Empire Earth was never a particularly good strategy game, as far as RTS' went. Age of Empires 2 continues to be more populated, balanced and stable, and arguable more fun, and Rise of Nations would soon come and totally blow Empire Earth out of the water using its own concept. Empire Earth really is an obvious test of concepts, many of which would now be considered poorly planned or explained. For example, the age system is GIGANTICALLY bloated, holding around fifteen different ages, and you must wait multiple ages before you can even get farms, leading to most high skill ceiling games being finished before you can even get crossbows. Units generally follow a rock/paper/scissors balancing, but which units are weak to which is never explained, except for very briefly in the tutorial, for one spearman unit. Balancing also goes out of the window around the time you get guns. For example, some hero units (Otto Von Bismarck especially) are more effective than any slow hero that comes later, due to the fact that their unit speed actually allows them to keep up with your later era armies. The AI is probably the best example of its age. It lacks strategic depth and must cheat to survive, spamming whatever unit is counter to what is most prevalent in your army. It will also cheat out hundreds of units in mere minutes, and will use them without mercy. It is entirely possible for an AI civilization which is nearly completely destroyed and should have no resources to almost immediately build multiple nuclear bombers and devastate your invading forces, then rebuild as though it were nothing. EE is still very fun, especially with friends. It is not as balanced as some other RTS, but multiplayer is very solid, be it fighting against your friends or co-oping against an all-seeing AI. If you are used to the clunk and experimental aspects of games in the early 2000s, you should have no trouble enjoying this game. If you are not, it's best to avoid it. I'd rate it 3.5 if I could.
