Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Centuries of Fun!, 6 Feb 2004
Being a huge fan of this type of RTS game, I picked this looking forward to something new and challenging - I was not disappointed! True, this game is less intuitive at first than others of the Genre, but once you pick it up, the interface is easy to use - though it took me a few attempts to work out how to properly control the Air units in the later 'ages' of the game. Graphically it is quite stunning - you can change from an overhead view to zooming right down into the thick of the action and watch swords clash, or bombers devastate your enemies. The landscape and buildings are beautifully rendered too. The sheer number of unit types, with each civilisation having numerous special units, each of which can be upgraded, leaves plenty of work and management to do - I like the fact that when you research an upgrade it is not automatically applied to every unit, but you must select one unit type to upgrade, and once this type has been upgraded it can no longer be improved - this leads to a more strategic play.
There are the usual selection of 'learn me' campaigns, starting with Richard the Lionheart, and ending in Patton in WWII - they do a good job of introducing the game, controls and general feel.
The computer AI can be very challenging, even on the lowest levels - I would hate to see how long I could last on the hardest difficulty level! You can also play 2 types of game - one 'Action' based which gives you fewer resources but faster unit deployment and speed with less costs to advance through the Ages, and one 'Empire Builder' that is more geared to the long-term build up of forces, technology and real-estate. With this, all play styles will find themselves catered for.
The package also includes a Scenario and Campaign editor / creator so you can create your own maps and campaigns, or download those created by others. As usual, the game has single player deathmatches, and campaigns, along with a quite strong selection of online / network game options.
One thing work noting is that there is a patch avaliable from their website giving a new type of environment to play in, along with various fixes for single and multi play. It also balances out a few of the civilisations slightly, which was needed from the original release.
Technically, the game borrows from most other games of this type, and the post game stats are just like being back in 'Age of Empires' again, but this is not a bad thing - it seems to have taken the best from all.
If you like this type of game, buy it, learn it, get hooked :)
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52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute masterpiece!, 16 Oct 2003
Fans of the Microsoft Age of Empires series will love this game. It is far more extensive than the Microsoft Age of games, and just as enjoyable. I have playes a demo of this game, and the graphics are simply stunning. Moreover, the gameplay is excellent too. Each civilisation has their own unique strengths and weaknesses, providing a depth to the game that is simply unmatched so far. This game is quite challenging as well - the AI of your opponents can be set at 4 different levels, and even at the easiest level, your opponents have you with your back to the wall early on. It's not like the Age of games where you can establish your defences pretty easily and survive early attacks without much difficulty. In this game, it's out and out war from the beginning, and you really need to think about how to survive early on in the game, or you could be weakened to a point where you find it hard to recover. I own Age of Empires 1, Age of Empires 2 plus the Conquerors Expansion, Age of Mythology, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and the Clone Campaigns expansion, and I am telling you that if you enjoy strategy games of the kind mentioned above, then do not hesitate to buy this game. It is worth the money from what I have experienced.
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like Age of Kings, only better., 10 Nov 2003
Starting out in the last age of Age of Kings, with trebuchets and longbowmen, Empires: DMW moves on all the way until WW2. Unlike the sprawling, perhaps overly complicated, Empire Earth, which SSSi also made, Empires: DMW is a much tighter product. It has a some fantastically varied civilizations, with plenty of unique units and technologies, along with an idea borrowed from Age of Mythology, but far better implemented: special projects. These are like the God powers in AoM, but you can research several per civilization, and cast them on your units to devastating effect. The single player is challenging, but the game really excels in multiplayer, so you are guaranteed masses of replayability. The graphics are also excellent, and as good as you will get in any RTS on the shop shelves.
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