Empire Earth III Preview

ActionTrip: We've also learned that you intend to introduce a new quest system. What's it all about?

Sorry, oops, sorry! It's not my fault, this thing's on auto-fire!

Look out down below!

Matthew Nordhaus: The Event system will replace the typical single player campaign that has become standard for most RTSs these days. When you play World Domination you will be dropped right into the action. Then, as you do things, like research techs and conquer nations, events will pop up. These events will give you motivation to go out and conquer the world (and very nice rewards if you succeed). Depending on what the player does, different events will trigger. Someone who techs up to tanks will get different events than someone who spasm infantry, or someone who doesn't even try to tech up but just becomes a diplomatic player and allies with everyone.

This means that World Dom becomes a much more dynamic and replayable game mode. You never know what is going to happen next, and each time you play it something else will occur.

ActionTrip: Empire Earth II had an impressive assortment of units available. However, your team is taking a slightly different approach in terms of unit design this time around - more detailed, larger models. Is this going to influence the number of units that will appear on screen?

Matthew Nordhaus: Yes, in general we have tried to make the units more interesting, and more unique. Very many of them have special powers or abilities that the player can use, so it's going to be more important to use the right unit against the enemy's weakness, and using the right combination of powers can turn the tide of battle. Each region has its own personality when it comes to the types of powers that it can research.

ActionTrip: When is EE III coming out?

Matthew Nordhaus: Right now, we are tracking well to our release date of Fall 2007.