Overall Rating

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest (PC) - story1The week on "Extended Play" we take a return trip to "Empire Earth," as the most ambitious real-time strategy game ever made gets an expansion pack called "The Art of Conquest."

"Empire Earth" was the game that had everything. Designed by real-time strategy (RTS) veterans with reputedly extensive input from the hardest of the hard-core RTS fans, it was a game of truly epic scope and proportions. The result was an unprecedented helping of units, epochs, technologies, and strategies that overwhelmed casual players with its lack of focus and overburdened workload while positively delighting hard-core players thrilled to have this many toys to play with. For anyone who thought the game needed more stuff, Sierra Studios and Stainless Steel Software have now contracted Mad Doc Software to do just that -- add more stuff.

...and the kitchen sink

The stuff in question is a new bonus for each civilization, a whole new Epoch, and three new campaigns. There is no (needed) graphics update, no streamlining of the already sprawling game, and no new multiplayer modes of play.

Each civilization gets a new bonus. The Greeks get flaming arrows, Japan can build a Cyber Ninja (who uses a Logic Bomb to harm technology), and the Assyrians get slaves. Really. They can kill villagers, and killing villagers nets them new villagers back at the base. The Romans get Insurance, which pays them back for dead units, the Italians get Paratroopers. The British get a Commando, the United States gets a special Market, and so on. The new bonuses change the way each civilization plays. When used well, they can really knock a veteran player for a loop, but ultimately they just make a complicated game more complicated.

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest (PC) - story2The final frontier

The new Epoch lets you explore space, and it's reminiscent of those old "Civilization II" conversions that gave you "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" units and sound effects. The universe consists of circular islands of land surrounded by water colored black and studded with star graphics. It figures heavily into one of the new campaigns and can be used in skirmish mode. However, the developer didn't really exploit this: Some of the planets are colored strangely and sometimes gold doesn't look like gold, but there's no real sense of mystery. It just looks like circular islands floating on a black ocean. Ship graphics have been replaced with spaceships for this Epoch, but they're essentially just transports for island -- excuse me, planetary -- invasions. Space features a new wonder, the Orbital Space station, and a new Calamity in Meteor Swarm.

The new campaigns are interesting. The first one takes you back to Ancient Rome and casts you as Gaius Marius, a Roman leader testing out a new concept, conscription, in the face of a massive Teutonic invasion. "We will crush those pale-faced Romans," their leader says in a cut scene, seemingly unaware that as a German he is likely paler of complexion than the Mediterranean Romans. Anyway, the strung-together missions are a high point in the game and lead to a satisfying conclusion.

The second campaign is less successful. It tries to model something as dynamic and strategic as the war in the Pacific during WWII. The result is a whole lot of naval combat, but it bears no resemblance to the horrors of Iwo Jima and Midway.

The third campaign is a mess. Poorly written, horribly voice acted (all the voice acting sounds as if it was done by teen-age interns), and often obtuse in its goals. It begins in Asia far in the future as the current regime fends off attacks from rebels. Then it moves into space and showcases the new Epoch. The missions are boring and uninventive -- flaws that are all the more stark considering this is the first time the game takes us into sci-fi space territory.

Toy soldiers

The graphics aren't holding up well and it's a shame they couldn't have gotten a bit of polish here. The textures are model, character models are laughable up-close, and the game has a toylike look that doesn't really pay homage to the historical backdrop.

What we're left with is an expansion pack not designed to breathe new life into an aging game, but built only to appeal to the people still playing it obsessively. "Art of Conquest" might appeal to those people for the new Epoch and bonuses alone, but for everyone else it's not worth the money. That's why we're giving "The Art of Conquest" two out of five stars.