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Empires: Dawn of the Modern World

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Computer & Video games

                 Empires: Dawn of the Modern World
      Developer(s)     Stainless Steel Studios
      Publisher(s)     Activision
       Designer(s)     Rick Goodman (Game Designer)
                       Jon Alenson (Lead Designer)
                       Richard Bishop (Lead Multiplayer Designer)
         Engine        Titan
     Release date(s)   ^NA October 21, 2003
                       ^GER October 21, 2003
        Genre(s)       RTS
         Mode(s)       Single player, multiplayer
        Rating(s)      ESRB: Teen (T)
                       PEGI: 12+
       Platform(s)     Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP
          Media        CD-ROM (2)
   System requirements 600 MHz CPU
                       128 MB RAM
                       900 MB Hard disk space
                       32 MB graphics card
          Input        Keyboard, mouse

   Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a history-based real-time strategy
   computer game developed by Stainless Steel Studios and released on
   October 21, 2003. Considered an unofficial sequel to Empire Earth, the
   game requires players to collect resources to build an empire, train
   military units, and conquer opposing civilizations.

   Based on a slightly compressed version of world history, Empires covers
   five eras, from the Medieval Age to World War II. The game features
   seven civilizations: England, the Franks, Korea and China are playable
   from the Medieval Age to the Imperial Age; and the United States,
   Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom are playable in the
   World War I and World War II ages. The game attracted positive critical
   reaction.

Gameplay

   A real-time strategy game, Empires requires players to command armies
   and combat opponents from a complete 3D perspective to achieve victory.
   Matches end when all but one player have resigned or been defeated; the
   last player standing is awarded the victory. To win, players must
   develop and micromanage balanced and organized armies. The game
   features land, sea and air units, whose availabilities depend on the
   selected era. These units have strengths and weaknesses in a format
   similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors; each type of unit affects other units
   differently. Each unit represents one soldier or machine, whose speed
   and range depend on its type and civilization. A unit can be ordered to
   scout, guard, act defensively, or act aggressively. Resources — food,
   wood, gold, and stone — are required in different combinations to build
   structures and armies. Throughout the game, citizens gather resources
   and deposit them in Town Centre structures.

   Empires' multiplayer component, powered by GameSpy, is freely available
   to any player who has an updated version of the game. Two to eight
   people or artificial intelligence opponents compete in either the
   shorter, battle-oriented Action Mode or the longer, defense-oriented
   Empire Builder Mode. The modes, civilizations, and map types are
   available in both single-player and multiplayer. Maps are randomly
   generated for each match, but conform to a general landform chosen by
   the host player of the match. The player also chooses the size of the
   map and the amount of units that each player can create. Multiplayer
   mode features groups of allied players called clans, which appear on
   the Empires Heaven clan list.

   There are nine civilizations in Empires. The first four civilizations
   exist from 950 A.D. to 1900 A.D., which covers the first three ages:
   the Medieval, Gunpowder and Imperial ages. The other five civilizations
   roughly cover the years 1900 A.D. to 1950 A.D., which is during the
   ages of World War I and World War II. The Japanese are opponents in the
   game's campaign mode, but they are not playable in the game. Age
   progression requires a large amount of resources, which varies in size
   depending on the age and game type. Once a new age has been entered,
   new upgrades become available. New upgrades cost different combinations
   of resources, and can do anything from improving a civilization's
   fishing rate to upgrading units with enhanced technology. Once this
   change occurs, older unit types cannot be created.

Campaigns

   Empires features three campaigns, divided into scenarios depicting
   major events in each civilization's history. The first campaign follows
   Richard the Lionheart's unhistorical revolt against his father, King
   Henry, and war with Philip II of France. The second depicts Admiral Yi
   Sun-Sin's battles against the invading Japanese in the Imjin War. The
   final campaign tracks General George S. Patton from the Anglo-American
   invasion of Vichy French North Africa to D-Day.

   Richard the Lionheart's campaign details his path to the English
   throne. The campaign begins as King Henry's first son, Prince Henry,
   conspires to take England's throne before his father's death. Ensuing
   scenarios involve the three sons of Henry II and the imprisonment of
   Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry's wife, during the English revolt of
   1173–1174. Phillip II of France, who has ascended unexpectedly early to
   the French throne, also appears. Richard and Geoffrey II, Duke of
   Brittany, one of Henry's other sons, are playable units; however, the
   other historical figures appear only in cut scenes.

   The campaign of Admiral Yi (historically Yi Sun-Sin) occurs in the
   1590s, and chronicles Korea's battles against Manchurians and the
   Japanese. The campaign focuses on the Imjin Wars − a six-year period
   when Japan invaded Korea twice — and the ensuing naval, land, and
   political fighting. The story includes the development of stronger,
   technologically superior Turtle ships. Yi Sun-Sin, Kim Shi-min, the
   king's advisor, and Kwak Chae-u, a citzen who helped lead a revolution
   at the time, are playable units; other main characters, such as
   political leaders, appear only in cut scenes. The campaign's conclusion
   explains the end of the wars and of Yi Sun-Sin's life.

