One of the
silliest moments in cinematic history involved a cow, catapulted over a
castle wall at King Arthur's troops in Monty Python's The Holy Grail.
That said, Empires: Dawn of the Modern World does not intend to be a
silly game; cows, in this title, will be launched at enemies with
earnestness and devastating force.
Due out Fall 2003 for the PC through Rick Goodman's Stainless Steel
Studios and publisher Activision, this ambitious RTS will span the years
950AD to 1950AD, allowing players to test their military wits through
the Dark Ages, the Gunpowder Age, the Imperial Age and World Wars I and
II.
Arguably, the biggest difficulty faced by developers of RTS games is
striking a balance between opponents while making each group's
technology, weaponry, and units sufficiently unique to ensure long-term
playability. Historical RTS games face the additional burden of
maintaining some degree of historical accuracy.
Hence, the cowtapult. Livestock, particularly dead or pestilence ridden
livestock, were actually valued as catapult fodder during the Middle
Ages, both for their heft and their potential to spread serious diseases
after impact. Creatively drawing on those types of historical
innovations really helps level the playing field when, for example, a
player decides to pit the Medieval English against the Chinese, who had
already invented gunpowder in that era.
Later, players will be able to use unionized French road workers to
deploy a crushing array of speed bumps against WWII-era German tanks.
Vive la Resistance!
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Premise:
Empires, Dawn of the Modern World is a global RTS in which players can
control unique civilizations, including the English, Germans, Chinese
and Koreans across a timeline that spans from the Middle Ages to the
modern era. Players lead their nation's economic growth and military
campaigns in their effort to dominate the world. Each civilization
has its own historically accurate units and abilities to be used as
players command battles over land, sea and air.
Features:
Unique, Historic Civilizations: Each civilization features distinctive
gameplay based on its traditional strengths and weaknesses. The
English navy, for example, is exceptionally strong in the Gunpowder Age,
while Germans have the superior armor and infantry of WWII.
Land, sea and air units: As the game unfolds, ground troops will lay
down their swords in favor of guns as units ranging from early Chinese
war-kites to English ships, German Zeppelins and blitzkreig bombers keep
players engaged in both the air and sea.
Specialized Units and Attacks: Unique tech trees can be researched over
1,000 years, leading to weapons such as Chinese elephant-mounted units
and German V-2 rockets.
Single-Player and Multiplayer Modes: In single-player mode, gamers can
play randomly generated map games and do battle against up to seven
other AI opponents, or play story-based campaigns based on historical
military figures such as Richard the Lionheart, Admiral Yi or General
Patton. Multiplayer mode will allow players to either engage or
play alongside up to seven online opponents.
Graphics: A 3D graphics engine generates real-time
shadows, bump-mapped terrain and water, and features a camera that will
allow players to zoom in for action closeups.
Unfortunately,
out of the gate, EDMW may face some degree of flak from the fanboy
cadres of the Warcraft and Age of Empires franchises. Mr. Goodman's
Empire Earth (2001) certainly met with comparisons, both favorable and
unfavorable, to those titles.
Yet that's giving short shrift to Goodman's legacy. After all, as lead
designer of the original Age of Empires, the man put one of the wheels
on the RTS bandwagon. AoE still holds the dubious distinction of being
the only game I have ever had to physically destroy in order to tear
myself away. I bought another copy a month later. Seriously, that thing
should have included a 12-step program -- even lacking any
livestock-based attacks.
