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 Customer Reviews 
A bit laggy...
Rating: 3
I experienced a lot of lags when playing this. Things slowed down a lot, screens took long to load. Maybe the game is too taxing for my system.
However, the Multiplayer was quite entertaining and I kept playing longer than I would have ever guessed.
It's just a little sad to see the third installment of this great series going down the hill.
Dumbed Down
Rating: 1
I have played each empire earth version always impressed at the strides made with each successive version...until this one. It looks like EE III was redesigned to better cater to players interested in a first person shooter (FPS) game instead of an RTS. The variations of the different cultures and their technology evolutions were completely thrown out in favor of 3 basic cultures: western, eastern and middle eastern. The more advanced technological stages were diluted and "cartoonified" into something resembling a weak PS3 game. The bottom line is that it looks like if you are interested in a rich gaming experience with plenty of variation and some realism thrown in, go this Age of Empires III. It is everything this game isn't.
Good game for casual gamers, but disappointing for hardcore EE fans.
Rating: 3
Let me just preface by saying I owned both EEI and II and enjoyed them very much. I thought EEIII was going to be great, but it doesn't meet my expectations and it disappoints me. The game is a good one, it just is quite a deviation from EE I and II and I'm not sure it's worth $50.
There are only 5 epochs with an incredibly simplified tech tree/unit upgrade system. The world domination mode is neat and can give replayability, but single battle mode has predetermined maps to work from so that can be a hassle if you don't want to go through the time-consuming world domination mode. The resources are also much simplified(knowledge, raw materials, and wealth) which I feel tends to drop the skill needed for good gameplay. There are also much fewer units available to build. Coupled with the fact there are only 5 epochs, you could probably say there are fewer than 75 total units you can build(even with the fact that each of the three factions have entirely different available units).
I personally don't care about how pretty a game looks; if it's good, I'll play it no matter what. The graphics are pretty sharp and destruction of buildings is neat, however, I will say that EE III has a more cartoonish version of units and requires enormous computing/graphics power to run well. I've got a 3.6 GHz P4 processor with a Radeon X1850XT(512MB/256bit) graphics card and it just does the job on the lowest video settings possible.
Take home message: If you're a hardcore fan of the EE series, this game probably isn't what you had in mind so beware. If you're more of a casual gamer, then this is probably a really good fit for you. In the end, no matter who you are, I still wouldn't recommend paying $50 for this game. $30 would be much more economical.
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