Empire Earth II

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 119 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 64 out of 119
  2. Mixed: 36 out of 119
  3. Negative: 19 out of 119
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  1. Maslab
    May 21, 2008
    7
    I do especially like dropping nukes and other various bombs on fledgling civilizations, but there isn't that much strategy required. Build a bunch of units and charge. That's about it. However, it is very fun if you just want to blow up stuff on a massive scale.
  2. AnonymousMC
    May 11, 2005
    6
    disapointing the could patch it up to 8 of 10 for me if they improve the field of view, you see just too little to fight with your big units on the small screen, even medium formation of 8 tanks doesnt even fit on screen so all the nic ideas of war plans and so on are useless if yount make the big picture in the main screen.
  3. Bonedoc
    Sep 27, 2005
    7
    I'd give it a higher rateing if it didn't freeze while loading saves so often on my Falcon Mach V. Honestly, you would think it would run without a problem on a puter that runs Doom and Half-life on the highest possible settings.
  4. LuisV.
    Jul 21, 2005
    7
    Cool game.
  5. Chimp
    Apr 23, 2005
    7
    Empire Earth II is not a bad game. Just like the first one, it has way too much stuff. There are so many ages and civilizations, but each age("epoch") has about 7-16 military units total, with a couple special units for each civ. The game itself copies Rise of Nations so much its insane, but thats not necessarily a bad thing, i think its good. Now there are cities and the civilzations are Empire Earth II is not a bad game. Just like the first one, it has way too much stuff. There are so many ages and civilizations, but each age("epoch") has about 7-16 military units total, with a couple special units for each civ. The game itself copies Rise of Nations so much its insane, but thats not necessarily a bad thing, i think its good. Now there are cities and the civilzations are more distinct. My biggest problem with this game has to be its graphics-just so you know, if you've seen screenshots in ads for the game, the game does not look like that. AT ALL. i put it on max resolution, all settings maxed including shadows, and it looked nowhere near as good as the picture, especially for the units. the pictures they show have to be in at least 2048 resolution, something few people can have. So unless you can get it to look like the screens, the graphics arent too great, especially the water, which comparing to what we have been seeing lately, sucks. the gameplay has tons of things to do like war plans, but i can already tell no one is actually going to use them in multiplayer games. although ive only played the demo, i know from experience with the first one that the game is simply a technology race, without time to use any of the nice features that come with it.… Expand
  6. mriguy
    May 9, 2006
    7
    I loved the original EE and keep hoping that Sierra finds a better developer or Mad Dog improves. EE could be the ultimate stategy platform. By bigest complaint is the sound. EE1's charactors evolved. It was cool to hear the cavemen grunt. Germans should speak German, Italy, Italian etc.. There are a lot of nice features but I HATE the oversized leaders. Stainless Steels EE1 was I loved the original EE and keep hoping that Sierra finds a better developer or Mad Dog improves. EE could be the ultimate stategy platform. By bigest complaint is the sound. EE1's charactors evolved. It was cool to hear the cavemen grunt. Germans should speak German, Italy, Italian etc.. There are a lot of nice features but I HATE the oversized leaders. Stainless Steels EE1 was cleaner but Mad Dog could still make this the best RTS if theye just cleaned up some items and listen to all the community feedback, maybe EE3. There are a lot of good ideas in the forums. It's the commuunity that makes the RTS. If the customer's support and feedback dies so does the product. I like the addition of spies and the elimination of magical charactors. I could write a 5 page report about all the features that could be improved. I rate it an "Almost, but you need to fix this this and this.."… Expand
  7. AlphaO.
    Apr 22, 2005
    7
    I've had the game 24 hours. So far it's a bit disappointing. The only graphical improvements I can see are minor: The water uses pixel shaders to gain a slight "sheen" and the people models are slightly better ... frankly it's hard to tell it isn't Empire earth 1. A lot of the "new" features (IE borders, trade caravans etc) are just the "old" features of other games I've had the game 24 hours. So far it's a bit disappointing. The only graphical improvements I can see are minor: The water uses pixel shaders to gain a slight "sheen" and the people models are slightly better ... frankly it's hard to tell it isn't Empire earth 1. A lot of the "new" features (IE borders, trade caravans etc) are just the "old" features of other games (civ3, rise of nations etc.) so it just feels like a mishmash of a rehash. It's not BAD.. just not great. I've finished the four tutorials. .. and haven't yet mustered up enough interest to play the campaigns.… Expand
  8. EdoardoDellaV.
    May 1, 2005
    7
    Very similar to "Rise of Nations", it's a pity that the previous "Empire Earth" was much better than "Rise of Nations"!!! In this game there isn't the possibility of custom civilations, and the presence of useless and complicated "special powers" only make the game more complicated and not user-friendly. Good graphic and audio, but small maps and the game is too fast leaving Very similar to "Rise of Nations", it's a pity that the previous "Empire Earth" was much better than "Rise of Nations"!!! In this game there isn't the possibility of custom civilations, and the presence of useless and complicated "special powers" only make the game more complicated and not user-friendly. Good graphic and audio, but small maps and the game is too fast leaving little time to devise strategies. Civilizations unique units are somewhat useless since they don't advance through ages. Nukes do very little damage. The civilian managment screen is a excellent idea and a very powerful tool!… Expand
  9. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    6
    Watered down more simple version that gets boring very quickly after some time
  10. Lapinas
    Oct 21, 2019
    7
    While the original game plays it very safe with the actual gameplay, the sequel is much more interesting in terms of concept.

