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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Amazing price for amazing game!
By Gamer B.
i just bougt this game $4.99 with coupon. then i activated and installed with steam application. game includes AoE III, Asian Dynasties and Warchiefs expansion packs. you can play all this contents online. if you want to play expansion pack games, you have to go this directory: "C:\Windows\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Age Of Empires 3\bin" and find out "Age3x.exe" for Asian Dynasties, and "Age3y.exe" for Warchiefs content. game works on win7 ultimate 64 bit pretty good. only one matter is, when i start up the game, aero theme close down and turn on basic mode. but after exit the game, theme goes aero again.thanks amazon team for this game and price.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Dumbed down Experience - Stick with AOE II
By J. Wang
Age of Empires was a once successful franchise that began its downfall shortly after reaching its zenith in the AOE II series. The gameplay was beautifully constructed, the 2-dimensional battles of monumental proportions made one excited to hop on and fight against the computer, or better yet, actual opponents. Today still, people deal with modern-pc incompatibilities in order to experience this game play.Age of Empires III takes you forward in time to the colonial period, involving lots of rifles and Native American settlements. You also receive by default (in skirmishes) hero characters with special abilities. Scattered across the maps are ruins that one can harvest for in-game perks. One is now able to gain experience, which allows you to call for supplies from your home country as you "gain levels".I am quite honestly disappointed in the game play. It feels too pandering, even on difficult settings.* You now only need three resources. Stone has been dropped from the game; instead you search for silver mines which harvest your gold (???). You are also able to build plantations, which provide you an unlimited source of money that can be harvested by 10 settlers for only a few hundred wood. Seriously? Why bother searching for any mines then?* Food is now basically unlimited as well. While in AOE II you were forced to grow crops, you now just have mills that yes, ten settlers can indefinitely harvest food. You can see here now, that all you need to do is have your settlers start out chopping wood like mad (with a few harvesting food to make more villagers) and once you get your mill and plantation up in the third age, you're home free.* Villagers no longer need to return supplies back to certain buildings. This means you can send someone across the map to chop wood, and it will immediately begin to trickle into your inventory. The same goes with the rest of the resources- no longer can you surprise your enemy's resource camps and kill them before they can return with their goods. Everything is automatically deposited.* There are now 'cards' and 'experience' you can use. By doing pretty much anything in the game, you gain experience, which in turn allows you to send supplies and resources from your motherland. Need outposts? Even a fortress? Sure thing! Leveling up your home city also lets you unlock decorations to make it look prettier. It does not actually affect game play, so I consider this a horrible waste of time.* Building limitations. You're limited to very few buildings in the skirmish mode, some of which you only get one. I say, if you have the resources, go ahead and build whatever you want! (On this note, fortresses also will train ANY unit you want, not only specials. I didn't like this feature either).* Resource trade depots. Now on the maps, there are trade routes (that build from a simple cart up to a railroad, which looks buggy as hell when it reaches the end of the line and freezes before spontaneously disappearing) that if you claim one of the spots with your explorer hero, you are able to claim tribute each time someone passes by. This can be in experience, or any resource you want. As time passes the tribute increases. Soon you will be able to receive several hundred (to even a thousand) units of tribute from just one pass, if you're able to hold the depots. (Which isn't hard when playing against AI, they take their time getting to the depots, and ignore yours once you've built it).* Native American Settlements. There are now settlements that you can 'claim' by building another trade depot. Doing this allows you to build additional warrior units from their tribes that does not affect your own personal population limits. They train quickly and cheaply, so if you're quick to grab these areas, you can easily raise 20+ ridiculously strong units in a very short amount of time.*Science is easy. It shouldn't be. I'm able to upgrade the majority of my research by the time I'm nearing the end of my Third Age. I have accumulated so many resources that it's just a moment's work to sift through available research opportunities, and I'm able to research everything within a few minutes. This shouldn't happen so easily, should it?The list goes on, but after several skirmishes on varied land, these changes from AOE II frustrate me. The game is now just too simple, too easy. Games that would normally last me a happy 5-6 hours now finish within 2-3. It's watered down, and even if I don't bother with using boosts from the home countries, I feel like there's no point.On top of this, you still have some problems dealing with running the game on Windows 7/8 platforms. As a digital download that's even available on Steam, I feel as though Microsoft should have focused less on decorative banners and more on the compatibility of a game /DESIGNED BY THEIR OWN COMPANY FOR THEIR OWN OPEhttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFg5vF5k8m69793IPna6Lm2UqbKMFb0DNOwoSl2eE7VlpmgzCyrGVA55llNK1GeUv3bXWvWSbQNmeECqpgZ7I-0TJh0W_TxOC3DSym2PL5JSrXG_4QsGQh7Ep1fTCBktK8Nhxot0rOh8Q/s1600/rating+4.png SYSTEM/.But there are some good things about this game as well.- The music in battle is great. They didn't spare much expense for this (instead of the warning trumpet in the last few games), and when you go into combat, a harrowing orchestra spins up from the depths of your computer's sound card, drawing you towards battle, as short as it is. You also hear the distant booms of cannons in the distance, signaling artillery attacks. These are nice additions to otherwise placid game play.- The graphics are definitely an improvement. Buildings slowly take visible damage and have animated collapses. The three dimensional figures look great. (Though I would still enjoy AOE II's two dimensional figures if the game play had been up to par).- You can actually download the game online! Very few of the AOE games are available for download, which is why I had to get AOE III to get my RTS fix... fixed. AOE II also takes forever to configure LAN/online games and requires lots of third party intervention, so I figured I might as well snag AOE III, because it couldn't be that bad compared to AOE Online, right? I wasn't wrong, but I wasn't very far from being wrong anyways.- Bulk training. You can now train in groups of 5 military units. This means if you're in a rut and are being attacked, you are able to pump out five units to come out of your building at once rather than just one to face any enemies in the surrounding areas. This is one of the few changes in game play that I appreciate.TL;DR - If you've never experienced AOE/AOEII game play, you should still be able to enjoy this game quite well. If you're hoping that AOE III will build upon the experience of the beautiful, medieval feel of AOE II, please don't expect much. The game play when compared is truly a let down, and for many people, you will find it just too simple and too placid.For a scant amount of money that I paid for this game, it was worth a shot, as I love the AOE series the best. But I doubt I will play this game much longer, before returning back to AOE II. I feel too guided in the game, too limited and pandered. I'm not a child who is experiencing their first RTS. Let me struggle a bit, and truly realize the joy of a /good/ game.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A great graphical improvement from Age of Empires 2, but...
By Will Abarca
I'm a big fan of the Age of Empires Series, I loved the graphics of this Ao3 collection, but in terms of gameplay you will find a way better Age of Empires 2, It's just a classical game with the perfect gameplay
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Cheaply made cable
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A good game, but not a revolution.
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