Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a 2003 real-time strategy video game developed by Stainless Steel Studios and published by Activision. Set in a world-historical period that extends from the Middle Ages to World War II, the game tasks players with guiding one of nine rival great civilizations to victory. The game contains both a single player campaign as well as multiplayer gameplay mode.
Customer surveys from Stainless Steel's previous game, Empire Earth, were used as a starting point for Empires: these inspired the team to take a more minimalist design approach, and to include civilizations without overlapping styles of play. Development was led by designer Rick Goodman who felt that historical realism often constrained gameplay rather than be a source of inspiration.
Gameplay
thumb|250px|left|The Koreans defending their base against an attack.
Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a real-time strategy (RTS) game in which the player guides a civilization through five historical periods, from the Middle Ages to World War II. As in many RTS titles, the player collects natural resources, erects buildings, and trains and maintains a military. Players use a mouse cursor interface (or hotkeys) to direct their units, which range from crossbowmen to King Tiger tanks. A three-dimensional (3D) camera system allows the player to view the action from any perspective, including isometric and first-person angles. The editor used to create Empires is packaged with the game, which allows the player to create original levels and campaign scenarios. The project was led by company head Rick Goodman, designer of Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires and Stainless Steel's earlier Empire Earth. The Empires team began by studying their previous game for features that could be reused or improved. Although a heavy focus was placed on historical accuracy, designer Richard Bishop explained that "fun always comes first."
Further inspiration came from surveys of Empire Earth players, In response, the team reduced the span of Empires to 1,000 years, from the Middle Ages until World War II. Goodman believed that this could make the game many times deeper than Empire Earth. the first title of which was revealed to be Empires in February 2003. By April, the team estimated the game to be 60–70% finished. Significantly more detail was added to the units' 3D models than had appeared in Empire Earth.
Empires was designed primarily for multiplayer gameplay: the multiplayer development team created and fine-tuned each civilization, which the single-player team then used in campaign levels. Because the civilizations do not overlap, Bishop considered game balance to be the most difficult aspect of the project. However, this technique hinged on a broad similarity between civilizations that is not present in Empires. In Empires, each unit's strengths and weaknesses were made subtle enough to curb "hopeless mismatches" and reward skillful micromanagement, according to Bishop. The duration of the average battle was increased to provide more opportunities to micromanage units. and it was released on the 22nd of that month.
Reception
Empires was received positively by critics, according to review aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings. The game's sales, when combined with those of Empire Earth, surpassed 2.5 million units by May 2004. Game Informers Adam Biessener called Empires "a good knockoff" of WarCraft III and Age of Mythology, worthwhile for fans of the RTS genre. He praised its Empire Builder and Action modes, and the uniqueness of its multiplayer mode; but he found its single-player campaigns to be lackluster. Jonah Jackson of X-Play, Ron Dulin of Computer Gaming World and Stephen Poole of PC Gamer US were similarly unimpressed by the game's single-player mode: the last critic highlighted its "stupendously loquacious cut-scenes and terrible voice-acting". Jackson lauded the multiplayer component as well, and he believed that, while the game at first seems unoriginal, Empires is "the most mature and well-balanced of Goodman's titles". Writing for GameSpot, Sam Parker argued that Empires separated itself from rivals Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and Age of Mythology, and he commented, "While it may not have the breadth of Rise of Nations real-time empire building, the tight scope deals out dividends when it comes to fast-paced battles."
During the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Empires for "Computer Strategy Game of the Year".