''Empire Earth III'' is a

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

Mad Doc Software Rockstar New England, Inc. (formerly Mad Doc Software, LLC) is an American video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Andover, Massachusetts. Ian Lane Davis founded the company as Mad Doc Software in November 1999 after worki ...

and published by

Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher founded in 1979 by Ken Williams (game developer), Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is ...

, released on November 6, 2007. It is the last installment of the ''Empire Earth'' series. ''Empire Earth III'' contains five

epochs In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

, fewer than other games in the series but covering roughly the same time period. The game features three factions:

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

ern,

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, and

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

ern. Each faction comprises unique buildings, units, and technologies. The game received widespread negative reviews.

Gameplay

Similar to its predecessors, ''Empire Earth III'' is a

game. It introduces several new units and weapons, as well as a new free-form campaign structure that is similar in style to other real-time strategy games, such as the ''Total War'' series. However, unlike ''Total War'', the player advances through the entire course of history rather than staying in a specific time period. There are three customizable

civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

s to choose from which are

Middle-Eastern The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, and

ern. Each civilization can be customized by the player to their choosing. Furthermore, each civilization features subfactions based on historical nations (e.g. the Far Eastern civilization contains

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

). Another new feature in ''Empire Earth III'' is certain

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

s such as a nuclear cannon. In ''Empire Earth III'', each region focuses on different styles of game play; for example, the Middle East has mobile buildings, the West has a few powerful units, and the Far East has masses of weak, swarming units combined with powerful mutants in the future. The game's

World Domination World domination (also called global domination, world conquest, global conquest, or cosmocracy) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single political authority holds power over all or virtually all the i ...

mode allows players to battle across a

virtual earth Bing Maps Platform (previously Microsoft Virtual Earth) is a geospatial mapping platform produced by Microsoft. It allows developers to create applications that layer location-relevant data on top of licensed map imagery. The imagery includes sam ...

which is split into many sections/provinces. While playing this mode, quests give the player optional tasks to accomplish while conquering the globe. The game contains five unique sections, loosely based on historical eras,

Ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

, Colonial,

Modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

, and Future.

Development and release

Development of the game began in 2005, shortly after '' Empire Earth II'' was shipped. The game engine was built on Empire Earth II's engine using

Gamebryo Gamebryo (; ; formerly NetImmerse until 2003) is a game engine developed by Gamebase Co., Ltd. and Gamebase USA, that incorporates a set of tools and plugins including run-time libraries, supporting video game developers for numerous cross-pl ...

2.0 middleware, but was almost completely rewritten to allow the developers to create improved visual effects,

ragdoll physics Ragdoll physics is a type of procedural animation used by physics engines, which is often used as a replacement for traditional static death animations in video games and Animation, animated films. As computers increased in power, it became pos ...

, more detailed models and higher resolution textures. Instead of making the units more realistic, Mad Doc Software worked to achieve a more "cartoonish" look. On April 27, 2007 the American

television show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

Numb3rs ''Numbers'' (stylized as ''NUMB3RS'') is an American crime drama television series that originally aired on CBS from January 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010, with a total of six seasons consisting of 118 episodes. The series was created by Nico ...

'' aired some footage of the game on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

while it was still in development. The demo of ''Empire Earth III'' was released on November 1. The retail version of the game was released on November 6, 2007 in the US and November 16, 2007 in Europe. A patch became available two days after the game's release. ''Empire Earth III'' is the first game in the series to be a

Games for Windows Games for Windows is a former brand owned by Microsoft and introduced in 2006 to coincide with the release of the Windows Vista operating system. The brand itself represents a standardized technical certification program and online service for ...

title. On November 12, 2007, a Gamespy arena portal was added for updates and stats.

Reception

''Empire Earth III'' garnered generally negative reviews, and holds an average of 51% on aggregate web site

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

gave it 3.5 of 10 saying "The developer's questionable sense of taste and humor is also on display in the visuals and sound... Empire Earth III has been dumbed down to the point of irrelevance."

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

gave it a 5.4 of 10 saying "the animations aren't very good and the performance leaves a lot to be desired".

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

had similar complaints: "bugs, muddled combat, or weak AI aren't things that strategy fans have to live with." Game Revolution gave the game a D−, stating "Honestly, if the game didn't try to make you hate it, it would be perfectly tolerable, maybe even enjoyable." Mad Doc Software has since removed all references to the development of ''Empire Earth III'' from their website.Mad Doc Software Homepage
Retrieved March 8, 2008. As of 2017,

Rebellion Developments Rebellion Developments Limited is a British video game developer based in Oxford. Founded by Jason Kingsley (businessman), Jason and Chris Kingsley in December 1992, the company is best known for ''Sniper Elite'' and multiple games in the ''Lis ...

owns the IP.

References

External links

''Empire Earth III''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

{{Rockstar New England 2007 video games Empire Earth Gamebryo games Games for Windows Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Panhistorical video games Real-time strategy video games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games