Classic [RTS] strategy games Empire Earth 1, 2 & 3 arrive on Steam, [expanding availability beyond GOG]
19d 15h ago by piefed.world/u/Agent_Karyo in rts@reddthat.com from www.gamingonlinux.com
While they were already on GOG, the Empire Earth games have now arrived fully on Steam so you can jump into this classic RTS series.
I personally don't see the reason to buy a game like Empire Earth not on GOG (or a hypothetical competitor that offers an independent installer without DRM).
Unfortunately the feedback I heard from someone who played it recently was that
it's clunky af and very outdated, very sad
A shame. I never played this game, or the similar Rise of Nations, as a kid. But I always thought they were very intriguing. If either of them were to get a Definitive Edition similar to the Age of Empires/Mythology remakes that came out recently, I would absolutely jump on it. But this "gold edition" sounds like it's not even up to the level of the "HD" and "EE" editions of aoe2/aom that came out over a decade ago.
I would argue Rise of Nations is rather playable (in context of modern UI/UX expectations), but maybe it's because I did play it a lot as a kid. And I believe it support modern resolutions, although maybe UI scale is an issue.
For context, although I enjoy them because of nostalgia, I would not consider any of the pre-DE Age of Empires games to be "playable" in this sense, either. Little things like shift queuing, intuitive (read: grid-based) hotkeys, and queuing arbitrary combinations of techs & units.
Also relevant is the importance of modern matchmaking with a reasonably healthy scene.