Age of Empires III: WarChiefs

7.7
Good

Gameplay	8.0	"It's steady as she goes for Ensemble's latest addition."
Graphics	8.0
Sound	7.0
Value	7.0

By Tristan Clark

The Age of Empires series is one of the most predominant set of RTS games around. Since its inception nearly 10 years ago, Age of Empires has spawned two sequels and numerous expansions by evolving and refining the gameplay rather than reinventing it. Age of Empires III featured luscious graphics and a number of other enhancements, but for the most part stayed true to its predecessors. WarChiefs, the first expansion for the game, does pretty much the same thing – introducing new concepts that will force players to rethink some strategies, but overall providing a familiar Age of Empires experience.

As the title suggests, you can now control three Native American factions – the Sioux, who have powerful mounted units; the Iroquois, who can use European artillery; and the Aztecs, who lack cavalry units, but strike hard with powerful infantry. These new sides are generally more distinct than the collection of European nations, and provide a nice amount of variety to the game. Having said that, it would have been nice to see more of the fundamental gameplay aspects altered – once you set aside a number of unit differences, it’s easy to see the similarities inherent in every side.

The campaign continues the story set out in Age of Empires III. You continue to follow the Black family, who work their way through early American history. Tensions rise as key figures in the family must choose who to ally themselves with, in a story that is generally pretty cheesy, but gets the job done.

Almost everything else about the presentation fares better. The graphics are still very pleasing to the eye, and it’s just as fun as ever to watch enemy troops get ripped apart by your powerful cannons. The new home cities of the Native Americans look just as good as the European ones, and in general the appearance of the game looks as polished as you’d expect it to be.

The new races and units do a good job of mixing up the game, forcing longtime players to rethink a few strategies. One interesting new feature is the ability to force a revolution, which turns all your villagers into militia and beefs up your combat power, but negates all your resource-gathering capabilities. This is great if you want to risk everything for a chance at victory, or at least want to go out with a bang. A new unit is also introduced called the WarChief. These powerful units do everything you’d expect unique units to do, such as grabbing treasure or providing bonuses for nearby troops.

In spite of these changes, fans of the series will know exactly what they’re getting with Age of Empires III: WarChiefs. It would have been nice if developer Ensemble had tried mixing things up a little more, but this is still a solid expansion that is certainly worth your time if you’re into these games.

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