Welcome to Hot Keys, a blog series about my love for and history playing RTS’s. This week, it’s the finale of the Age of Empires series, with the weakest entry in the trilogy, Age of Empires III.

Well, here we are at the end of the Age of Empires trilogy. Age of Empires III was an okay game, and that’s precisely what hurt it the most for me. It wasn’t straight up bad or broken, but the direction they went in did not suit the original formula of building up a civilization from scratch.

So AoE III was a huge disappointment coming off Age of Kings for me. This installment took the timeline to the “Age of Discovery”, with older factions like Vikings, Japanese, Saracens, etc. and replacing them with New World powers like Portugal and Spain. The gameplay was the same as always, except now instead of spawning on a map with a horse scout, you got a semi-hero unit in the form of a fur trapper-esque guide that could capture trading outposts, and was supposed to act as a hero unit to supplement your forces. However, I found him kind of useless, with such little health and unhelpful spells that didn’t make much of a dent against enemies.

Also, the game had an odd supply system I never fully understood where you got certain cards that would act as supply drops from the home country to the Americas. There were cards that gave you like, 3 special elite cavalry, or a bunch of workers, or some soldiers. I actually never understood how to get these cards, since they came from a deck that each player had and couldn’t be reused. It seemed like a really rushed idea, since these cards were supposed to be used to give players a momentary edge, but none of the rewards were all that meaningful. I mean, what are 3 slightly, more powerful cavalry units going to do against 20 musketmen? Not much more than 3 regular units.

And, well, I don’t know…I just didn’t have that same wow factor that kept me hooked in the other two games. The FOV on the screen was smaller, due to a larger (in my opinion) bottom UI that made me feel like I couldn’t see enough of the screen. The units and factions, which were such an integral part of distinguishing them in II, were boilerplate and bland. What difference did it make if I played England or Spain? Flag design, sure, but everything about the game felt so bland and uninteresting. Knights and castles definitely worked better than muskets and trading outposts. There was a cool monster truck cheat code though, that I did enjoy. I think using that truck was the most fun I actually had in that game.

In the end, I think the most damning thing I can say about this game is that I didn’t spend enough time with it to get something meaningful out of the game. One of the few innovations I remember liking was building up this little town they had in the menu that somehow affected what kinds of supply drops you could get during a match. It was complicated, and I never actually figured it out. It makes me sad knowing that the team at Ensemble probably rushed to get this game out, and before they could follow up on this picture they put in the game's art book were forced to do Halo Wars and were immediately disbanded afterwards. Think of it, AoE in SPACE! Oh well, games and studios come and go, but it’s the great things they did with I and II that I remember most, and those are products that stand the test of time.

Thanks everyone for reading! And hey, if anyone out there actually liked this game, tell me why! It's always nice to have a perspective on things. Anyway, now that I’ve wrapped up this little miniseries about AoE, I can finally move on to some different and even more obscure RTS’s! Tune in next week for more!

Welcome to Hot Keys, a blog series about my love for and history playing RTS’s. This week, it’s the finale of the Age of Empires series, with the weakest entry in the trilogy, Age of Empires III.

Well, here we are at the end of the Age of Empires trilogy. Age of Empires III was an okay game, and that’s precisely what hurt it the most for me. It wasn’t straight up bad or broken, but the direction they went in did not suit the original formula of building up a civilization from scratch.

So AoE III was a huge disappointment coming off Age of Kings for me. This installment took the timeline to the “Age of Discovery”, with older factions like Vikings, Japanese, Saracens, etc. and replacing them with New World powers like Portugal and Spain. The gameplay was the same as always, except now instead of spawning on a map with a horse scout, you got a semi-hero unit in the form of a fur trapper-esque guide that could capture trading outposts, and was supposed to act as a hero unit to supplement your forces. However, I found him kind of useless, with such little health and unhelpful spells that didn’t make much of a dent against enemies.

Also, the game had an odd supply system I never fully understood where you got certain cards that would act as supply drops from the home country to the Americas. There were cards that gave you like, 3 special elite cavalry, or a bunch of workers, or some soldiers. I actually never understood how to get these cards, since they came from a deck that each player had and couldn’t be reused. It seemed like a really rushed idea, since these cards were supposed to be used to give players a momentary edge, but none of the rewards were all that meaningful. I mean, what are 3 slightly, more powerful cavalry units going to do against 20 musketmen? Not much more than 3 regular units.

And, well, I don’t know…I just didn’t have that same wow factor that kept me hooked in the other two games. The FOV on the screen was smaller, due to a larger (in my opinion) bottom UI that made me feel like I couldn’t see enough of the screen. The units and factions, which were such an integral part of distinguishing them in II, were boilerplate and bland. What difference did it make if I played England or Spain? Flag design, sure, but everything about the game felt so bland and uninteresting. Knights and castles definitely worked better than muskets and trading outposts. There was a cool monster truck cheat code though, that I did enjoy. I think using that truck was the most fun I actually had in that game.

In the end, I think the most damning thing I can say about this game is that I didn’t spend enough time with it to get something meaningful out of the game. One of the few innovations I remember liking was building up this little town they had in the menu that somehow affected what kinds of supply drops you could get during a match. It was complicated, and I never actually figured it out. It makes me sad knowing that the team at Ensemble probably rushed to get this game out, and before they could follow up on this picture they put in the game's art book were forced to do Halo Wars and were immediately disbanded afterwards. Think of it, AoE in SPACE! Oh well, games and studios come and go, but it’s the great things they did with I and II that I remember most, and those are products that stand the test of time.

Thanks everyone for reading! And hey, if anyone out there actually liked this game, tell me why! It's always nice to have a perspective on things. Anyway, now that I’ve wrapped up this little miniseries about AoE, I can finally move on to some different and even more obscure RTS’s! Tune in next week for more!

AOE3 was my favorite. By like, way far.

Nice piece, and a great idea for a blog series. I neveer made it to AoE3 since I didn't really like Age of Mythology very much, so it's interesting to hear your perspective. My friends and I had a lot of fun with the first two games in the series. Rise of Nations has eclipsed the Age of Empires series as my "Civilization RTS" of choice since its release. I still have it installed, and still have the disc in the drive (because what else re you going to do with a disc drive?). 

@djhicks1: Why, exactly? I don't think it's necessarily a bad RTS game; it's pretty competent. However, I think it lacks any sort of charm or personality.