Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Posted November 12, 2007
Developed as an expansion for the popular Age of Empires series, The Asian Dynasties adds three new campaigns filled with levels and based on three different Asian empires. Interestingly, this is the first expansion to the series that’s been developed outside of Microsoft. Big Huge Games took over the helm from Ensemble Studios to give the strategy game a Far East flavor. 
The presentation is very similar to the original title and the cinematic qualities of the game really offer a unique experience for those familiar with the strategy genre. The narrative deals with the stories of Japanese, Chinese and Indian dynasties. Each story is well versed in historical references from their civilizations, but do offer the occasional embellishment for added excitement. For instance, the Indian dynasty has to do with the East India Trading Company and their hold on the people of India. While the stories are rich in flavor, they do tend to be a bit transparent. Similar to the original titles, story twists are incredibly easy to predict and don’t offer much to a veteran of adventure games. Also, the Black family isn’t included in the narrative as it’s all about the Asian empire this go around.
Gameplay
The expansion works essentially the same as the original. When creating a new development, players are given a group of settlers that will provide the area with the essential resources: food, wood, and silver. With these resources continually being replenished, building a defendable town is quite simple. Also, the home city can provide shipments of the essential resources along with other items such as soldiers, artillery, or building structures.
New to the expansion, upgrading your civilization involves adding Wonders to your settlement rather than adding to the Town Hall. Wonders are massive structures that imply wealth and power over the populous as well as offering bonuses to your town. The Wonders are usually statues or massive buildings that tower over the entire area. The bonuses can be anything from resource buffs to A.I. behavior modification. Each offer a low level of strategy that helps the area flourish over time. The Wonders idea also works very well with the Asian theme. The foreign consulate is another feature new to the series when allows players to team up with a foreign power for troop support. By paying tribute to a country in Europe, players will extra tops of extra support for their dominance of the Empire.
The management of a mass of attacking forces is still as annoying at the original. Various types of military resources can only move as fast as the weakest link. Many times, the player is forced to micromanage the different types of soldiers, which can become tiresome and difficult. That's a caveat of all RTS games, but it seems overly bothersome in Asian Dynasties.
Aside from the single player game, the skirmish mode is back for entertaining custom battles. You are given the option of starting in a particular Age and basically progressing until all of the competition is destroyed. Additionally, all the elements from previous Empire games are allowed to work with the expansion. If you want to pit your Japanese army against a completely different empire from the original, feel free.
The multiplayer has the same modes as the original and offers heightened intensity. By adding the irrationality of human opponents into the mix, multiplayer sessions can last anywhere from a matter of minutes to several hours. Additionally, King of the Hill has been included to increase strategic thinking on the online battlefield. Basically, there is a defendable position at the center of the map which has to be held for a certain amount of time. New players will rush it immediately, but find themselves at a loss when a player who’s built up a massive army comes knocking on the front door. Once again, all the modes are an extremely enjoyable experience due to the added uncertainty of playing real people.
Graphics
Visually, I can’t see a major difference in the quality of the graphics engine. All the new building textures and excellent animal animations are wonderful, but don’t set the series apart from the original. Similar to the original, the character models aren’t diverse enough and often get confused with other soldiers. The character animations are top notch though, specifically animals like the giant elephants stomping around or the watching close knit battles unfold. The framerate can run into some problems on older computers. Pushing all the littler characters on the screen can be a bit much for an older video card.
Audio
Much of the music is carried over from the original and previous expansion, particularly during the slower sections of the campaign. Much of the sound effects seem tweaked or completely overhauled though. They had to add more animal sounds as well as a variety of battlefield ambient noise. Similar to the original, the voiceovers are perhaps the best quality of the title. The strong voice cast doesn’t have the same number of popular actors as the original, but accurately portrays their digital counterparts.
Conclusion
While I found the amount of gameplay to on the short side compared to the original which offered about 25 hours of game time, it’s still entertaining and a very well polished release. It offers a moderate amount of replay value on the harder levels of difficulty, but isn’t as entertaining after you heard the story on the first run-though. The multiplayer does give life to the title and it has also revitalized the number of people playing the original once again. Any fan of the series or general RTS fan should feel confident in picking up this release at a sale price of $20 this holiday season. Also, the Age of Empires III Gold pack is an excellent price for those new to the series as it includes the previous WarChiefs expansion pack.