    Graphics are improved, but not very markedly - the textures are still bland, units still move around by floating. The gameplay, however, has multiple elements that are more common in 4X or Grand Strategy games rather than RTS ones. The map is divided into    While the original game plays it very safe with the actual gameplay, the sequel is much more interesting in terms of concept.

    Graphics are improved, but not very markedly - the textures are still bland, units still move around by floating.

    The gameplay, however, has multiple elements that are more common in 4X or Grand Strategy games rather than RTS ones. The map is divided into terittories, which are claimed by building a City Center in them, which is important for your population cap since you can only build a few houses (further, buildings are built much slower in unclaimed teritory). Diplomacy involves making possibly quite complicated alliance agreements (to the point of determining a specific period of real time during which players are allies). To aid team play, a feature called "War Plans" was introduced, where one can lay out specific routes on the map to help coordinate players' army movements. Periodically, "crowns" are given out to players for achieving top scores in a certain category (Military, Economic, etc.), which allows players to activate special bonuses related to the field (for instance, Military crown allows you to boost your infantry units). However, the most interesting feature by far is having a second screen. Along with your primary display that takes up most of the screen, you can also set a smaller screen to keep watch on a certain location at the bottom of your screen, essentially acting as a second pair of eyes on you, which is a feature I've personally haven't seen in other many other strategy games - certainly not RTS games.

    However, the game still has issues. While the era bloat has been reduced, it's been replaced with resource bloat, because along with the four classic resources (Food, wood, stone and gold), you now also have Tin, Iron, Saltpeter, Oil and Uranium, resources that also rotate in and out depending on the age you're in (for instance, Tin only appears in eras 1-6) - an unnecessary complication to say the least. Combat is still uninteresting, mostly revolving around direct counters, and techs are mostly just stats bonuses, which are also era-locked - you can't get techs from era 1 if you're from era 2.

    Overall, it's an RTS with novel concepts that's worth checking out for the curious, at least in the numerous campaigns, though it hasn't aged very well, much like the other EE games.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Best PC Game of 2005
32
#32 Most Discussed PC Game of 2005
39
#39 Most Shared PC Game of 2005

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 39
  3. Negative: 2 out of 39
  1. Game Informer
    75
    Given both its de-emphasis on low-level tactical decisions and its ambitious scope, EEII resides in a bizarre no-man's-land between "Civilization III" and "Kohan II." [May 2005, p.124]
  2. GameSpy
    80
    I can think of very few games that I could play for the next 10 years (or until I get eaten by that monster in the woods) and never run out different ways to play and different strategies to explore. Empire Earth II is one of those games.
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  3. IGN
    89
    A deep and satisfying real-time strategy game. The campaigns are great, the multiplayer is super fun, and skirmish allows for tons of single player satisfaction thanks to some terrific AI that'll give you fits.
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