at least for me, but it�s even more magical that I love Age of Empires II as much as I

do considering I�m not crazy about RTS games. That being said, I never thought the campaign

was its strong suit; I remember spending a whole lot more time, late at night, playing

multiplayer or scenarios of my own creation. Age of Empires III still allows that free-will

action, but it�s got a surprisingly solid campaign to complete the package. I don�t

wanna say it�s better than II, but, like...it is better�

Honestly, it�s hard to admit that. As I said, I loved playing Age of Empires II scenarios

and multiplayer indefinitely. But that was then, and while I still enjoy multiplayer,

I find I�m more of a �finish the campaign and rest on my laurels� kind of guy. I like

to just finish the prescribed content, and Age of Empires III provides a fun campaign

that actually has an interesting story. This story follows early American discovery up

to the mid-1800s, all viewed from the perspective of the Black family. Descendant stories are

cool, but it also takes the �behind the scenes history� approach popularized most

recently by the Assassin�s Creed games, and mostly follows political actions as influenced

by the tales of the Fountain of Youth. The game even pulls off a cool, cliffhanger-ish

ending, and I wasn�t expecting to get into the story as much as I did. Of course, I enjoyed

the gameplay even more. Age of Empires III offers the same kind of

resource-hoarding, unit-building action as its competitors and predecessors, but obviously

with a few differences and improvements. Most notably, the game features an XP system which

factors into the Home City rewards; with the XP points you gain from completing various

objectives, you can have baskets of food, additional military units, and various other

upgrades and bonuses shipped to your colony. And you can of course improve everything the

colony has to offer as you accrue enough resources to move onto the next age, each leap requiring

more and more resources. As such, there�s a great balance between managing basic settlers

and their gathering tasks, building as necessary, training units, and waging war. The menus

that operate all these tasks can initially be a little overwhelming, but Age of Empires

III does a relatively great job at not letting it be too overwhelming from the get-go. Once

you understand them all, these systems are obviously fun in self-created scenarios or

multiplayer, but the campaign takes it to another, not necessarily higher, level.

You see, everything in the campaign is dynamic. By dynamic, I mean PR speak for scripted and

a little bit above the everyday actions you see in the other modes. Most missions follow

a set pattern: different types of defending and sieging pop up often, but there are also

these�travelling missions, for lack of a better term. These missions don�t allow

the creation of new units, resource gathering, or anything

else you would typically do in a strategy game. So you would think these missions are

the weakest part of a strategy game, but I was pleasantly surprised by them. They�re

a nice change of pace from the hectic management present in most of the game, and offer their

own ways of garnering rewards and improvements. Ultimately, they just end up being a ton of

fun while also being smart diversions, and they don�t pop up too much that they ruin

the expected gameplay or grow tired. And they also represent my favorite part of the typical

missions: exploring. Most maps are cloaked in darkness at the onset, and only sending

units into the void reveals the map, and any and all enemies, potential allies, and treasures

to be found. And once again, that balance comes into play.

Having a group of five or six go out of the relative safety of the town center to scout,

settlers hunting, chopping, and mining, and units gathering for the inevitable battle

is an immensely satisfying feeling. It�s even more satisfying when you just totally

crush the enemy after patiently preparing, and somehow even cooler when you win by the

skin of your teeth. Ultimately, Age of Empires III�s calling card is balance, and it nails

RTS gameplay while not being totally inaccessible. This is about as good as it gets for RTS fans,

whether you�re a casual admirer or a hardcore fan. Just be aware that you haven�t had

any of the water from the Fountain of Youth, so you can�t spend all of your time playing.

Just late at night, when you�re supposed to be sleeping.