This game always felt more like Rise of Nations than Empire Earth to me. That's not necessarily bad as you said, but it didn't really feel like a sequel back in the day.
I played EE2 a lot more than the first game. I spent ungodly hours in the map editor making scenarios like "historical" battles (actually just recreations of movie battles)
What a great video about my favourite game from my childhood. Keep up the good work! You're way of telling how the game works and the way you build up to something in your video's really doesn't reflect how small your're channel is. When I was watching I expected at least a channel with 100k subs. I'm sure you'll get there one day if you keep putting out quality content like this!
I'm so glad this channel exists! It's not easy to find quality videos about strategy games on UA-cam. Especially about the less popular classics. I found the backstory videos about Command and Conquer especially impressive, considering how tedious collecting all this information must have been.
Thanks very much. The truth is I actually enjoy researching some of these things! Sometimes the research happens first just out of my own curiosity, and then I realise that it's worth including in a video.
Damn, I had written off EE2 as "not the sequel I wanted" after at most a couple hours of playing. now that you've presented it in a different light, I'm tempted to go back to it!
EE2!!! The game that started my ongoing adventure with strategy games. I still remember I was around 8 back then, Demo of this game was attached to CD Action magazine I bought.
I like both of them for what they are. Continuous space vs discreet grand strategy like. Nicely organises space at the cost of reduced logic. Drawing on maps and tool for managing citizens is great. But there is something in openness of the map in EE1. Gives different feel. Variety of experience is always nice.
Empire Earth 1 was a masterwork, it is still played to this day. Empire Earth 2 was a good game. Played that a ton, so much that my brother just played random sound bits and I said where they where from, the only sound I didn't know what it was, was the sound when you have lost territory, I never lost territory. EE3 however, that was the last EE game. Felt like they rushed that one, streamlined that game and downsized everything. Still EE1 is legendary due to you can exploit that game to insanity. Empire Eternal feels like they toke EE1 and gave it new fresh graphics. A no brainer to get that game.
One thing EE1 did better was having cut-scenes in the campaigns and generally having them be more narrative heavy. For example in 1 the Russian campaign did unexpected things and had more game player then base vs base.
You unlocked a lot of nostalgia for me. There's a saying, "how you do anything is how you do everything", I should say that EE1, EE2 and AoE3 definitely changed how I did everything
I played both EE1 and EE2 alot, especially vs AI. While EE1 had a very good, sometimes a hard campagn, EE2 was forgotten after all these years and EE1 one is the game most remember.
EE2 has a pretty broken campaign in which if you set the difficulty to hardest you can lose before even reaching the battle. 😂 I think that was the Egyptian campaign with the famine in which they destroy a building which has to be kept intact as a victory condition, i assume it's luck based whether the AI decides to work or not with the pathfinding but i lost my patience with it at that point in Hardest difficulty. Other than it being just a way above average game EE2-s music that gave the game its atmosphere is worth noting.
I didn't like the sound design of Empire Earth 2, same with the campaigns. I completed all the campaigns of EE except I couldn't get past the first scenario in the Russian campaign, so I uninstalled the game But then I got AoE3, and its DLCs, loved them. But now I'm a Total War player, but only pre Rome 2
My favourite things: - The art is consistent without the game, I feel as though in EE1 the units can jar with each other. - You can customise a lot in the pre-game settings, so you can do things like increase overall building HP and make them feel less like paper maché and make taking over building a more viable option.
EE2 always ran like ass on my computer, i liked the progression in EE1 more but the roads and bridges were always so cool to me and i couldnt get over them
man, I played empire earth so much as a kid, sadly empire earth 2 didn't run on my comptuer at the time. Was really sad about it, such an underrated game
Think I played Empire Earth two only a few times and didnt get on it, even though they did everything i thought that would have improved the original. In a way i think i liked the idea of the upgrade system, but not the reality
I always did like EE2 more than i did the original. It always reminded me of Rise of Nations (Not Rise of Nations: Legends, different game.) which was somewhat similar.
This game was the perfect mix between 4x and rts I could ever dream. I remember while playng that my child brain was like "WOW. THEY JUST HAVE TO LET ME TO BECOME A UNIT IN FPS MODE AND IT'S DONE JUST LET ME PLAY THIS FOREVER". But then. Controls were a bit too clunky actually, and everyone was playng aoe2. What a parallel uiverse could have been.
