Age of Empires 3 review

If you like strategy, then you should defintely be familiar with this series. It was one of the fathers of the genre. With this newest installment, not much changes. They updated the engine, aged up the game ( it went from swords and bows in AOE2 to rifles and cannons in AOE3). The biggest change however, is not in new units, but the cities you play as. In the past games, you would choose your civ while setting up the game. They were all balanced and each one had pros and cons. Now the new system allows you to choose your civ and upgrade its shipments, along with naming it's explorer. You can then level up your civ and gain new shipments. A shipment is a one time boost, for example I could get 5 or so musketeers from one. Each shipment is treated as a card, and everytime you level up your civ you get to pick a new one. To level up your civ, kill enemies and do other useful things to add experience to your civ. Once you have a predetermined amount, you level up get a new card. Once your done messing around with all that stuff and decide to take your new civ for a test drive, you will have to wait to get to the right age to use your shipment. You get new shipments ( in game, that is) by amassing a certain amount of exp. You need more exp for each shipment.

The basic gameplay is very simple: Collect resources, build troops, get more resoucres, age up, rinse and repeat. This simple formula is easy to get a basic grasp for, but very difficult to master. It has some flaws, such as bad pathfinding( if I tell you to get food, dont walk through the enemys foward base!) and some civs are underpowered, but overall, this is a must for fans of the series and definetly worth checking out for strategy gamers.
Overall 8.5 out of 10
P.S check ni tomorrow, when I will probaly review the expansion pack, The War Cheifs( unless some really urgent comes up).