Classic Empire Earth strategy series hits Steam

A strategy gaming icon from the 2000’s, Empire Earth hasn’t been seen in years. Thanks to Rebellion though, it’s back in force.

Empire Earth strikes back

Remember Empire Earth? A huge name in the PC strategy genre, Empire Earth debuted on the platform in 2001. It made an impact too, with its solid gameplay and offering of a tremendous scope. The game allowed players to build and grow a world that would span the epochs, digging deep into the history of humanity.

Not that it was just about swords and sandals. Empire Earth also stretched its RTS action into the future, and from there grew into a series. The original spawned a pair of sequels, both of which were pretty darn popular with genre players.

But that run was entirely encapsulated within the early 2000’s. Since that time, players of the PC kind haven’t seen hide nor hair of it. But if you’re in with what we assume is a pretty big lot who miss it to some degree, we’ve got good news for you.

As you can see from the headline, that would be that independent developer Rebellion has revived the name. And while there’s no specifically new title to talk about, the previous three are once again available for purchase.

• In Empire Earth: Gold Edition, conquer 5,000 years of history across seven single-player campaigns. Take to battle using land, sea and air with more than 200 different units that span 15 epochs, from the Prehistoric to the Space Age. Choose any point in time – from the discovery of fire to the laser battles of the far-flung future – and command your civilization with one goal: make Earth your Empire.
• Along with new campaigns, an extended timespan of 10,000 years of history and an expanded unit roster featuring 500 unique units, Empire Earth II: Gold Edition refines the series’ time-spanning gameplay with a host of new features. Key updates include improved AI, picture-in-picture control and dynamic weather, along with many other additions. 
• Empire Earth III innovated further with its World Domination mode. This divided the world into provinces that you can conquer in any order, allowing you to take your empire from fledgling kingdom to dominant superpower as you battle over a realistically rendered planet Earth. 

Rebellion press release

Old school strategy action

All three Empire Earth games that you see above come complete with their original campaigns. They also come with their multiplayer modes, though there’s a caveat. While fans can dig in and go head-to-head in a vs mode that allows for up to eight players. And while that’s pretty awesome, they’ll need to do so via Local Area Network. That’s right, there’s no online multiplayer in these titles, so players will all need to bring their own PCs, if they want to jam.

While that note might be a bit of a bummer for modern audiences, there’s some pretty cool news as well. Both Empire Earth and Empire Earth II come in the form of those games’ Gold Editions. That means that the first game includes The Art of Conquest expansion pack, while its sequel comes packing The Art of Supremacy. So a nice pair of buffs there.

If you’d like to check ’em out, all three games are up now on Steam for the PC. While they’re all posted separately (natch’), there’s also a bundle deal with the trio included.