Did EE2 have campaigns though? I've never played it, but i remember being very immersed by the ones in EE1 when i was a kid, especially the WW1 one with the plane, would be interested in checking out the second one though
Yeah it's got 3 different campaigns, Korean, German and American - each one consisting of 8 missions and some FMV too. The Gold Edition also has 4 "turning points" which are these longer and scripted missions that recreate stuff like the Battle for Normandy.
@@kaluventhebritish sounds intriguing for sure, when I get the retro RTS itch, I'll give it a try. Have you experimented with modding for either game, or did you just play them vanilla?
@@cvetomirgeorgiev9106 Just vanilla, and even with only that I feel that I still didn't manage to fully experience everything. I've got nothing against mods, but there are only so many hours in a day!
EE2 is such a weird game. It had some neat new ideas and refinements but I always felt that the game was incomplete. I remember that some ages felt a bit short on the ubit rooster and there would be some crazy tech jumps here and there.
Played a lot of Empire Earth II back in the day. I remember Empire Earth III being the first game I ever pre-ordered. And it was a complete, unplayable disaster.
Seems like my predictions in the EE review were broadly correct! But what are you going to do to top EE3's badness next time, promise a review of C&C4?
Empire Earth was best because it was a ridiculous unbalanced tech rush. Narrowing it in scope like with E:DoTMW and EEII just ended up turning into a lackluster AoE clone. A true sequel should have gone even bigger and more nonsensical in scale. But both were leagues better than the abomination of EEIII, so there's that at least.
It might be my nostalgia bias, but yes, Empire Earth 2 is better than Empire Earth 1 for me. It has weather mechanics, a road for speed buff and make a prettier city, and of course the sense of progression from the existing resources. The game has its own flaws too, but at least I'm happy you have the same thought as me.
Personally, I liked EE1 more than EE2. But I should likely give it a second try. And both games are at least better than EE3. A game that now feel even less playable than on release, with is buggy nature. And that is not even going into how the game design and tone so missed the mark. I am not really sure what happened with EE3 really.
Empire earth 2 is a very good game indeed. It is certainly a worthy sequel but there are a few things that make me like empire earth 1 more. First of all the sequel's age progression seems too fast. In many of my playthroughs against the AI it is far too easy to amass a large amount of tech points and spend them quickly. This happens especially in large maps with alot of territories that can be conquered (such as plains). The AI also seems to hardly build any troops if it is on the defensive. If they are attacking me, sure, they will rush me with all they have. But if i'm the leading military power, they just wait for me to overrun them. But these are probably my fault for playing with the fanmade 1.5 patch. My biggest problem with the game is the animations and interactions between the units. While EE1s graphics were abysmal the animations were smooth and "believable". Also you could tell when an unit was hitting something. There were sparks or blood effects. You could see the unit's hit connecting. In EE2 there is no such thing. And some of the animations have a very stupid tone. The pikeman for example stands on his toes when he thrusts the lance. Or rather prods with it. Sound effects are also managed poorly now that i think about it. The game is mostly silent and there is no dynamic music either. I say again it is certainly a good game. But little details like these count as well in my opinion. If only there was a way to mix a bit of both from them....
I think I will have to just for the sake of fairness and balance. I just don't want to spend $10 on a game that everyone agrees is bad! Hopefully I'll find it for $2 in a sale one day.
I played this a lot as a teen, but ever since I tried out cheats I can't play this game normally anymore. Insant building is just too good and I always hated having to wait ages for every single unit you want to train
I abandoned the Empire Earth series after the travesty of EE1. By the time EE2 came out I had owned, played, and fallen in love with Rise of Nations. It's the peak of base-building RTS design for me. Frankly, from the video, it doesn't look like EE2 would have swayed my opinion in any way, perhaps only reaffirmed it. :) But I like the UI you've shown: The map, the mini window. Very impressive. You should try and get a copy of Rise of Nations running and play it! :)
I have just found a physical copy of the Gold Edition on eBay for £2.50, so it's on the way to me now! I've also found a guide on getting it running on Windows10, but failing that I'll try it on VM. When I get a chance I'll give it a go and see if I can put a video together of my experiences.
@@kaluventhebritish I hope it loves up to the hype! For single player content, be sure to install the expansion. There's also a version on Steam and gog and things of you can't get the old disc version working, often available on key sites for cheap.
just pegleg Rise and Fall, every company involved in making it is long bankrupt and as far as I'm aware it's no longer legitimately distributed. Physical copies need to have their DRM broken to work on modern hardware anyway, *and* you'll need to steal an engine file from an installation of Empire Earth, whose engine it shares.
