Empire Earth is a series of real-time strategy video games created by Stainless Steel Studios and Mad Doc Software. Sierra Entertainment published these games. The series includes historical real-time strategy games that are similar to Age of Empires. Rick Goodman, who designed Empire Earth and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, was a lead designer for Age of Empires. The games use the Titan and Titan 2.0 engine, which was sold after Stainless Steel Studios closed.

Chronology

The first game in the series, Empire Earth, was released in 2001. Stainless Steel Studios created the game, and Sierra Entertainment published it. The game was praised for its detailed gameplay and received good reviews from critics. Sales of 2 million copies led to the creation of an expansion pack and several later versions of the game. The game included 14 time periods that covered 500,000 years of history. It also featured 21 different nations from various times and places. The game had four campaign missions based on real historical events, including Ancient Greece, England’s wars with France, Germany’s role in World War I and II, and a fictional future scenario involving Russia’s global conquest.

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest, an expansion pack, was released in 2002. It added new campaigns and features to the original game but received poor reviews due to many small errors that were not fixed by Mad Doc Software. This expansion pack was released before Empires: Dawn of the Modern World.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World was released in 2003 and is sometimes called the spiritual sequel to Empire Earth, even though it was not technically a direct follow-up. Rick Goodman and the SSSI team designed the game, which included many elements from the original Empire Earth. This game covered a shorter time span—1,000 years—and featured nine civilizations. Despite being more condensed, it received positive reviews as a good real-time strategy game but was not considered very innovative.

Empire Earth II was released in 2005, two years after Empires: Dawn of the Modern World. Mad Doc Software developed the game, and Sierra Entertainment published it after Stainless Steel Studios left the project to work on Empires: Dawn of the Modern World. The game used improved graphics and weather effects but kept the original gameplay style. It received average reviews, scoring about 79% on MetaCritic, which was slightly lower than the original Empire Earth and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World.

A mobile turn-based strategy game was developed by Vivendi and published by Wonderphone on October 14, 2005. This game was much smaller than other titles in the series, with only four time periods and simplified features.

Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy, an expansion pack for Empire Earth II, was released in 2006. It added new campaigns, civilizations, units, and features to the original game. However, it received worse reviews than its predecessor due to a lack of innovation in its new content.

Empire Earth III is a real-time strategy game developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Sierra Entertainment on November 5, 2007. It received poor reviews compared to earlier games in the series.

Reception

Empire Earth, the first game in the series, received good reviews from critics, with an average score of 82%. Empire Earth II had a similar score to the first game, averaging 79%. The expansion packs received average reviews, with Conquest averaging 66% and Supremacy averaging 61%. Empires: Dawn of the Modern World had a score closer to Empire Earth than any other game in the series, averaging 81%. Empire Earth mobile had an average score of 77%. Empire Earth III was the least well-received game in the series, with an average score of 50%.