Age of Discovery
Much like previous games in the Age series, Age of Empires III will feature
four ages: Discovery, Colonial, Industrial, and Imperial. You'll find your self as one of eight civilizations, including the
English, French, and Spanish, landing on the shores of the New World. From your landing, you'll have to build up your base,
much like other Age games, until you can challenge your opponents.
One of the strong points of Age of Empires III is going to be its graphics,
and Ensemble Studios had poured much effort into that, with more programmers working on graphics alone than the entire Age
of Kings. The game will be compliant with Direct X9 and Shader Model 3.0; it will employ the Havok physics engine so that
units will fly about accordingly as they are hit, and artillery shells will realistically take a building down, piece by piece;
dynamic shadows and lighting in Age of Empires III will make the world really feel like day or night. And to top all that,
one programmer has been dedicated to the game's water graphics so the seas and ponds are more than just patches of blue.
Age of Empires III features native tribes that grant you unique units, weapons,
and more knowledge of the land. You can have these native tribes join then as allies by building trading posts next to the
natives' camps. Some of the 12 or so native tribes with whom you can deal with will be the Aztecs, Cherokee, Comanche, Iroquois,
and Sioux. As well, having alliances with four different tribes or having four different trading posts is one of the victory
conditions to be featured in the game.
Ensemble Studios is bringing the idea of Home Cities into the genre for
the multiplayer aspect of the game, cities that you can interact with and that will change and grow as a you gain more experience
in the New World. While this experience will certainly be gained from multiplayer games, it's not for certain if skirmishes
with the AI will also count. This will be sort of like RPGs, and the upgrades your cities receive will carry over from game
to game, starting out small and growing as you gain experience. Within these home cities, you can change and personalize the
appearance of buildings, find out what the residents of your city are thinking, or hire mercenaries to help you in the New
World. With higher levels, cities can give you access to new types of units and reinforcements, or completely irrelevant additions
to your city, like mimes. Ensemble Studios will be using a built-in matchmaking system, with city levels as part of the criteria.
There will be a number of changes in how the economy in Age of Empires III
is run. Gone are the days of drop-off points - once a villager chops down a tree or skins a deer, the resources are deposited
in your stockpile. Age of Empires III will have just three resources: food, wood, and coin, though the type you find will
vary depending on the climate you find yourself in.
The single-player campaign in Age of Empires III will be character driven,
following the Scottish Black family through about 24 scenarios and 3 Acts. You'll be able to participate in historical events,
like the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and even some South American Revolutions, while meeting characters
like George Washington along the way. Each scenario will be about 40 minutes long, featuring cut-scenes; in-game cinimatics;
hours of voiceovers; and a music score made just for the game comprising of both folk ballads and performances by the Northwest
Symphony.
