It's not often you get a mobile game and a history lesson all in one, but Age of Empires III manages to deliver just that. If the years 1500 to 1850 are a little hazy, you'll soon have played through several of the period's most important battles. And hopefully emerge from it feeling like you understand it a little better.
Of course, it's more likely you'll just want to build up armies and go off to pillage from other poor villages. And if you do, the game can certainly accommodate plenty of that, too.
For those not in the know, the Age of Empire games are massive on PC. They're the ultimate in resource management – enabling players to travel through countries, build settlements, live off the land, then trade and fight opposing armies and villages. On mobile, it's obviously a scaled down affair, but the core elements are identical.
Each mission starts you off on some barren land and with limited resources. By instructing your settlers to gather wood, food and gold, you build each of these resources and can use them in turn to construct buildings and train up soldiers.
Advertisement
A town centre makes it possible to create more settlers, while barracks deliver more infantry, from pikemen to buckaneers and mounted guardsmen. You also need to ensure there's enough housing for your settlement, then consider building optional constructions such as a market – where you can trade the plentiful resources you have for scarcer items, or more immediately useful things such as an armed outpost which will automatically rain fire down on invading armies.
While you build and expand, there's always a constant threat of invasion, not to mention pressing objectives to fulfill. You begin occupying a small area which opens out as you explore, although you can never be sure of what's lurking in the darkness as you advance.
The resource management side of the game is very well implemented and extremely well balanced. It's also very easy to control, considering the quite complex array of choices at your disposal. A thumbstick will enable you easy diagonal control, and selecting anything on the map is as simple as clicking on it to bring up a sub-menu, or highlighting the square you want a character to move to.
Unlike Age of Empires II, character AI isn't a problem here. But the combat is still a minor sticking point and can descend into a messy affair. Once enemy soldiers enter the screen, the best tactic is generally to select a division from your army – by clicking on a soldier twice – then choosing an enemy for them to attack. Continuing to select enemies seems to keep your soldiers on them, otherwise they seem to just stop fighting. Which is somewhat disconcerting.
One nifty feature is being able to pause the game and strategise your fight from there. So you can order your soldiers, and they'll carry out the order once you un-pause the game. It's the best way of stopping three-quarters of your troops being slain before you've registered what's happening.
Another new element is the Home City screen, which simply gives the game another layer of strategy. As you progress, your Home City becomes more powerful and able to support you with item drop-offs. At the start, you can mostly select from essentials such as food, but advancing through the ages upgrades these bonuses to cannons and musketeers.
As well as its lengthy Campaign, playable as either a veteran or recruit, there are 31 Skirmish missions to play through, which place you in various situations with timed objectives to carry out. You can also choose to side with an AI team, or play against one or two AI opponents. In terms of longevity, then, Age of Empires III certainly isn't lacking.
It's only the combat that's a bit of a letdown but it's hardly a deal breaker. When looked at as a whole, this is one impressive strategy game for your mobile, and infinitely more fun than any history lesson you'll have had.
I can still remember back in the day when I bought my first Pentium 3, 500 megahertz computer system with 128mb ram and a 16mb TNT 2 graphics card. Those specifications may seem laughable compared with today's sophisticated technology but at that time it was a hardcore gaming dream. I was a die hard sports fan and a RPG/RTS fanatic, so the collection stored on my mere 15GB hard drive included some of my all time favorite classic games. Up on till today I still have that machine alongside my powerhouse Pentium 4 for playing network games with friends. One of those games that my faithful aging computer is still proud to have installed on its hard drive is Microsoft's Age of Empires. It was a mammoth game that quite simply defied all the boundaries of time travel and gave you that opportunity to experience history in the eye of the conquerors themselves and simulate your own style of ancient warfare on the battlefields with different countries. My TNT 2 card really boasted it's capabilities in processing the gorgeous isometric graphics on my bulky CRT 17'" monitor. The crisp visuals spanned through the evolution of man complimented the upgradeable in-depth army units and iconic siege weapons, well drawn legendary heroes and foes, beautifully rendered building structures, inspiring landscape modeling and superb music that provided the tension and carnage in leading your empire to victory or defeat.
A decade has passed since the uprising of the first Age of Empires and the adored sequel, along with a number of expansion packs to enhance your strategy experience for the PC. The latest in the series, Age of Empires 3 was definitely no disappointment and you could understand why it took Microsoft so many years to develop it's genius brand and once again be coroneted as King on the PC platform. So could it still reign supreme on conversion to mobile?
Well I wasn't too impressed with the first Age of Empires when it made it's much anticipated debut on the mobile scene. It was clogged with control issues and the AI for me was clearly diagnosed with amnesia that was un-responsive to my commands. It seemed like a rushed project that didn't want to be too ambitious on mobile. I was hoping that the latest installment from Glu wouldn't have the reminiscent flaws of the first and showcase a more positive attitude in taking the game to a new level on mobile. If you haven't been exposed to Age of Empires on the PC or haven't had the opportunity to play the first game on mobile then you will vastly discover the core of history with good micro management of resources to build new structures, advancing through the epochs and recruiting armies to conquer your adversaries.
Add to del.icio.us
Digg this 
Post to Furl
Add to reddit
Add to myYahoo!
Add to GameGrep
