AOE III - My Review

[spamjedi]

one thing AOM did was allow you to build walls and upgrade them 3 or 4 times, I loved that. I used to make mazes, then put towers and archers close by. The monsters will walk through the maze rather than destroying the wall if it senses there is an opening. By the time they get through my mazes there dead, lol.

So much replay value in age of mythology, way too adictive for me.

There used to be a ton of "Tower Defense" custom maps for Warcraft 3 on Battle.net using that same maze concept. Pretty fun.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I couldn't stand Empire Earth II. And I've played and at one point owned every game in the series (EE, Empires, and EE II).

IMO, it was just mindless farming/resource gathering and mindlessly cranking out as many fodder units possible to throw at the enemy before he tank-rushed your colony.
Compounded by the fact that no matter what the difficulty, the CPU was always vastly more efficient and coordinated than any human could ever be, made it completley unenjoyable. By the time I had a decent economy and 5 basic defense units, the CPU was already up to 40 strong units and expanding all over the map with perfectly managed little resource colonies everywhere you looked.
I can see how multiplayer might be fun, but SP was a chore.

I found older RTS games like AOE 2 and Starcraft to be much more balanced in that respect than any of the EE games.

[Kamakazie]

Put quite basically, if you've ever played AoE 2, this is very much the same thing, but with a few extras like the trade outposts, treasures scattered across the map and the home city.

[Skywize]

Put quite basically, if you've ever played AoE 2, this is very much the same thing, but with a few extras like the trade outposts, treasures scattered across the map and the home city.

So no option to play natives then and change history?

[Kamakazie]

So no option to play natives then and change history?

I havent checked, but since part of the game is teaming up with the natives I'm going to guess not.

[Skywize]

I havent checked, but since part of the game is teaming up with the natives I'm going to guess not.

That's a shame (if you're right).
I believe it was Conquest of the New World that let you play as a european nation as well as natives.
Quite a challenge to play from the perspective of the locals...

[idiotekniQues]

well aoe II conquerors was sick. even if this game didnt fix much of the stuff that aoeII needed improving on, it wouldnt matter to me, that game was such a good RTS.

[Freddy_Kruger]

I wouldnt want to play as Native americans or even present day americans. I'd like to play the Canadians in 1814 though

But generally speaking flint locks aren't my thing. Soldiers in leotards and white wigs *shakes head*

[Spaceman Spiff]

I wouldnt want to play as Native americans or even present day americans

Says the world's most outspoken, diehard AMERICA'S ARMY player.

*roll eyes*

[spamjedi]

Says the world's most outspoken, diehard AMERICA'S ARMY player.

*roll eyes*

nice catch.

Lets us now hijack this thread and design Canada's Army! The possibilities are endless.

I liked AOE II, so maybe I'll like this one after all. Im not gonna run out and buy it though. Is there a demo?

[Timman_24]

nice catch.

Lets us now hijack this thread and design Canada's Army! The possibilities are endless.

I liked AOE II, so maybe I'll like this one after all. Im not gonna run out and buy it though. Is there a demo?

Canada's Army? No guns allowed? You can't have an army without guns...

[Transfurzz]

nice catch.

Lets us now hijack this thread and design Canada's Army! The possibilities are endless.

I liked AOE II, so maybe I'll like this one after all. Im not gonna run out and buy it though. Is there a demo?

Can I draw funny half-assed comics for cutscenes !!! I do a mean one about Darth Vader.

[Skywize]

Well I just finished the tutorial, basics and a skirmish.
It's all cute and stuff...BUT...
I could not find a way to repair buildings, apparently villagers forgot how to do that since AOK, IMHO that's a major downer.
You get 1 fort through shipment (can't build it any other way), and if the enemy nibbles away at it there is nothing you can do about it, nor can you replace it (unless you earn another card of the right type). I dunno about you guys but i like repairing stuff. Priests seem VERY limited they can heal units but you have to select the skill and manually use it it seems, in AOK that worked automatic. Can't convert buildings or troops.
I find everything a little too big, and I'm playing with very far zoom. In particular those trees, thems bigger than forts :P I liked the size of trees in AOE, the roman expansion, AOK, and the conquerers expansion (in short i find trees in all previous AOE games look better).
Natives are like buildings, you can place an outpost next to a village which enables you to create native warriors that fight for you, but on their own they don't do anything.

Isn't AOE supposed to be the historical RTS? Natives don't roam, don't hunt buffalo, don't scalp the white man, don't play any independent role. Natives should be like in 7 Cities of Gold. They should be friendly or hostile to varying degrees, you should be able to build up a relation with them by selling them useless junk and fire water which might persuade them to occasionally raid your enemies.
They "give" us their land, we give them disease.

I'm telling you the native aspect of this game is a MAJOR disappointment, they are as active as the trees. (actually, at least in the tutorial game, natives are 2-3 little buildings and occasionally 1 or 2 of them can be seen around the campfire).

I'm probably making too much of this, but if ES didn't want any redskins in their game why didn't they relocate AOE III to Mars?

Imagine AOE IV plays in africa and there are no black people in the game ... IMHO ES dropped the ball big time on this one...AOE III might just as well take place on the canary islands :P

[taggart6]

Imagine AOE IV plays in africa and there are no black people in the game ... IMHO ES dropped the ball big time on this one...AOE III might just as well take place on the canary islands :P

AOE IV doesn't care about black people!

[Actvs Dei]

Well I just finished the tutorial, basics and a skirmish.
It's all cute and stuff...BUT...
I could not find a way to repair buildings, apparently villagers forgot how to do that since AOK, IMHO that's a major downer.
You get 1 fort through shipment (can't build it any other way), and if the enemy nibbles away at it there is nothing you can do about it, nor can you replace it (unless you earn another card of the right type). I dunno about you guys but i like repairing stuff. Priests seem VERY limited they can heal units but you have to select the skill and manually use it it seems, in AOK that worked automatic. Can't convert buildings or troops.
I find everything a little too big, and I'm playing with very far zoom. In particular those trees, thems bigger than forts :P I liked the size of trees in AOE, the roman expansion, AOK, and the conquerers expansion (in short i find trees in all previous AOE games look better).
Natives are like buildings, you can place an outpost next to a village which enables you to create native warriors that fight for you, but on their own they don't do anything.

Isn't AOE supposed to be the historical RTS? Natives don't roam, don't hunt buffalo, don't scalp the white man, don't play any independent role. Natives should be like in 7 Cities of Gold. They should be friendly or hostile to varying degrees, you should be able to build up a relation with them by selling them useless junk and fire water which might persuade them to occasionally raid your enemies.
They "give" us their land, we give them disease.

I'm telling you the native aspect of this game is a MAJOR disappointment, they are as active as the trees. (actually, at least in the tutorial game, natives are 2-3 little buildings and occasionally 1 or 2 of them can be seen around the campfire).

I'm probably making too much of this, but if ES didn't want any redskins in their game why didn't they relocate AOE III to Mars?

Imagine AOE IV plays in africa and there are no black people in the game ... IMHO ES dropped the ball big time on this one...AOE III might just as well take place on the canary islands :P

heres a clue if a buildings damaged. click on it and hit the repair button. Its at the very bottom on the right.