For its follow-up effort to the excellent Empire Earth (PCG rating: 85%, Holiday 2001), developer Stainless Steel is once again crafting a real-time strategy game that will cover centuries of human conflict. This time, however, the single-player campaign will chronicle the exploits of individual heroes, and offer a strong and compelling story. We were given an exclusive early demo of Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, and what we saw looked quite extraordinary.
Spanning 1,000 years of human history (from 1,000 C.E. to the time of the Second
World War), Empires’ single-player game will consist of three campaigns. The exact
nature of this solo-play (the plotline or number of missions in each campaign)
is still under wraps, but we’re promised that it will all be in the service of
the story. And let’s face it: the RTS genre isn’t known for offering up fully
realized stories.
“We’re great admirers of Warcraft III.” Says Stainless Steel
head Rick Goodman, referring to Blizzard’s masterpiece. “Empires’ story will have
a beginning, middle, and end. That’s very important to us.” This focus won’t affect
the core gameplay mechanics—which, from what we’ve seen, remain rooted in the
traditions of the RTS genre—so expect a subtle blend of empires building and combat.
The exact number of civilizations hasn’t been finalized, but we are shown three
of them—British, Germans, and Koreans—and Goodman assures us that each civilization will enjoy unique military unit and economic and technological upgrades. For example, when you’re playing as Renaissance-era England, you’ll have access to boiling-oil units. These combat-ants will seed the battlefield with oil and then ignite it, incinerating nearby enemy units. Other unique units for the British include swordsmen who can raise their shield in an effort to fend off arrow fire, and spike traps that shoot up out of the ground, impaling anything they hit.
Two of the coolest units in the English arsenal, however, are the surgeon and the “pestilence cow.” The surgeon has the ability to heal, and even resurrect allied units.
In a cool twist, the surgeon can also raise fallen enemy units, who will then join your forces The cruel English will also hurl the plaque-infected pestilence cows over enemy walls during a siege. When these cattle hit the ground, they’ll release a green disease fog that damages nearby enemy units.
Historical Fiction
A little farfetched? Sure, but Goodman assures us that all of the units are based off on real-world counterparts. “We’re taking off the “historical handcuffs,” he says. “While everything is historically accurate, we’re broadening the envelope and pushing things.”
That means you’ll see units like the poor Renaissance-era ox unit for the Koreans, which has a barrel of gunpowder strapped to its hinderquarters. Detonate the explosive, and it annihilates everything within the blast radius. No matter how many times I watched it, I never got sick of seeing that exploding bovine massacring enemy units.
Other unique Korean units include the monk, who can convert enemy units; raiders who storm in on their horses, killing or kidnapping villagers (kidnapped villagers will appear in your village and work for you from that point on); and the rocket-arrow cart, a nasty little bugger that unleashes a horrific hail of arrows.
Each civilization will also benefit from a host of technological upgrades that can be applied to any unit. SO if, say, an upgrade increases the range of your weapons, you can use that upgrade on your artillery or on a grunt.
“We want to make the tech tree different from other (games’) tech trees,” Goodman explains, “We want players to make hard choices which civilizations they’ll play.”
In addition to its single-player campaign, Empires will boast a robust multiplayer mode, and Stainless Steel is already hard at work balancing this aspect of the game.
“To be the No. 1 game (in this genre),” says Goodman, “we need to pay attention
to multiplayer play-balancing. We have six players, all culled from the professional
ranks, working six to eight months to make sure that Empires’ multiplay
is as good as it can be and that it’s properly balanced.”
In terms of graphics, Stainless Steel has dramatically updated the engine that powered Empire Earth. The new engine sports real-time shadows and animation smoothing (which means you won’t see any “snapping” between different animations), and all of the textures have been increased fourfold in size.
Even at this stage, the hard work is paying off. The units already look sensational, and the battle scenes are exquisitely rendered, packed with tiny details. During sea battles, the ships catch on fire and the vessels sink to the grimy depths, debris will float to the surface.
Another nice facet of Empires’ engine—one that’ll certainly help convey the game’s story—is its ability to zoom down to ground level. From this perspective you can see all of the units up close and watch as they butcher each other. Thankfully, the camera will also pull back out to a more traditional RTS viewpoint.
Empires is entering a tough market, but its creative take on historical units, blended with the fine traditions of the genre, give it a unique appeal. We’ll bring you more updates as further details are released. —William Harms