The presentation is very similar to the original title and the cinematic qualities of the game really offer a unique experience for those familiar with the strategy genre. The narrative deals with the stories of Japanese, Chinese and Indian dynasties. Each story is well versed in historical references from their civilizations, but do offer the occasional embellishment for added excitement. For instance, the Indian dynasty has to do with the East India Trading Company and their hold on the people of India. While the stories are rich in flavor, they do tend to be a bit transparent. Similar to the original titles, story twists are incredibly easy to predict and don’t offer much to a veteran of adventure games. Also, the Black family isn’t included in the narrative as it’s all about the Asian empire this go around.
Gameplay
The expansion works essentially the same as the original. When creating a new development, players are given a group of settlers that will provide the area with the essential resources: food, wood, and silver. With these resources continually being replenished, building a defendable town is quite simple. Also, the home city can provide shipments of the essential resources along with other items such as soldiers, artillery, or building structures.
New to the expansion, upgrading your civilization involves adding Wonders to your settlement rather than adding to the Town Hall. Wonders are massive structures that imply wealth and power over the populous as well as offering bonuses to your town. The Wonders are usually statues or massive buildings that tower over the entire area. The bonuses can be anything from resource buffs to A.I. behavior modification. Each offer a low level of strategy that helps the area flourish over time. The Wonders idea also works very well with the Asian theme. The foreign consulate is another feature new to the series when allows players to team up with a foreign power for troop support. By paying tribute to a country in Europe, players will extra tops of extra support for their dominance of the Empire.
The management of a mass of attacking forces is still as annoying at the original. Various types of military resources can only move as fast as the weakest link. Many times, the player is forced to micromanage the different types of soldiers, which can become tiresome and difficult. That's a caveat of all RTS games, but it seems overly bothersome in Asian Dynasties.
Aside from the single player game, the skirmish mode is back for entertaining custom battles. You are given the option of starting in a particular Age and basically progressing until all of the competition is destroyed. Additionally, all the elements from previous Empire games are allowed to work with the expansion. If you want to pit your Japanese army against a completely different empire from the original, feel free.
The multiplayer has the same modes as the original and offers heightened intensity. By adding the irrationality of human opponents into the mix, multiplayer sessions can last anywhere from a matter of minutes to several hours. Additionally, King of the Hill has been included to increase strategic thinking on the online battlefield. Basically, there is a defendable position at the center of the map which has to be held for a certain amount of time. New players will rush it immediately, but find themselves at a loss when a player who’s built up a massive army comes knocking on the front door. Once again, all the modes are an extremely enjoyable experience due to the added uncertainty of playing real people.
Graphics
Visually, I can’t see a major difference in the quality of the graphics engine. All the new building textures and excellent animal animations are wonderful, but don’t set the series apart from the original. Similar to the original, the character models aren’t diverse enough and often get confused with other soldiers. The character animations are top notch though, specifically animals like the giant elephants stomping around or the watching close knit battles unfold. The framerate can run into some problems on older computers. Pushing all the littler characters on the screen can be a bit much for an older video card.
Audio
Much of the music is carried over from the original and previous expansion, particularly during the slower sections of the campaign. Much of the sound effects seem tweaked or completely overhauled though. They had to add more animal sounds as well as a variety of battlefield ambient noise. Similar to the original, the voiceovers are perhaps the best quality of the title. The strong voice cast doesn’t have the same number of popular actors as the original, but accurately portrays their digital counterparts. Conclusion
While I found the amount of gameplay to on the short side compared to the original which offered about 25 hours of game time, it’s still entertaining and a very well polished release. It offers a moderate amount of replay value on the harder levels of difficulty, but isn’t as entertaining after you heard the story on the first run-though. The multiplayer does give life to the title and it has also revitalized the number of people playing the original once again. Any fan of the series or general RTS fan should feel confident in picking up this release at a sale price of $20 this holiday season. Also, the Age of Empires III Gold pack is an excellent price for those new to the series as it includes the previous WarChiefs expansion pack.