Six years have flown by since Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings became one of the definitive real-time strategy games on the market. Age of Kings typified this style of gaming in many respects, but it innovated and improved the style in many others, establishing the template for untold numbers of historic real-time strategy games to come. Coming off the successful spin-off that was Age of Mythology, Ensemble Studios is back with another installment in the series that put the developer's name on the map. Age of Empires III advances the series hundreds of years into the future, trading swordsmen and catapults for musketeers and cannons, while keeping the series' signature formula basically intact. What's more, the game features some gorgeous visuals and an interesting, inventive twist in its persistent "home city" system. So it's unfortunate that the actual meat-and-potatoes combat of Age of Empires III didn't turn out better, since what ought to be the most fun and exciting part of the game is actually the part that feels like it's seen the fewest improvements.
When you get right down to it, Age of Empires III plays a lot like Age II. It's been simplified in a number of ways that fans of the past game will quickly notice and mostly appreciate, but the overall flow of gameplay remains very similar. You're put in charge of a fledgling colony in the New World, and you must deploy workers from your town center, who may build new structures and harvest the game's three resources: food, wood, and coin. Stone, which was a fourth resource in Age II, is no longer a factor, and you don't have to worry about creating resource drop-off sites this time around (settlers sent to chop wood, for instance, will just chop away without ever heading back to a town center or lumberyard). A marketplace structure centralizes economic upgrades, and mills and plantations can be built to produce an infinite supply of food and coin, respectively. So later on in a match, you can safely stop worrying about micromanaging your resource gathering--at least until your foes swoop in and damage your economic foundation.
The imperialistic premise of Age of Empires III sets up the game's most unique feature: the concept of you having a home city looking out for your fledgling colony. At any time during play, you may instantly cut to your home city, which will occasionally send you aid in the form of resource surpluses, economic and military upgrades, and reinforcements. You can gain access to these shipments by earning experience points, which happens automatically as you build up your base and--better yet--kill foes and blow up their buildings. Different shipments are available in different ages (at first you can get just modest economic boosts, while later you can get cannons and cavalry), and most may only be used once. So you constantly have to weigh strategic options, like whether it's best to request reinforcements to mount an offensive or best to keep the option around should your enemy mount an ambush. The shipments system is both easy to use and interesting, and it also thankfully promotes somewhat of a more aggressive, more forgiving style of play than Age of Empires II.What's more, your home city is permanent in that the experience you earn from one match to the next all adds up, gradually giving you access to more and more shipment options. You unlock these as "cards" every time your home city gains an experience level. More-powerful cards are available only when your city reaches level 10 (which you can reach after about that number of matches), and stronger ones are available at level 25. Certain cards have prerequisites, too, so the system is similar to a skill tree in a role-playing game.
In fact, Age III likens the home city concept to creating a character in an RPG, although the game's thin attempts to let you personalize your home city won't do much to make you grow attached to the place. But unlocking new cards can be pretty rewarding. You're limited to no more than 20 cards in a given match, but since it's possible to unlock many more than that, the game also invites you to build different decks to suit different situations. For example, shipments of free caravels and galleons won't be of much use to you in the Great Plains, but they'd certainly help when battling in the Caribbean. All eight cultures have different cards available to them (though many cards are shared in common), and ultimately you can use this system to add some panache to your playing style. One possible side effect of this system, though, is that it encourages you to pick a side and stick with it. When playing online, you can't just pick a random civ like you could in previous Age games, and you might not even want to anymore since it's tempting to want all your experience points going in to one bucket
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