Rise and Fall was actually released as a free game back in 2008...by the US Air Force. It was some sort of odd marketing ploy that featured 3 games, The Suffering, Area 51 and Rise and Fall which were available on a page that had a link at the bottom to a "dosomethingamazing.com" website that was basically a recruitment portal for the USAF. Because of this it's easy to find and arguably not piracy. MODDB list a full, working, portable Win10 compatible version available for download - although I've not tried it myself so use at your own risk.
Empire Earth 2 is like Rise of nations , but much better , because you can build walls , and building where ever you want.The art style and graphics, and units animations look really bad ;].
Cant wait for Empire Eternal. Looks like it will be a spiritual successor to the Empire Earth games
Wasn't aware of that until I read your comment. Be interesting to see how that turns out.
This game always felt more like Rise of Nations than Empire Earth to me. That's not necessarily bad as you said, but it didn't really feel like a sequel back in the day.
Yah there was a grandness to Empire Earth 1 that no rts has been able to capture since imo.
I played EE2 a lot more than the first game. I spent ungodly hours in the map editor making scenarios like "historical" battles (actually just recreations of movie battles)
I like your videos specially how you focus on rts genre. Continue make these.
Thanks!
What a great video about my favourite game from my childhood. Keep up the good work! You're way of telling how the game works and the way you build up to something in your video's really doesn't reflect how small your're channel is. When I was watching I expected at least a channel with 100k subs. I'm sure you'll get there one day if you keep putting out quality content like this!
Thanks, that's very kind.
I'm so glad this channel exists! It's not easy to find quality videos about strategy games on UA-cam. Especially about the less popular classics. I found the backstory videos about Command and Conquer especially impressive, considering how tedious collecting all this information must have been.
Thanks very much. The truth is I actually enjoy researching some of these things! Sometimes the research happens first just out of my own curiosity, and then I realise that it's worth including in a video.
Damn, I had written off EE2 as "not the sequel I wanted" after at most a couple hours of playing. now that you've presented it in a different light, I'm tempted to go back to it!
I hope it doesn't disappoint!
the problem wasnt just about being a sequel, it had too many bugs and glitches.
Unironically a childhood game for me. Empire Earth and Empire Earth II will always hold a special place in my heart
EE2!!! The game that started my ongoing adventure with strategy games. I still remember I was around 8 back then, Demo of this game was attached to CD Action magazine I bought.
I really do miss those demo CDs!
I like both of them for what they are. Continuous space vs discreet grand strategy like. Nicely organises space at the cost of reduced logic. Drawing on maps and tool for managing citizens is great.
But there is something in openness of the map in EE1. Gives different feel.
Variety of experience is always nice.
1:13 "CUC Software"
Yeah I think they were smart to change that one.
Empire Earth 1 was a masterwork, it is still played to this day. Empire Earth 2 was a good game. Played that a ton, so much that my brother just played random sound bits and I said where they where from, the only sound I didn't know what it was, was the sound when you have lost territory, I never lost territory. EE3 however, that was the last EE game. Felt like they rushed that one, streamlined that game and downsized everything. Still EE1 is legendary due to you can exploit that game to insanity. Empire Eternal feels like they toke EE1 and gave it new fresh graphics. A no brainer to get that game.
One of my favourite games from the childhood
EE2 is fine. I like it but it never caught me like the first game.
One thing EE1 did better was having cut-scenes in the campaigns and generally having them be more narrative heavy. For example in 1 the Russian campaign did unexpected things and had more game player then base vs base.
That Russian campaign is probably the best campaign in rts to this day
You unlocked a lot of nostalgia for me. There's a saying, "how you do anything is how you do everything", I should say that EE1, EE2 and AoE3 definitely changed how I did everything
Loved EE2's voice acting and art style.
Some prefer EE :D
I played both EE1 and EE2 alot, especially vs AI. While EE1 had a very good, sometimes a hard campagn, EE2 was forgotten after all these years and EE1 one is the game most remember.
EE2 has a pretty broken campaign in which if you set the difficulty to hardest you can lose before even reaching the battle. 😂
I think that was the Egyptian campaign with the famine in which they destroy a building which has to be kept intact as a victory condition, i assume it's luck based whether the AI decides to work or not with the pathfinding but i lost my patience with it at that point in Hardest difficulty.
Other than it being just a way above average game EE2-s music that gave the game its atmosphere is worth noting.
