Age of Empires makes a comeback by jumping forward to the Imperial Era. Cannons, muskets, armed cavalries, large vessels and more cannons present a change of pace from the old sword-and-shield Age of Empires II. The third instalment of the franchise also introduces trading routes, a set of locations that you have to capture and control by building trading posts on it, reinforcing your income and XP gain. You can order shipments of goods from your mainland at intervals of time and befriend local indigenous tribes.

In a sense, there are plenty of new features to keep long time fans of Age of Empires interested, while retaining the same core gameplay. Build stuff, gather stuff, advance Ages, kill baddies. Only this time, with more cannons.

Still better than Age of Empires 2.

Strike one for imperialism.

Looks nice, sounds nice, cannons are a great feature, has a working online service, trading cards, steam hours counting, *breathes*, all the DLC you might have missed in the old days, great 3-tiered base campaign which follows a families lineage.

Takes place in the times of exploration, which is a nice departure from ancient times.

The simplification of some game features were hit or miss, some were niceties, others just are too simple. An example of one that was a miss was the removal of individual farm squares, and collection buildings, although it can be assumed that it is automated, it still seems too simple.

Has a nice variety of units, although, the crossbowmen seem kind of weaksauce when I got Janissaries with guns and cannons so big they can be used for artillery. Its let hack and slash, blow for blow of some other strategy games, and more so the style of "you mess up, you just might die".

Price is a little on the high side however, and if you can get it cheaper than $40, I would whole heartidly recommend it.

10/10 Another way to ruin your social life if it already wasn't ruined to begin with.

I've played the AOE series since they first came out of hiding, AOE 3 is not the best in the series (2nd is without doubt) but it is still a great buy and offers good fun for you money.

One of the best RTS games ever!