![]() ![]() Worse, where these objectives are tied into completing the mission, they can actually be a pain. How long will those three jaguars surround that stranded native before one has the sense to climb the rock he’s clinging to? Months? Years? What about the two settler girls tied to stakes by pirates? Why does every broken-down wagon bearing treasure provide a perfect home for alligators, wolves, or another selection of fierce predators? What’s more, it actually lends the game a slightly silly touch. It’s nice to get the gold, the experience points, the additional resources, but hardly essential. ![]() For the most part, these treasures and objectives are little more than window dressing. In another, you might need to find three navigational charts, or protect an Aztec temple.Īnd it’s here that my misgivings start creeping in. In some missions, you may need to impress a pirate captain by building a reputation around Cuba. In fact, it’s almost as if Ensemble is at pains to say that it’s not all just conquest this time around. These are nearly always guarded, and in some campaign missions gathering these items becomes the primary objective of the game. The maps are littered with bonuses, which either your explorer – a hero character with upgradeable bonus characteristics – or your settlers can pick up. AoE III goes out of its way to hit you with differing objectives. Naturally, this in itself has a downside: it practically discourages you from taking other civilizations for a spin, which when each has a slightly different flavour and different units and capabilities to enjoy, would be a shame. Now, the Home City isn’t quite the killer feature Ensemble seem to think it is – it’s more a cool feature than a reason to keep playing – but it both ties the game together and gives you good reason to really get to grips with your choice of civilization. If you fancy, you can even make cosmetic changes to your city, transforming the look of buildings or choosing characters to bustle around in the background. In return, victories won in the new world mean upgrades for the Home City, adding new shipping options to your selection. This is of enormous assistance, particularly when you need some help to shore up your defences in a hurry, or turn the tide of battle in your favour. During campaign missions, single player skirmishes or even multi-player games, players can request shipments from their home cities, containing resources, troops, bonus abilities, and that general sort of thing. In fact, the game’s biggest innovation is a new Home City screen, which will differ according to your chosen civilization: Spanish, British, French, Portuguese, Russian, Ottoman, German or Dutch. Secondly, the AoE III exploits its “European powers in the new world” theme by maintaining strong links between your colonizing forces and the homeland. Tracking a family saga across three acts, taking in different historical eras and running from Malta through the Caribbean before settling down in the Americas, it gives you more than just conquest for motivation, with characters, cut-scenes and some nifty spots of conspiracy and betrayal to get your teeth into. Firstly, like Age of Mythology, AoE III takes a story-based approach to the main single-player campaign. It’s still an RTS, it’s still concerned with the old themes of base building, resource gathering and enemy crushing, but those themes have taken something of a twist. Few games, full stop, have looked this good.Īnd on first impressions, the game underneath has undergone a transformation. Watch ships gliding along a channel between two tropical islands. Zoom in and check out the detail – the jumping fish, the wildlife, the smoke, the vegetation. Admire the detailed, brilliantly animated units, the settlers chopping trees, planting crops or hunting deer, the way that buildings splinter and shatter when they receive one cannon ball too many. Just look at the gorgeous, shimmering water, the rugged contours of that unexplored landscape. Attractive in still screenshots, in motion it’s really something else. Age of Empires III is beautiful to look at. Three years on from the stunning Age of Mythology, Ensemble have once again raised the bar for strategy game visuals. To paraphrase The Who, meet the New World, same as the Old World. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |