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Retro Review: Age of Empires III

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In retrospect, I can’t believe it took me this long to play Age of Empires III.

A battle in the Rockies in Age of Empires IIIEven if MMORPGs have become my focus these days, I grew up loving the real time strategy genre, and it still feels the most like home to me. When I think of the games that defined my childhood, nearly all of them are RTS games: names like StarCraft, WarCraft, and Age of Empires.

I can’t even begin to count the number of hours I lost to the Age of Empires series. I remember playing the original Age of Empires with my best friend online — my very first online gaming experience. I remember pitting my Mongol horse archer armies against the AI in a rough estimate of eleventy bajillion skirmishes in AoE 2.

The Age of Empires series sparked my interest in history. I spent many hours researching ancient cultures, particularly the Mongol hordes, because I wanted to learn more about the civilizations I’d been playing as.

I also loved the Age of Mythology spin-offs, and they helped to kick-start my lifelong love of ancient mythology.

But Age of Empires III was another game that came out during that period where Real Life prevented me from gaming. Even when I did return to the realm of pixelated slaughter, it sort of got put on the backburner of my mind.

A battle in Age of Empires IIII suppose it’s down to the fact that, for whatever reason, I never had much interest in history after the Middle Ages but before World War 2 — the period AoE 3 focuses on.

Still, it seems silly that it took me this long to play it.

Comfortably familiar:

Mechanically, AoE 3 changes little from the previous games in the series. The basic formula remains unchanged from the original: Begin with a town center and some villagers, gather resources, advance through the ages, and eventually build yourself into a mighty military power and crush your enemies.

Stone has been removed as a resource, and there’s now one more age, but those are about the only major changes to economics, at least for the vanilla civilizations. The native and Asian civilizations added in its expansions have some unique economic mechanics, such as the native fire pit, which provides powerful buffs when villagers are assigned to dance at it, and the Asian civilizations’ export resource, which can be used to recruit European support.

Similarly, the military mechanics are a familiar rock/paper/scissors set-up, only slightly altered by the more advanced technologies of the setting. Basically, infantry have guns instead of swords now, but they still counter cavalry.

A battle during the Japanese campaign of Age of Empires IIIAoE 3 definitely lacks innovation, but I’m inclined to file that under, “Not fixing what wasn’t broken.” They had a winning formula with the previous games, and I don’t see why they should’ve changed it. I found a pleasant sense of nostalgia to going through the old base-building

And there are a few significant updates.

One is that players now begin each game with an explorer unit. These are similar to the heroes from Age of Mythology: They’re more powerful than standard units, have special abilities, and can be revived if killed. They can also collect treasures hidden around the map, ranging from small boosts of resources to units that will join your army.

Explorers are hardly game-changers, but searching for treasures does help make the early game a bit more interesting.

The other main addition is the home city system. Each civilization has a home city that can be leveled up like an RPG hero as you play the game. As your city levels, it gains access to more and more powerful shipments, which are boosts that can be called upon during a game. Shipments can be anything from extra resources, to more units, to powerful upgrades for your forces.

I’m not sure how I feel about home cities. There’s certainly nothing bad about them, but aside from speeding up and streamlining the game slightly with shipments, they don’t really add much. Your customization options are never great enough that it starts to feel like it’s “your city,” and shipments, while plenty useful, are never game-changing enough to feel all that exciting.

The home city screen in Age of Empires IIII suppose there’s something to be said for the persistent progression between battles, but I feel that home cities are somewhat a case of wasted potential.

The one other change is that the single player campaigns are now fictional stories rather than being based on actual events — barring the Asian campaigns, which are more historically based.

I’m not happy with this change. I preferred the historical epics of the original games — they were a very rare case where a video game actually did make learning fun. The new stories don’t have the same historical weight to them.

As for the stories themselves, they’d best be described as “adequate.” They’re not bad, but they’re not especially memorable — with the possible exception of the Sioux campaign, which I greatly enjoyed.

Old school rules:

The thing I most enjoyed about AoE 3 was its old school RTS feel, particularly its slower pace.

When I think about my fondest RTS memories from my youth, I think of epic, brutal scenarios played out over days. The sort of games where nearly every resource is mined out, where bases change hands multiple times, where countless digital soldiers have lost their lives in back and forth battles.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn in Age of Empires IIIAs much as I love the innovations of games like StarCraft II and Warcraft III, they don’t quite bring that same feeling of epic war that RTS games can capture so well.

AoE 3 has that in spades. While some missions are hurried, plenty more are lengthy brawls of the like to bring glee to any RTS fan’s heart.

Even in the shorter missions, I often found myself delaying my own victory just so I could spend more time exploring, upgrading, and building my civilization. After the over-caffeinated intensity of StarCraft II, the more relaxed pace is incredibly refreshing.

I also quite enjoyed the skirmish versus AI mode. Much as I think Blizzard is the master of the RTS genre, they’ve never managed to get their versus AI matches to a decent place. The AI is always incredibly predictable, one-dimensional, and just plain wonky in its strategies.