   The General Patton campaign takes place during World War II, and
   primarily describes the fighting in Northern Africa, Italy, and
   Normandy during D-Day. General Patton — the main leader in the campaign
   — is playable in several scenarios, Dwight D. Eisenhower appears in cut
   scenes, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt narrates the beginning of one
   scenario.

   A custom campaign and scenario editor is also available; several
   unofficial custom campaigns and scenarios are freely available on fan
   websites such as Empires Heaven.

Development

   Empires was developed from 2002 to 2003 by the now-defunct Stainless
   Steel Studios. The game is based on an upgraded version of the Titan
   game engine used in the company's previous title, Empire Earth. In an
   interview with Gamespot regarding development, Rick Goodman stated, "In
   my opinion, the development community should spend more time with
   consumers ... we need to do a better job answering the question, 'What
   do gamers want?'". Utilizing survey results, the studio focused on
   gameplay, balance, and innovation. At E3 2003, Stainless Steel
   highlighted differences among the game's civilizations.

   The civilizations from Empires were created from a civilization tree, a
   chart of every civilization in Empire Earth. Jon Alenson, the lead
   designer, said in an interview that a civilization tree is "like a bed
   of snakes, where the biggest fattest snake represents the biggest
   strongest civilization." Stainless Steel diversified and balanced the
   most requested civilizations on their forums by using diagrams, unit
   families, tactical simulations, and strategy tests. To complement the
   updated civilizations, the studio revised much of the technology from
   Empire Earth.

Reception

   Empires: Dawn of the Modern World received positive critical reaction.
   Game Informer rated it 8.25/10, calling it "definitely worth your time
   if you dig the genre..."; IGN gave it an 8.8/10, deemed it "a great
   strategy game", and stated that "Stainless Steel deserves to be proud
   of their second effort..."; GameSpy referred to it as "an excellent
   RTS."

   PC Game World, an online game site, claimed that the game's sound was
   "as good as it comes with this type of game, with nuclear weapons
   exploding, bombs going off, weapons firing, people hitting people with
   swords." Worthplaying, another online game site, praised the game's
   graphics: "The first thing you will note is that graphically Empires
   DOMW is a gem. It looks fantastic...", but Gamezone liked only certain
   visual elements, claiming that “the backgrounds of forests, meadows and
   water are very sharp, and are the best looking part of the game."

   In a negative review, GameSpot questioned the game's lack of guidance,
   stating that "[t]he manual starts off saying as much, and there's no
   tutorial to walk you through the basics...". Gamezone similarly noted,
   “As there is also no tutorial to speak of, players not familiar with
   the first Empires game, or who are new to RTS, may find themselves a
   bit lost.” PC Gamer stated, "The unit formations are crummy and
   pathfinding is just as tenuous as in most RTS games ... and the
   missions are somewhat undercut by ... terrible voice-acting." The
   magazine found that the pathfinding algorithm often causes units to
   travel together in a disorganized mass and sometimes take more
   dangerous routes than necessary to reach locations. Computer Gaming
   World complained that the campaigns "are excessively story driven and
   include little in the way of straightforward build-and-raze missions."

   Because critics perceived that Empires lacked significant innovations
   to the real-time strategy genre, they often drew comparisons to other
   games. Armchair Empire noted, "It's next to impossible to write about
   Empires ... without mentioning Stainless Steel Studios’ last project,
   Empire Earth." Many were surprised that the scope was smaller than that
   of Empire Earth, but agreed that the gameplay focused more on specific
   time periods by having fewer ages and civilizations. One critic called
   the game a "dumb man's Rise of Nations." Stratos Group wrote that
   Empires has "very few land-only maps, unlike Rise of Nations which was
   full of variety on this score." The progressions among ages were also
   compared: "Rise of Nations often ended in a flurry of age-rushing until
   everyone was driving tanks, but the offensive power available to the
   player in Empires means that advancing to the next age is not
   necessarily your highest immediate priority." Regarding civilization
   choices, Stratos stated that "After the cornucopia of choices available
   in Rise of Nations (18 cultures), the four early and five later
   cultures of Empires may seem a little small. This is not a real
   problem, though. The choices available are fun and varied." CNET
   remarked, "The design puts well-recognized historical action into play
   and makes believable use of the material, while adding some powerful
   spell-like effects to keep the action interesting. While it may not
   have the breadth of Rise of Nations' real-time empire building, the
   tight scope deals out dividends when it comes to fast-paced battles."
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