I bought this game a couple of months ago and am disappointed. I loved playing random maps on Age of Empires back in the day, and was hoping to get something similar with Empire Earth. Unfortunately, the AI cheats heavily and in a way that takes away most of the fun in random map games. Most notably, the AI cheats itself resources. The more you attack the computer, the more resources it cheats itself and the more units it can build. A victory due to economic superiority is not possible, because the computer always outgathers you, no matter how many mines you control. Some people are going to tell you to turn off cheating in the scenario editor. This seems to actually turn off the resource cheating. However, the AI still gives itself free Epoch advances. This also seems to be depending on how fast you advance. Therefore it is not possible (in the early game) to have more advanced units than the AI. In later stages of the game the AI cheats a bit less. It is very sad that the cheating AI takes most of the fun out of the game, because the game is actually pretty good, much better than Age of Empires. The different Epochs have a great feel about them, the attack triangles are great (unit A wins vs. B, which wins vs. C, which wins vs. A), and the ability to improve specific stats (range, speed, hp, attack, ...) of units is nice. You should definitely get this game if you are not so much into random games, or don't care if the AI cheats. If you prefer to give the AI a head start to having a cheating AI, don't waste your money on Empire Earth. Without the always cheating AI, I would have given this game 5 stars. It really is a nice game, as you can read in the many other reviews. But it's only 3 stars for me, because it is not much fun, and didn't keep my interest for long.