The AI in AoE 3 is much more balanced. There are a variety of difficulty settings providing appropriate experiences for all skill levels, and the AI is capable of executing relatively complex strategies effectively.

An interesting twist this time around is that each civilization has a unique AI personality based on a corresponding historical figure. These personalities all have distinctive playstyles, usually relating to their civilization’s strengths, and that adds a fair degree of variety to the versus AI matches. A battle against Henry the Navigator plays out very differently from one against Ivan the Terrible, even with all other factors being equal.

An army of Indian units in Age of Empires IIIIt’s also amusing that the personalities are fully voiced, and will sometimes taunt you or otherwise communicate, and just like their strategies, their styles of communicating vary wildly from one to another. Napoleon is a condescending prick, whereas Hiawatha is a noble, poetic soul.

Aesthetics:

The graphics of AoE 3 have held up surprisingly well, considering it’s getting pretty old in video game terms. The land units don’t look the best up close, but the environments are still very pleasing to the eye, and the ships are spectacular.

There are also some very impressive combat physics. Ships and buildings will not only catch fire when attacked, but they can have large pieces blown clean off. I’ve rarely seen the like even in much more recent games. Large-scale naval battles are particularly spectacular as masts topple, the air fills with cannon smoke, and shards of wood and broken beams splash into the surrounding waters with every brutal impact.

The music is pleasant enough, if not particularly memorable. The sound effects are good, especially the cannons, which provide satisfyingly visceral booms with every shot.

What I really enjoyed about the sound design was the continuing tradition of units speaking in their civilizations’ native tongues. Its fascinating to hear all these exotic languages from around the world. I particularly enjoyed the musical words of the Indian units.A naval battle in Age of Empires IIIVerdict:

If there is anything to complain about in Age of Empires III, it would perhaps be a lack of ambition. There are some underdeveloped features, and there aren’t a lot of mind-blowingly awesome moments to be had.

But honestly, I’m reaching. There might be areas where it could have been better, but I can think of nothing about AoE 3 that’s actually bad. Games really don’t get more solid or polished than this. This is pretty much a flawless mechanical execution of a real time strategy game.

8.5/10 In the ludicrously unlikely event that you’re a strategy fan who hasn’t picked up AoE 3 yet, do so right the Hell now.

Reminder: World Spectrum holiday sale

In case you missed it, I’m holding a sale on my World Spectrum novels from now until January 1. You can pick up the entire series for under $5, and they’re free of DRM, so they also make a great gift option.

Review: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, and a Brief Rant

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One of my biggest complaints about the current state of the gaming industry is that demos seem to have hone the way of the dodo. I remember a time when every gaming magazine would come with a CD packed with demos, and rare indeed was the game that didn’t offer a demo of some sort.

My blog's bannerNowadays, demos are almost unheard of, and it baffles me. I will rarely take a chance on a game unless I can play a demo first. I usually only make exceptions if I have a very good reason to know I’ll like a game, such as it being a continuation of a franchise I enjoyed in the past.

With something like a movie, you can generally get a good idea of whether or not you’ll like it by looking at trailers and seeing who the actors, writers, and director are. Video games are a lot more complex. An otherwise excellent game could be ruined by one intolerable gameplay error, and what’s intolerable could very wildly from one person to another. So it’s important to be able to play a game before you buy it.

I’ve encountered many games that sounded amazing until I played them. Similarly, I’ve sometimes tried a demo for a game I never had much interest in, only to discover it was far better than I could have imagined.

And that brings us to today’s topic.

The Helsing: An Unexpected Purchase

A hidden lab in The Incredible Adventures of Van HelsingA few days back, I was perusing Steam’s autumn sale items, and noted The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing for $6. It was only the low price that got me interested at all, as the name sounded very cheesy.

Reading its store page didn’t give me much more cause for confidence. The developer was an Eastern European indie company I’ve never even heard of, and it sounded like nothing but a cheap Diablo clone with a goofy premise.

However, it did have surprisingly good ratings on Metacritic, and more importantly, it had a demo, so I thought I might as well download the free sample and give it a try.

And to my amazement, it turned out to be of a much higher quality than its cheesy name and bargain price would lead one to believe, and before I knew it, I had purchased the full version and was gleefully wading through waves of werewolves and other beasties, swimming in loot and loving every moment of it.

Some of my early preconceptions proved accurate. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is very much a Diablo clone, though a well-executed one, and it is quite cheesy, but it’s cheesy in an intentionally campy, tongue-in-cheek kind of way that proved quite charming.

The woods of BorgoviaThe woods of Borgovia in The Incredible Adventures of Van HelsingRather than following the iconic vampire slayer, this game is about his son, who also became a monster hunter — one of the game’s running gags is people always confusing him for his father, no matter how many times he corrects them. He has been called to Romania Borgova to once again save the locals from evil as his father did.

