Empire Earth 3 vs Europa Universalis: Rome
Empire Earth 3
Empire Earth 3 is unfortunately the final stopper to what had been a pretty solid real-time strategy game. What happened? Well, the game seemed to have went on a completely wrong route and ended up stripping itself of all the best parts in an attempt to borrow from other game franchises. Not to mention, their implementation, be it borrowed ideas or pretty good ideas of their own, is simply horrendous. However, all of these might not be apparent to players who have not played any of the Empire Earth games before so if you've seen good reviews of the game... well, this is probably the reason behind it.Empire Earth 3 has hammered in the final nail in the franchise's coffin and it's truly a pity. The series itself has plenty of potential and could have been as great as some of the classic real-time strategy games that are still very well-known today, but due to whatever reason, things happened, a poor game was rolled out, and everything just fell apart. Empire Earth 3 may not be worth buying for fans of the previous two Empire Earth games, but if you're a collector or if you're new to the series, you might still want to give it a try.
Europa Universalis: Rome
Europa Universalis: Rome brings players back to the ancient ages where Roman, Celtic, Greek, Egyptian and six other civilizations reigned dominant across the game's 53 different factions. Set in between the years 280 B.C. and 27 B.C, you'll get to not only rule but also guide the growth of your very own nation from being a fledgling into a country that the world will need to reckon with (if there are any nations left that you have yet to conquer or brought under your rule). The game retained much of what made the Europa Universalis franchise such as a success, including beautifully deisgned 3D topological maps, historically-accurate figure and events, as well as an insanely in-depth political landscape where you can forge an alliance as easily as you break one.There are also plenty of exciting changes and new features in this installment though. The important characters in the governance of your nation, for example, will develop new traits on their own through their interactions with other people in the game, much like how a human would, giving the game more of a challenge due to all the unpredictability. The military AI used here has been completely revised as well. In addition to the usual 32-player co-op, you can now play competitively against other players... up to 32 of them!
Europa Universalis: Rome is a decade old and as such, you may need to tap into some of the mods made by the game's community to help bring the game to a new level. That said, it's still a really good buy at the current discounted price and if you're a fan of grand strategy games, you should definitely get this one.