Empire Earth II

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Empire Earth II

Developer(s)	Mad Doc Software
Publisher(s)	Vivendi Universal
Designer(s)	Dr. Ian Lane Davis , Steven W. Nadeau
Engine	Gamebryo
Release date(s)	April 26, 2005
Genre(s)	RTS
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s)	PC (Windows)
Media	2 CDs
System requirements	1.5 GHz CPU 256 MB RAM 1.5 GB hard disk space 64 MB 3D video card^[1]

Empire Earth II, also called EE2, is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Vivendi Universal on April 26, 2005.^[2] It is a sequel to the 2001 bestselling game Empire Earth, which was developed by the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios. The game features 15 epochs and 14 different civilizations.^[3]

The game has three playable campaigns: a Korean, German, and American one, as well several other playable scenarios. The game was subject to mildly positive reaction, earning a 79% average rating on Game Rankings.^[4] An expansion pack, which was released by Mad Doc Software called Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy, was released on February 14, 2006.

1 Gameplay
2 Campaigns
3 Reception
- 3.1 Expansion Pack
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Empire Earth II has a number of new gameplay features from the original gameplay of Empire Earth. Some of the new features are the Picture-in-Picture window, another smaller window within the game interface, allows the player to control activities such as unit and building construction within an area not focused in the main window. The Citizen Manager can be configured to tell a citizen what to do if they have no set task, and the Diplomacy System allows the player to make tributes and manage alliances and wars with other players. The War Planner is another new adition, which is a map of the game that the player can display and use to coordinate attacks with allies. The crown sytstem grants strategic bonuses to players who are first to master an epoch's Military, Economic, or Imperial paths at the cost of losing a faster age progression. Weather, another new feature changes over time on the map, and affects not only the look of the map (which can be hard to see during blizzards or sandstorms), but also the performance of units.

Besides campaigns and special scenarios, there is also a skirmish mode where the player can play against a computer player. The player can also play against other human players, however, the common EULA clause that each player needs his own copy of the game is actually enforced, even for LAN games. Unlike campaigns or scenarios, the winning conditions never change. There are eight different game modes in skirmish mode, which can also be played in Multiplayer.

A battle in the Synthetic Age

There are 15 epochs (pronounced as "epic") in the game, each representing a part of history. As the player advances through the epochs, new and improved units and structures become available. Some of the epochs in EE2 are identical to their counterparts in the original Empire Earth -- one exception is that EE2 does not allow players to expand their empires into space.

The epochs are the Stone Age, the Copper Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Imperial Age, the Enlightenment Age, the Industrial Age, the Modern Age, the Atomic Age, the Digital Age, the Genetic Age, and the Synthetic Age

Before buildings and units can be made or created, resources must be gathered. There are two kinds of resources: main resources and special resources. The main resources are available in all epochs and they are Food, Wood, Gold, Iron and Stone. In order to collect resources, a citizen (or a band of citizens) is selected, and are directed to a resource. The citizens thus begin harvesting it.

The special resources are available in only some epochs. For example, oil is available only from epoch 10 till the last age, epoch 15. These special resources are Tin - available until epoch 6, Iron - first available in epoch 4 and is no longer used after epoch 9, Saltpeter - first available in epoch 7 and is used until epoch 12, Oil - first available in epoch 10, and Uranium - first available epoch 13.

EE2 has technologies to improve each player's civilization. Technologies are divided into 3 groups. The first is Military, which provides benefits mostly to military units. The next is Economic technologies, which increases resource gathering rate, decreases cost and building time for units and buildings and decreases tribute tax amount. Then final technology is Imperial, which provides benefits mostly to special units and increases the health of units and buildings.

There are four of each technology for each epoch. Technologies can be researched by spending tech points. To get tech points, an appropriate number of citizens must be garrisoned in a university and/or an appropriate number of priests must be garrisoned in a temple. Technologies are researched through the main interface (no longer through a building) by clicking the Technology Tree button. When the correct amount of tech points are available, the tech tree button will light up and the new technology to research can be chosen. However, when the resource is no longer used, the garrisoned units will become idle.