As it turns out, Van Helsing Senior might have done more harm than good. With all the ghouls of the night driven back, the people turned to the light of science and reason — only to have their country usurped by mad scientists. Borgova is now being torn apart by the war between fantastical beasts and steampunk abominations, and it’s up to Van Helsing to save the day.

The plot’s a bit thin, but it’s mostly just an excuse to run around slaughtering cyborg werewolves. It’s standard action RPG fare: click, kill, loot, repeat. But the combat’s fairly exciting, with fast-pacing, a decent level of challenge, and copious enemies for you to massacre.

Van Helsing also features surprisingly good graphics, surprisingly good music, surprisingly good voice acting… Surprisingly good is sort of the slogan for this game.

Lady and the traps:

Van Helsing does have some noteworthy features to set it apart from the pack. One is a companion NPC who assists you throughout the game, the Lady Katarina.

The obligatory spider filled mine in The Incredible Adventures of Van HelsingKatarina is a snarky, adventurous Romanian Borgovian noblewoman who bears a debt to the Van Helsing line and thus assists them in their adventures. Oh, and she’s a ghost, too.

Although the main storyline may be a bit weak, the banter between Katarina and Van Helsing is very entertaining, and shows some sophistication in its writing. While they are constantly teasing each other and trading jibes, you can tell there’s actually a pretty deep camaraderie between Katarina and Van Helsing.

It’s not often you see this kind of male/female “comrade in arms” story in video games, and it’s a refreshing change of pace from the usual “the girl is just there for eye candy” style of things.

Katarina is also pretty handy from a gameplay perspective, as well. Her skills, stats, gear, and AI are all heavily customizable, and she can serve a number of purposes. You could build her as a melee tank, or a ranged glass cannon, or anything in-between. She can also help you gather and store loot — you can even decide what kinds of loot she’ll pick up or ignore — and you can send her back to town to sell loot and buy potions while you continue your slaughter.

The other main distinguishing feature is Van Helsing’s oh-so-subtly named Secret Lair. At several points throughout the game, the Lair will come under attack by the bad guys, and you’ll be tasked with defending it. But Van Helsing’s strength isn’t enough on its own, so you need to set up traps and automated defenses in the surrounding tunnels to help hold off the waves of foes, effectively blending an action RPG with a tower defense game.

Defending the Lair in The Incredible Adventures of Van HelsingThis is a pretty clever idea, and it’s executed well. The RPG combat blends seamlessly with the tower defense concept. My only complaint would be that this feature isn’t utilized enough, with only a handful of quests featuring the Lair coming under attack.

There are a few other ways Van Helsing manages to stand out. While the number of skills you can have equipped at a time is very limited, you can empower your two main attacks with various power-ups to give them additional effects. Some are as simple as increasing the attack’s damage, but others are more interesting — such as restoring health for each enemy hit.

I was also impressed by the depth of gear customization. There are extensive and easy to use systems for adding stats to gear via enchanting and slotting essences. There are also some items that actually level up as you use them, gaining new affixes based on factors like the number of enemies killed with it equipped. This is an idea so clever I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before.

I’ve played a lot of games focused on loot, but this is perhaps the only one where loot actually felt interesting to me.

Complaints:

There are a few flaws with this game, though they’re fairly minor.

The Old Town of Borgova in The Incredible Adventures of Van HelsingBy far the most egregious is the fact that there are only three classes, and two require paid DLC to unlock. Normally, I’d consider this an unforgivable cash grab, but there are a few mitigating factors that make it tolerable, if still a little distasteful.

One is that Van Helsing is an incredibly inexpensive game, even if you don’t get it on sale. You could buy it and all of its DLC and still pay less than you would for most other recent games.

The other is that the base class, occult hunter, offers a lot of different ways to play. Magic, firearms, and swords are all options. Focus on one, or use them all. So even if you don’t pay for the extra classes, there are still options.

Another issue is that the difficulty is oddly tuned. Rather than a steady curve, it tends to peak and plateau. When you come to a new area, you’ll often find yourself getting curbstomped until you level up a few times, and then things balance out. Until you get to the next area.

Also, while both the environments and the soundtrack are quite lovely, they both lack variety, and after a while, everything starts to look and sound the same.

A night battle in The Incredible Adventures of Van HelsingVan Helsing is a short game, too. It does have some endgame play options, such as scenarios with unique objectives and a “never ending story” mode, but I don’t see this is a game with a lot of longevity. Though for such a low price tag, it’s hard to complain.

The other thing that bugged me is that there’s very little visual customization. Even equipping a whole new set of gear has almost no noticeable effect on Van Helsing’s appearance, and Katarina’s look never changes at all.

Conclusion:

As much as I love high concept games like Mass Effect, The Secret World, and Remember Me, sometimes it’s nice to have a game that’s not trying to be anything more than simple fun. And that’s exactly what The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is: fun. Nothing more, nothing less.

Overall rating: 7.5/10 Not the greatest RPG of all time, but an enjoyable adventure nonetheless, and it more than justifies its paltry $15 price tag.

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And to think, I never would have played it without a demo. Developers of the world, take note.