review – Page 3 – My Game Reviews

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World 2025 Review

In 2003, a spiritual successor to Empire Earth was released. It was known as Empires: Dawn of the Modern World and it is an intriguing game. Made by the same people who made Empire Earth, Stainless Steel Studios, it is game that refines Empire Earth by giving it a new coat of paint. That paint is quite effective and transforms Empire Earth into a lush if somewhat more shallow game.

Unlike Empire Earth 2, which sought to push the franchise into the direction of being more like Rise of Nations vs its original game, Empires takes what made Empire Earth successful and refines it.

Empires Dawn of the Modern World Fortress Korea — In Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, every civilization has their own unique architecture and some even have unique structures.

Empires plays very similarly to Empire Earth. Much like many other RTS in that era, it is mainly about the military rather than the economics. Empire Earth 2 would have a much greater emphasis on economics. Empires in fact simplifies the resource mix in the game. Iron has been taken out of the game. Population is not dependent on technology anymore and is simply built through houses. This simplifying makes the game easier to play though it lacks some of the depth of Empire Earth and especially the sequel, Empire Earth 2.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World Fishing Junk — The game has beautiful reflections and water effects, especially when you consider that the game came out in 2003 and just two years after *Empire Earth*.

The game plays quite well and does not require reading a manual in order to learn is mechanics.

Some civilizations are easier than others. England for example, allows you to build any building without need the citizen to participate in the process of building. England also can build mining camps on stone and gold mines in order to mine them automatically without needing citizens at those camps to been getting the resources with their pickaxes.

Empires Dawn of the Modern World Cities — Empires has a neat gameplay mechanic where roads are automatically built whenever you build a building close to another one, making the game seem more stylistically interesting than Empire Earth.

The civilizations are all unique but I think they sometimes make the game too easy, especially on some maps and difficulty settings.

Empires Skybox — The game has some really beautiful skyboxes.

What is remarkable about this game is its skyboxes. They are truly beautiful to look at in this game. While the game has some of those angular landscapes, I remember that it is a early 2000s game and not Oblivion Remastered with Unreal Engine powering it. This is the charm of these games that were made in that era. This same sentiment is why Oblivion Remastered managed to sell so many copies within its release.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World English — The small details in *Empires* is what makes it special to me. Look at the clock on the England Town Center. It is not simply *static*, **it actually moves**

What the game is probably best at it is graphics, most importantly the presentation of those graphics.

Graphics are much more effective when you have good presentation of how the graphics work in a game. Instead of just plastering good graphics everywhere, using them effectively is what makes a good game a great game.

Empires is that great game and while it may more simplistic, the character and charm of this great game can be found in those graphics.

In the screenshot above, you can see English Town center towards the left of the screen. The hands of the clock in the tower actually move in the game. Other nice touches are that when a house or fortress is garrisoned with citizens or soldiers, you will see a flag appear next to that building. Such visual presentations were also seen in Empire Earth 2.

Empires Vicars and Longbowmen — The game has many map types and it looks better than the original Empire Earth, especially with the interaction of the water coming onto the beaches.

Empires is a very nice early 2000s game in its landscapes. The greenery of the forest one is better than the desert one in my opinion, but they are both one of the game’s strengths.

In the screenshot above which takes place on the Peloponnese map, which is a unique map type one does not see often in video games. It is a map type which simulates Greece’s most famous area which is filled with highlands and seas on both sides. Here you can see two vicars and three longbowmen on the top of a mountain near a sea. This is the game’s graphics at its best. Unlike Empire Earth’s graphics palette, the greenery in this game looks more appealing. This is quite impressive considering that the game came out only roughly two years after the original Empire Earth.

Empires Korea Commoner Building House — The graphics close up in this game are truly beautiful and have like wine. Unlike Empire Earth, they are not too rough.

Another nice touch in this game is that the roads are automatically built between buildings. Such little additions are what gave Empires its character back when it was released. Unlike Empire Earth, I feel like its 3D graphics are nice and cleaner to look at and that is why I think that some players prefer playing it.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World Ocean — The coastline in this game is probably one of the strongest in aesthetical presentation I have seen in this era of RTS games.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a magnificent game that is well worth playing in 2025, especially with the dearth of RTS games on the market now. It is a fun game with just the right amount of complexity to keep casual players interested in the gameplay and coming back for more experiences.