In EE2, each civilization belongs to a particular world region. Each of the regional powers can be activated on the game interface by clicking on a special button. All of the regional powers are timed; once the time is up to use it, it will take a long time for the regional powers to be recharged to use again. Each regional power can only be used in a respective group of epochs. For example, the regional power of Overtime can only be used by a player using a Far Eastern civilization in epochs 11-15.

Like many games before it with the same genre, EE2 has civilizations for players to lead to greatness. Each civilization has a unique power, giving it an advantage in a particular field. Each civilization also has a unique unit, which is a more powerful version of a given unit type. The Greek Hoplite, for instance, is a more effective heavy infantry than other tribes counterparts. The western civilizations are the Americans, British, Germans, Greeks, and the Romans . The Middle Eastern civilizations are the Babylonians, Egyptians, and the Turks. The Far Eastern civilizations are China, Japan, and Korea. Finally, the Meso-American civilizations are the Aztecs, Incas, and the Mayans.

[edit] Campaigns

Empire Earth II has three single player campaigns - Korean, German and American, and a collection of scenarios called turning points.

The Korean campaign is about early Korean history, from 2333 BC to 676 AD, and is divided into eight scenarios. The first two scenarios are about the founding of the state of Chosun and the state's struggles. The next two scenarios are about Korea's first wars with the Chinese. The next two scenarios are about the Korean civil war and the state of Silla's decision to ally with China. The next scenario is about Silla's triumph over the other Korean states and the renewed war with China. The last scenario for this campaign is the "final" war with China.

The German Campaign deals with the years between 1220-1871 in central Europe. The first four scenarios are about the struggles of the Teutonic Order and the knights' eventual downfall. The next two scenarios are about the rise of Prussia and the Seven Years' War. The next scenario is about the war with Napoleon I of France. The final scenario is about the war with Denmark, Austria and France and the reunification of Germany under Otto von Bismarck.

An in-game screenshot of Empire Earth II

The American Campaign is part-fact and part-fiction. It deals with the years between 1898-2070. The first scenario is about the first years of the Spanish American War in Cuba. The next scenario is about the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I. The next two scenarios are about the war in North Africa and Sicily against the Germans and a fictionalized version of the famous Ardennes Offensive in World War II. The next two scenarios are about spy missions against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The next scenario is about an attempted coup lead by a disillusioned General called Charles Blackworth against the US government; the player is charged with stopping this coup. The last scenario is about the final showdown with Blackworth and his followers in the Amazon Rainforest. When the player wins the last scenario in this campaign, there will be a short film about mankind and the earth. When that film ends, the credits for the game will be shown.

Besides the three main campaigns, there is a tutorial campaign about the Aztecs. The first scenario is about the founding of the city of Tenochtitlan. The next scenario is about the Spanish conquest of Mexico, which ends with the Aztecs driving out Hernan Cortes and his Conquistadors. The third scenario is about an Aztec alliance with the United States. The final scenario in this campaign is about a war with the Incas, which occurs just before World War II.

There are four special scenarios in Empire Earth II called turning points. These scenarios can be played from either side of a battle or war which changed the course of history:

Normandy - takes place during the D-Day invasion. The player can play as the Americans and try to repeat the success of Operation Overlord or play as the Germans and try to stop the Allied invasion force from breaching the Atlantic Wall.
The Three Kingdoms - recreates the chaotic period after the end of the Han Dynasty. The player can play as the Kingdom of Wei and recreate their success over the kingdoms of Wu and Shu or play as the Wu and try to conquer the Wei.

[edit] Reception

Empire Earth was generally well received scoring 8.9 out of 10 by IGN,^[5] and and 8.0 by Gamespot. Shortly after the game's release, it was generally complimented for its good gameplay and the many options players had to customize the game."^[3] Criticisms of the game include high system requirements, issues with unit pathfinding, modest graphics, a clunky, complicated, almost non-existent mission editor, and the increased complexity caused by the new game features."^[3] Others included poor ingame music and very few terrain types.

There are a few obvious historical mishaps in Empire Earth, such as: Native American civilizations have access to cavalry from the start of the game, unique units such as mamelukes for Babylonians and bedoiuns and war elephant for Egypt.^{[citation needed]} Also a few times are wrong e.g.Samurai are only buit from stone age to dark age (900 A.D.) when in fact they were around until the 1800's.