Empire Earth 2 Hands-on

We get some quality time with Mad Doc's sequel and get schooled by the mad doctor himself.

Stainless Steel's Empire Earth was a big damn game. All told, it's probably one of the biggest and most extensive RTSs ever made. Mad Doc Software doesn't seem to be flinching from the responsibility of creating the sequel. In fact, they seem to be taking the opportunity and running with it as far and fast as they can. We had the chance to sit down and let loose our raging dogs of war of our own all over the World Cyber Games yesterday. While the dogs ended up getting smacked on the nose with a fat wad of newspaper by the end of the day, it was a fun experience while it lasted. Mad Doc has added some clever additions to the interface and gameplay that should make the game more coordinated and interesting, especially on the multiplayer front.

Mad Doc's Ian Davis was on hand to show us the ropes and tell us about the features, some of which we had seen and heard about before (and you can read about in our previous previews), but never had the chance to try out for ourselves. After a few multiplayer matches, it was pretty clear that a lot of the features added were good ones for a lot of good reasons.

While the game was available for most of the day for hands-on time, there was a tournament set up for the press later on in the day to give us a chance to take down the maestro of the project. It was a two round event. The first round was set up into four player matches with each group starting in a different epoch. The winners of each of the first round matches ended up in a struggle to the death with Ian Davis. Unsurprisingly, I made it to the finals... especially considering my bracket consisted largely of folks who never really played RTS games. It was an easy match that simply allowed me to become more familiar with the interface and ideas behind the game. Unfortunately for me, I hadn't really been paying as much attention as I should have to be successful in the final game... I'll explain more about that in a minute.

The final game was a great example of the fun and excitement that Empire Earth 2 is trying to bring to the RTS genre, without having to skimp on the depth. In fact, the first feature used to get into a game in the first place demonstrates their commitment to that ideal. Basically, Empire Earth 2 gives players the choice to not only set the starting epoch, level of resources, and other normal options, but also the pace and starting cities and armies available.

One thing that's always been a problem with multiplayer RTSs is the usual build up phase at the beginning of a game. It always takes a while and is almost always the same. Empire Earth 2 gives the option to skip farther into the game by providing starting options for players. The host can also choose how big a starting army all of the players should begin with. Each of the players then gets to go in and modify that information more and choose their army. The choices include combinations of an overall strategy and balance. For example, players can pick from balanced, military, imperial, and economic strategies that will focus on different areas as far as units and buildings go. From there, players can choose from default, aggressive, and defensive postures for their armies. Each of these has a second effect on the armies and buildings that a player will have at the beginning of a game. So all told there are 12 different set-ups that players can start with for each civilization at the beginning of a game.

Why is this good? Well it means you don't have to wait for resources to roll in and armies to build up. Players can begin moving out and making strategic decisions right off the bat. No more downtime waiting for the game to really begin. Having these troops and buildings means that players will begin with enough units to start their rampage across the map as quickly as possible in order to grab as many territories as they can soon.

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Empire Earth II Image

Empire Earth II

Rated "T"
DeveloperMad Doc Software
PublisherVivendi Games
Release DateApril 26, 2005