The Age of Supremacy packs in a whole heap of extra content into the already huge Empire Earth II, with the addition of three new campaigns, four new civilisations and two new game types, as well as a number of incremental improvements and balance adjustments. The new campaigns directly involve all of the new civilisations. The Russians and French play key roles in one new campaign – Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Both sides also boost the number of Western World forces available in the game. The other two campaigns are set in Africa, focusing on the other two new civilisations; the ancient Egyptians and the Maasai. The Maasai campaign is quite intriguing; with the action set in the modern day, Africa is moving up into the corporate world, and the Maasai people’s livelihood is threatened when a corporate menace moves in on their territory in order to capture a vital resource.
The Russian winter is not pleasant, as Napoleon found out
Also new to The Age of Supremacy are a number of historical scenarios that allow players to relive turning points of key battles in history. What if the Zulu defeated the British and gained control of Africa? What if the Germans defeated the Russians at Kursk in the Second World War? The Age of Supremacy lets you answer these questions by taking either side into battle in exact historical recreations of these important battles.
While Empire Earth II’s gameplay remains relatively unchanged in the expansion pack, The Age of Supremacy does add a number of key features into the mix. Throughout each map are a number of native tribes. These folks are relatively autonomous in nature, but players can choose to conquer them, ally with them and start trading goods. Every unit on the map is also capable of becoming a hero, based on the number of experience points they gain on the battlefield – while not exactly a new feature in real time strategy, Mad Doc seem to be taking the experience system to a new level. There are also ten new units in the game, including Zulu Warriors, Russian Howitzers, and Rafale Stealth fighters. Some units are now classed as persistent, meaning they remain with your civilisation and retain all of their upgrades as you progress through the game.
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Multiplayer also gets a bit of a going over with the expansion pack, with players now having the ability to create their own custom civilisations. A new option in larger multiplayer matches is fealty, which if agreed to amongst allies, will allow one player to command another’s units in battle. The fealty request can be rejected, which will give your troops a morale boost, but lead to the possibility of being stomped on. The group war plans allow for players to give strategic orders to their units to make co-ordinated attacks. The new multiplayer modes are especially interesting; Tug of War lets opponents battle over a series of territories, with the aim being to push your foe back to his home territory, and conquer it, while Territorial Hotspots has players competing to build city centres on top of a number of strategic points, with the competitor with the most key points winning the battle. If all these strategic options are a bit much for you, there’s the option for quick battles, which let players select which buildings and units they wish to start with, allowing for opponents to start fighting straight away, skipping all of the usual base and squad building process. Finally, the matchmaking and multiplayer interfaces have been streamlined, which makes the process of getting into a match completely painless.
Empire Earth II: The Age of Supremacy really pushes the boundaries of what gamers can expect in expansion packs. Strategy fans will no doubt be looking forward to the game’s February 16th release date, and PALGN will be there with a full review.
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