I didn't like the sound design of Empire Earth 2, same with the campaigns. I completed all the campaigns of EE except I couldn't get past the first scenario in the Russian campaign, so I uninstalled the game
But then I got AoE3, and its DLCs, loved them. But now I'm a Total War player, but only pre Rome 2
EE2 more like Rise of Nations 2. All good games
My favourite things:
- The art is consistent without the game, I feel as though in EE1 the units can jar with each other.
- You can customise a lot in the pre-game settings, so you can do things like increase overall building HP and make them feel less like paper maché and make taking over building a more viable option.
EE2 always ran like ass on my computer, i liked the progression in EE1 more but the roads and bridges were always so cool to me and i couldnt get over them
I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere. If a bridge is too cool to get over, then how do you get to the other side?
@@kaluventhebritish 🤣🤣🤣
Well this was a nostalgia trip
man, I played empire earth so much as a kid, sadly empire earth 2 didn't run on my comptuer at the time. Was really sad about it, such an underrated game
Think I played Empire Earth two only a few times and didnt get on it, even though they did everything i thought that would have improved the original. In a way i think i liked the idea of the upgrade system, but not the reality
I always did like EE2 more than i did the original. It always reminded me of Rise of Nations (Not Rise of Nations: Legends, different game.) which was somewhat similar.
This game was the perfect mix between 4x and rts I could ever dream. I remember while playng that my child brain was like "WOW. THEY JUST HAVE TO LET ME TO BECOME A UNIT IN FPS MODE AND IT'S DONE JUST LET ME PLAY THIS FOREVER".
But then. Controls were a bit too clunky actually, and everyone was playng aoe2. What a parallel uiverse could have been.
Empire Earth 3 ?, bro youre crazy or sum', no such thing exist man
/s
Did EE2 have campaigns though? I've never played it, but i remember being very immersed by the ones in EE1 when i was a kid, especially the WW1 one with the plane, would be interested in checking out the second one though
Yeah it's got 3 different campaigns, Korean, German and American - each one consisting of 8 missions and some FMV too. The Gold Edition also has 4 "turning points" which are these longer and scripted missions that recreate stuff like the Battle for Normandy.
@@kaluventhebritish sounds intriguing for sure, when I get the retro RTS itch, I'll give it a try. Have you experimented with modding for either game, or did you just play them vanilla?
@@cvetomirgeorgiev9106 Just vanilla, and even with only that I feel that I still didn't manage to fully experience everything. I've got nothing against mods, but there are only so many hours in a day!
Man… This series just hit the spot where Age of Empires just doesn’t. I really wish they would make a new Empire Earth/ Rise of Nations style game…
A comment here mentioned Empire Eternal, that looks to be pretty close to an Empire Earth Remake.
EE2 is such a weird game. It had some neat new ideas and refinements but I always felt that the game was incomplete. I remember that some ages felt a bit short on the ubit rooster and there would be some crazy tech jumps here and there.
parts of it look clunky, other parts look absolutely revolutionary.
That's an absolutely excellent description of both EE1 and 2!
No wonder Empires: DIE NEUZEIT (german title) seemed familiar.
I always loved both games, I even bought Empires again.
I loved tbis game
Played a lot of Empire Earth II back in the day.
I remember Empire Earth III being the first game I ever pre-ordered. And it was a complete, unplayable disaster.
Seems like my predictions in the EE review were broadly correct! But what are you going to do to top EE3's badness next time, promise a review of C&C4?
There has to be a more disappointing game out there. I've just not found it yet.
Empire Earth was best because it was a ridiculous unbalanced tech rush. Narrowing it in scope like with E:DoTMW and EEII just ended up turning into a lackluster AoE clone. A true sequel should have gone even bigger and more nonsensical in scale.
But both were leagues better than the abomination of EEIII, so there's that at least.
It might be my nostalgia bias, but yes, Empire Earth 2 is better than Empire Earth 1 for me. It has weather mechanics, a road for speed buff and make a prettier city, and of course the sense of progression from the existing resources. The game has its own flaws too, but at least I'm happy you have the same thought as me.
Empire Earth 2 is the best rts game, also with mods.
Personally, I liked EE1 more than EE2. But I should likely give it a second try. And both games are at least better than EE3. A game that now feel even less playable than on release, with is buggy nature. And that is not even going into how the game design and tone so missed the mark. I am not really sure what happened with EE3 really.
