidia (6800 GT)256DDR video RAM and 500MHZ GPU video processor speed with a 17 inch LCD high resolution monitor at 75hz and 3.5ms. Resolution set at 1024x 768. No freezes and no lockups.

The Battle's On

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: August 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I recently purchased this game, and while my computer isn't fast enough for me to put the graphics on high detail, I still enjoy the game tremendously. I have not even begun to scrape the surface of all that this game holds. I've played as two different civilizations, but there is a total of 8. With each civilization, I've gotten a different experience, unique, and with different challenges. The maps are still beautiful, even though I don't have the graphics on full. I'm running the game on a Celeron D processor, 700+ MB-RAm, Nvidia 5500 256 MB PCI video card, and 2.80 GHZ. Sometimes it gets a little choppy, but most times it runs just fine. If you have a better system, you should have no problems running the game.

Overall, this game is fantastic. I've been a huge fan of Age of Empires ever since the original one came out, and as each successor has come out, I have never been dissapointed.

If you are familiar with the first two games (AOE 1 & 2), you'll find that you can dive right into the action of this one. You can play a random map, a scenario, create your own scenario, and play multiplayer. On a random map, you start out with a town center, some villagers (or settlers, as they are called in this game), and an explorer. The explorer can be used to explore the map, and where in AOE 1 or 2, where you once would have found ruins or relics, you can find treasures. But be warned, these treasures are often guarded. The treasures can help you build your colony.

One main difference between this game and its predessesors is that you have a home port from which you can get units or supplies. During game play you will earn experience points, which, when you have enough, can be used to purchase supplies, etc. from the home port. Depending on what civilization you are playing as, you will find that the "deck" of "cards" varies at the home port. An example of a British card would be 2 settlers, which can be sent one time. An example of a German card would be 8 Ulhans, a mounted, armed unit. The more you play, the more points you get, and you can earn new cards to put into your deck.

I could ramble on and on about the features of the game, but the best way to learn is to do often times, and I strongly suggest that if you like this kind of real time strategy game, you should purchase it. I sincerely doubt that you'll be dissapointed, but don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself! : )

A smashing success!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: October 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My review is about single player skirmish mode - playing only against the A.I. I am quite late in joining the Age of Empires games. I've never played AOE 1 or 2. I have played Battle for Middle Earth 1 and 2. BFME 1 was TOO slow in gathering resources and limited in placement of buildings the visuals and sounds of both were terrific. BFME 2 was a big leap in the right direction except it didn't have Rohan's unique buildings and no make-your-own Hobbit Heroes. I also wish the maps had more variety to them! I have given up playing BFME 1 and now only play BFME 2. I also had played both Star War Battlefront games (FPS) but as they play sooo fast I have given up on them as well. I like a game where you can build up your city into something beautiful to look at (yet not taking forever to do so) before the fighting action begins. Microsoft calls this technique Turtling. So I guess I'm a Turtler! This game allows for Rushing (quickly attacking soon in the game) and Booming (Economic build up) techniques as well.

I have an AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+ with 1GHz of Ram and a 7600 Tforce Nvidia Card.

I just bought AOE 3 after reading many reviews. It is everything I thought it would be and more! The sounds and visuals are great. The towns build up nicely as well as the armies. I like the enemy coming on taunting you when the AI notices that aren't keeping up in one area or another in military, commercial or progression in age. The maps are numerous and have a great variety. The boats and ships look great and actually fish with nets - the whales and fish are seen too! The larger ships can open with a broadside or one even has a large destructive cannon which blows apart enemy building that are near the water.

The language (most of it is in it's own native tongue) is non-offensive even for the younger ones. You have 8 different nationalities to play from each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Add this to the 12 or so maps and you really do have an almost endless variety of play in each game. The natives and mercenaries (as allies) also add a unique touch. The trading posts along the roadside also bring in income. You can select pay ment from travelers either in food, coins, lumber or even add wealth to your home city. If my villagers are lacking in one of these resources I collect this type of resource at the trading post. The battles are fun as well as fighting the wild animals and outlaws scattered over the map. The market is useful in buying and selling either food, coin or lumber so that you can acquire more of whatever resources you might be lacking. This game also allows you to play on sandbox, easy, hard and difficult levels which is really important for me as the game will be either laid back or fierce or somewhere in between. It also has a handicap level for each side as in BFME 2. You also receive shipments of various goods and men from your home city throughout the game. After each victory you can unlock more types of shipments. An icon in the upper screen allows you to note any idle villager so that you can assign him to some work.

I have tried to use the make-your-own-scenario map maker (real neat to add whatever initial resources you want on the map and give it it's physical look), but so far I have only been able to get my side to act normal in the game. The A.I. enemy team will react to my explorer or other members of my side and shoot at them, but otherwise they just stand around their townhouse and not gather in anything or build up anything. There is nothing in the manual about the scenario map making, so for now its by trial and error.

This is a great quality game which will give people like me hours upon hours of great fun. I don't see myself getting bored with this game for a long time. The variety of teams, maps, and settings make this game really re-playable!

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