Empire Earth 2: This 2005 RTS surpasses modern games

Empire Earth 2 Synthetic Age City Center

Empire Earth 2 is growing on me, and I enjoy it in spite of it being 20 years old now. That the game is so playable is a testament to how the developers managed to create a worthy sequel. While some may say that it strays too far away from the original game, I think that it is a worthy game that is well worth your time. Even if you are RTS aficionado who only plays Starcraft games, I think that this game is a great addition to one’s catalog.

Empire Earth 2 Rain Weather Effects in game

One of my most favorite aspects of this game is the weather. It is great to see the rain falling in the Spring and the snow falling in the winter. This adds so much character to the game. Empire Earth was great at its use with the day and night cycles, especially in the campaigns. However, Empire Earth 2 took it to another level and make it even better.

The great thing about the weather in Empire Earth 2 is that it is integrated into the game. The game actually tells you about weather in the game. The outposts which function as the equivalent to towers from Empire Earth are also able to tell the Weather to the player. In comparison with most games, this is one of the most innovative features in the RTS space that I have ever seen. It is very rare for any video game to take weather seriously except a couple games. However, in Empire Earth 2, the weather is a player of its own.

Empire Earth 2 Snow Effects in Ancient Age

In the screenshot, you can see that the weather effects in Empire Earth 2, despite being 20 years old, have a weight to them. In many games that I have been in have had this effect. Being a man who loves the winter, seeing these winter storms is a treat.

Even when it is raining, you can really get the feeling of those rainstorms. The lightning strikes and noise of thunder all add great character to the game.

Another aspect which shows the attention to details is that the amount of snow that is collecting on the roofs of buildings in the game. Unlike in older games, the game was made in a way that shows this change instead of treating like an static weather effect. Star Wars: Empire at War, which came out a year after Empire Earth 2 also heavily utilized weather effects in gameplay. Interestingly, there was a cluster of games in the mid 2000s that seemed to really emphasize such features in their games.

It shows that experimentation while respecting the past is an important part of making video games. In my opinion, the video game industry has simply become too comfortable with rising sales on the backs of their subscription services and the mobile app stores.

I think that looking back at the past is what the video game industry really needs right now. If anything, it shows that older isn’t necessarily worse than the new. There is much that older video games can teach us.

Oblivion Remastered’s Censorship gives an opening to Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s beautiful women.

beautiful-liliana-in-tainted-grail-the-fall-of-avalon

The Oblivion Remastered Edition has been censoring women. While these changes are small, it is clear that Bethesda Softworks is still going through the process of ”cleaning up” its games. If you compare the screenshot of my character on the left and the screenshot of a drawn woman in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, it is clear that there are two trends happening here.

Having Intimacy in Bethesda Games

Originally, Oblivion was rated ”T” by the ESRB in America. However, after mods in 2006 were taking the clothes off the female characters, the game was re-rated as “M” or mature. The same thing happened to other popular games such as GTA: San Andreas. The video game industry was much bigger than it had been in the 1990s but it was still under the cover. Many people were not paying attention to it.

However, it was clear that the transition of themes relating to relationships between characters began to change between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, where there is a clear shift in how Bethesda approached the issue of player choice and how they could interact with characters of the opposite or same sex.

Fallout 3 had many brutal and sensous characters. However, Fallout 4 was a strange game that did not repersent a progression of the mythos but more of a regression. The sequel was more about domesticity stolen than anything else. The game starts in the Pre-War suburbs of Boston and the all the beauty of domesticity and family life are broken by atomic bombs being dropped on America. Fallout 4 however refuses to allow the player to be anything but a mother or father searching for their son.

This trend meant that Bethesda did not want to make attractive women characters anymore. Any hint of any intimacy in the games was taken out and instead it was hidden behind violence and better shooting mechanics.

The charm that made the Bethesda games simply unique was taken away from the games.

What Tainted Grail can bring some beauty back into games

While this is only a small section of the game, having the image of a woman that is beautiful in a game is enough to garner some outrage in some circles. However, among gamers who think with the heads, are going to be okay with it. That is what matters here. They shouldn’t be trying to appeal to people who have no interest in playing video games. In my previous article on Tainted Grail, I say that it has the potential with becoming the next Skyrim. With the genre being so stagnant, it is clear that there is something needed in order to get to be needed to revigoriate it.