Game Reactor Preview (Sweden) - 03/06/03

A new historic RTS game made by Rick Goodman (Age of Empires, Empires Earth) is coming. I have taken a close look at the game and talked with Rick Goodman.

It isn't so often that a game developer goes on a PR-trip this early before the game is ready. Empires: Dawn of the Modern World was presented as an Activision game just a couple of weeks ago and already Rick Goodman traveled to Sweden to talk about what Stainless Steel Studios has done so far.

Goodman stopped working at Ensemble Studios in 1998 to found his own company, Stainless Steel Studios. He had made a name for himself with Age of Empires and went on with his ideas in Empire Earth. If he had success creating a better game than his old friends at ES is a thing that can be discussed. But that doesn't prevent Empires from looking very exciting. The game is much like Age of Empires and Empire Earth, but Empires has a lot more detail and there are some design differences are in Goodman's new game.

When I sat down to interview Rick Goodman after seeing the game in action, I noticed that he was extremely good at handling the press. He chose his words well and was very nice. He told me that it's the gamer's biggest dreams was his "guiding star".- "I think that a lot of developers don't care that much about what the gamers want, and how they use the game" Goodman told me. When Stainless Steel asked the Empire Earth gamers they got some quite surprising responses. The majority of the gamers played standard games and preferred big armies, while a smaller group that played a lot against others on the net wanted smaller armies and a fast gameplay. That's why SSSI chose to create two different game modes in Empires, there is "Empire building" and "Tournament". Empire building is slower than tournament and focuses more on resources and base building, while Tournament is faster with resources running out quicker and towers/walls easier to kill.

Another thing Goodman made clear is that Empires won't have balanced civilizations in the known way. In his former games, Age of Empires and Empire Earth, Goodman made civilizations have units (Note from DK: This part is very hard to translate) that works like rock, paper and scissor. Instead the civilizations will have units with very special goals. In that way he hopes that the game will play different from the last and that there will be many solutions to the same problem, the units will also have more than one way to be used. A German artillery canon from the Second World War can either be used against English tanks or to take down planes. English SAS soldiers can swim and plant bombs and finally can Zeppelins transport troops, scout and drop bombs. In Empires the player will also get to decide when abilities will be used. When do you want to use an ability that can make the enemy confused? Or what about using an ability that can be used to surprise the enemy? Timing is important. In all, the game is filled with very powerful abilities that much depend on if you know how to use them on the battlefield.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World will span 1000 years and feature five ages: Middle, Renaissance, Imperial and the First and Second World Wars. There will be a number of civilizations in the game, but so far only England, Korea and Germany have been revealed. Rick Goodman won't reveal any more at this point.

Interviewer: How many and which civilizations will be playable?

Goodman: Unfortunately I cannot tell you that.

Interviewer: But will there be many civilizations?

Goodman: I can't talk about them, but yes.

Interviewer: When will we get more information about the game?

Goodman: We will release a little info each month.

Personally I think that Russia and China will be in the game. France and Japan are also very likely civilizations. In total, I assume that there will be about 10. Like with the number and names of the civilizations, Goodman would not disclose any information about the game's campaign. In the demonstration we saw Richard the third, the leader of the English renaissance army. Goodman said that the campaign would follow people of great historical importance. Like one of the German abilities being named after Rommel.

Interviewer: Will people like Richard the Third work like heroes in Warcraft 3?

Goodman: No comment.

Interviewer: But they will be a part of the game?

Goodman: Yes, the game will have movie-like campaigns that follow important people.

Interviewer: Will different generals have different abilities and react different when you meet/use them?

Goodman: Yes. It will work like that.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a game that looks like it could be fantastic. There is nothing wrong with throwing pest infested cow bodies against enemies or spreading chaos with Korean Fire Oxen. It might sound like weapons SSSi made up but everything in Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is historically based. Those sorts of units will probably make the game very interesting to play online.

Note: This article has been translated from Swedish to English, to see the original version, click here.