EE : AoE but crazier
EE2 : RoN but futuristic
EE3 : doesn't exist
Empire earth 2 is a very good game indeed. It is certainly a worthy sequel but there are a few things that make me like empire earth 1 more.
First of all the sequel's age progression seems too fast. In many of my playthroughs against the AI it is far too easy to amass a large amount of tech points and spend them quickly. This happens especially in large maps with alot of territories that can be conquered (such as plains).
The AI also seems to hardly build any troops if it is on the defensive. If they are attacking me, sure, they will rush me with all they have. But if i'm the leading military power, they just wait for me to overrun them.
But these are probably my fault for playing with the fanmade 1.5 patch.
My biggest problem with the game is the animations and interactions between the units. While EE1s graphics were abysmal the animations were smooth and "believable". Also you could tell when an unit was hitting something. There were sparks or blood effects. You could see the unit's hit connecting.
In EE2 there is no such thing. And some of the animations have a very stupid tone. The pikeman for example stands on his toes when he thrusts the lance. Or rather prods with it. Sound effects are also managed poorly now that i think about it. The game is mostly silent and there is no dynamic music either.
I say again it is certainly a good game. But little details like these count as well in my opinion. If only there was a way to mix a bit of both from them....
Do an Empire Earth 3 video. 😂
I think I will have to just for the sake of fairness and balance. I just don't want to spend $10 on a game that everyone agrees is bad! Hopefully I'll find it for $2 in a sale one day.
@@kaluventhebritishMaybe pirate it?
@@danielm.595 But that would mean I have to actually play it!
I played this a lot as a teen, but ever since I tried out cheats I can't play this game normally anymore. Insant building is just too good and I always hated having to wait ages for every single unit you want to train
Funny you mention that, That's what happened to Startopia, apparently what came out was a buggy unfinished mess.
I abandoned the Empire Earth series after the travesty of EE1. By the time EE2 came out I had owned, played, and fallen in love with Rise of Nations. It's the peak of base-building RTS design for me. Frankly, from the video, it doesn't look like EE2 would have swayed my opinion in any way, perhaps only reaffirmed it. :)
But I like the UI you've shown: The map, the mini window. Very impressive.
You should try and get a copy of Rise of Nations running and play it! :)
I have just found a physical copy of the Gold Edition on eBay for £2.50, so it's on the way to me now! I've also found a guide on getting it running on Windows10, but failing that I'll try it on VM. When I get a chance I'll give it a go and see if I can put a video together of my experiences.
@@kaluventhebritish I hope it loves up to the hype! For single player content, be sure to install the expansion. There's also a version on Steam and gog and things of you can't get the old disc version working, often available on key sites for cheap.
Better? Well, I always prefered EE 1. Game of my childhood
I found it even more complicated than the original game
Seems to share quite a bit of rise of nations, albeit more towards a "traditonal" RTS compared to RoN
I just want to know where I can buy this game along with Civilization Rise and Fall.
I got the gold edition of EE2 from GOG.com for about $9. Not sure about the other one!
This game is on Good old games along with the rest of the series.
just pegleg Rise and Fall, every company involved in making it is long bankrupt and as far as I'm aware it's no longer legitimately distributed. Physical copies need to have their DRM broken to work on modern hardware anyway, *and* you'll need to steal an engine file from an installation of Empire Earth, whose engine it shares.
Rise and Fall was actually released as a free game back in 2008...by the US Air Force. It was some sort of odd marketing ploy that featured 3 games, The Suffering, Area 51 and Rise and Fall which were available on a page that had a link at the bottom to a "dosomethingamazing.com" website that was basically a recruitment portal for the USAF. Because of this it's easy to find and arguably not piracy. MODDB list a full, working, portable Win10 compatible version available for download - although I've not tried it myself so use at your own risk.
GOG shop?
I found this frustingly close to being great. But things like unlocking eurofighter at the dawn of the modern age made me unable to play much.
Empire Earth 2 is like Rise of nations , but much better , because you can build walls , and building where ever you want.The art style and graphics, and units animations look really bad ;].
Both great games, EEII is much funnier whit roads and bridges, but they destroy all my hope whit EEIII.
Early
I never played EE2 or 3... but watching this, it kinda reminds me of Rise of Nations... just worse somehow.
and this is strike one
ua-cam.com/video/v9m7q9SnB4g/v-deo.html
why...it makes no sense that you cant research something and aggravates players
the ui looks like shit
thats strike 2
Bro still thinks ee is bad 💀