Empire Earth the Art of Conquest Screenshots The Final Say! Gameplay 8.5 Graphics 7.8 Sound 7.2 Value 8.5 Empire Earth - reviewed by Andrew B Review Date: 26 October 2002 Review Score: 8.5/10 Distributed by Vivendi Universal.

Empire Earth the Art of Conquest is the latest expansion pack for the highly popular real time strategy game called Empire Earth and contains a plethora of new features that will please both new and hardcore fans alike.  Empire Earth the Art of Conquest Features 3 New Epic Campaigns with 18 new scenarios Lead a Nation - Engage the enemy of blood soaked beaches of Iwo Jima in the World War II Pacific Theatre Conquer your enemies - Lead a union uprising on a Mars settlement in an all-new Age of Space campaign Forge an Empire - Witness the glorious rise of the Roman Empire from the front lines All New 15th Epoch - continue your civilization's glorious rise to power in the next frontier - Space Enhanced Online Play - Launch global warfare with intense multi-player battles with up to 8 opponents New Terrains and Graphics New Units, Weapons and Buildings   Empire Earth the Art of Conquest takes a dramatic turn from the previous game and offers a more centralised playing field that ranges from the glory of Ancient Rome to the wonders of space colonisation. If you haven't heard or seen Empire Earth, then you have obviously been living a very boring life for this game was given Real Time Strategy of the year by various publications world wide and features an amazing 3D engine that is based on a new Age of Empires engine. This game is an expansion pack and in order to play this game, you must have the original game installed. In its essence, the Art of Conquest is a real time strategy that is based over three thousands years of warfare.  Youmust basically build a variety of buildings in order to protect your people,feed your people and last but not least, make war with your people. Thefirst campaign in the game is based in Ancient Rome where you must lead yourpeople to conquer the known world. After completing the Roman campaign, you havethe chance to recreate or change history by playing the Pacific campaign wherethe allied forces must push back the forces of the Japanese. The final newcampaign is based on Mars where you must fight other Mars colonists in order tobecome supreme ruler of the Mars. There are a variety of new units in the Art ofConquest that range from Roman Centurions to the highly powerful and destructiveCapital Ships that can fly through space. The game also contains two newcivilizations that can be played in skirmish mode which are the Koreans and theJapanese.

Graphically, EmpireEarth the Art of Conquest is almost identical to its previous incarnation butwith slightly improved ingame graphics. The game is still stuck at a resolutionof 1024x768, so people who cannot display this resolution will be unable to playthis game. The graphics do look a little blocky but considering how much isgoing on at once, the developers have done an extremely good job in keepingeverything smooth. You can also zoom in and out of the action, either to seeyour Roman plebeians scavenging for gold or watching your Planetary Defenceshield in action. The Pacific campaign is probably the most graphically superiorcompared to other campaigns when it comes to the attention to detail such astrees, water, explosions and troop movements. The space campaigns look strangelyfamiliar to land based campaigns because the water has been replaced with spacebut it still looks quite decent. The updated Empire Earth engine containsnew terrains, lighting, water animations and battlefield scarring that reallyenhance gameplay.

Whenit comes to sound, Empire Earth the Art of Conquest features everything youwould want to hear when it comes to battle, whether it's the hums of Japaneseplanes making a bombing run or the sounds of Ancient Rome on fire, everything isperfect. Musically, the game contains standard midi music that occasionallychanges but its nothing to write home about. The sound effects from the variousspace campaigns in the game sound like something taken out of Star Wars. 
 

EmpireEarth the Art of Conquest is a great addition to the Empire Earth series andcontains a great new space campaign that really puts a new spin on the game.With great graphics, sound and gameplay, the Art of Conquest is a must have forall RTS enthusiasts. 

- Andrew B