Empires (video game)

Empires
Designer(s) Justin "Krenzo" Krenz
Engine Source
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date(s) March 4, 2006 (1.0)
Genre(s) First-person shooter/Real-time strategy
Mode(s) Multiplayer

Empires is a First-Person Shooter (FPS) with vehicular combat and Real-Time Strategy (RTS) elements. The first-person component of the game is played out by the soldiers on the battlefield, while the real-time strategy feature is played out by the commander of each team, in a similar fashion to any ordinary real-time strategy game. The link between the two modes is seamless, with the commander being able to hop between first-person shooter and real-time strategy modes at will.

Overview

Players are divided into two teams (BE vs. NF), and then fight it out on foot or in a variety of vehicles, including Jeeps, Armored Personnel Carriers, and Tanks. One player from each team serves as the commander, who directs his team through the battle.

Gameplay

In the Classic gamemode, there are two primary roles - that of the commander, and that of the player.

At the beginning of each round, one player from each team is voted to become that team's commander. This player has the responsibility of setting up bases and giving orders to the players on his team. The commander occupies a command vehicle (CV) that is heavily armored, but extremely vulnerable, as it lacks weapons. When this vehicle is destroyed, the round ends and the team with the surviving command vehicle wins.

All other players participate from the viewpoint of a traditional first-person shooter, fighting the other team and constructing buildings, with the ultimate goal of either destroying the enemy command vehicle or forcing the enemy team to run out of tickets. Players can choose from four classes: Engineer, Grenadier, Rifleman, and Scout.

Empires also supports a Conquest gamemode, with gameplay similar to that seen in the Battlefield series of games. In this gamemode there is no commander, and the players attempt to capture flagged control points. The game ends when either all of a team's reinforcement tickets run out, or when all flags are captured.

Backstory

Empires takes place in a near-future alternate universe, in the middle of a conflict between two vast empires - the Brenodi Empire, and Jekotia. The two fought a war over the ownership of some recently unearthed ruins, believed to be part of the empire of their mutual ancestors. The war was brought to an end by a series of earthquakes, which devastated the cities of Jekotia, leaving nothing but an army and the ragged remains of a civilian populace. The Brenodi created a new empire, out of their own and the ruins of Jekotia. Although the newly formed empire had a positive beginning, relationships soon broke down due to differences in the beliefs of the two cultures over personal enhancement: the Brenodi rigidly followed the use of nanotechnology, whereas the Jekotians favoured genetic modification. Social unrest grew in the Jekotians, as their rights were slowly sapped away by the Brenodi rulers of the New Empire, and eventually the disempowered ex-military formed into terrorist groups, such as the Northern Faction controllable in the game.

History

Empires began in February 2003 as a mod for computer game Battlefield 1942. Two versions were released on this engine,[1][2] but engine limitations forced the developers to move to another engine. Initial plans were made to move the mod to Far Cry's CryEngine, and some work was done within the game's level editor, but poor initial mod support turned Empires away. Half-Life 2's Source engine was chosen in July 2004.[3] Empires was first released on Source on March 4, 2006.[4] It has since received several patches and developer support is still ongoing. Empires 2.0, a second version of the mod, containing numerous bug fixes, features, and optimizations, was released on November 30, 2007.[5]

Empires was released on Steam on March 8, 2011. With the launch of TF2 in 2011, the source SDK became free,[6] allowing Empires to become a standalone game.

Press

Various cited magazines, websites and other reputable media of notice that covered Empires:

There are also various magazines that, at this time, are too rare to come by in order for a citation, and hence are listed below as disputable:

References

  1. ↑ Cam5951 (April 4, 2006). "Battlefield 1942 Empires mod - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com". Download.com. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  2. ↑ "FilePlanet: Mod Files | Empires | Gameplay". Fileplanet.com. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  3. ↑ "Empiresmod.com". Empiresmod.com. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  4. ↑ "Empiresmod.com". Empiresmod.com. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  5. ↑ "Empires Mod for Half-Life 2 Empires 2.0 Client Released news - Mod DB". Moddb.com. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  6. ↑ https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/30/not-only-but-also-source-sdk-to-be-free/
  7. ↑ "PC Gamer January 2013 Website Article". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2015-08-10.
  8. ↑ "Computer Games June 2006 article". Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  9. ↑ "PC Action DE article" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  10. ↑ "2007 Mod of the Year Awards Event Player's Choice Winners Showcase feature - Mod DB". Archived from the original on 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  11. ↑ "Krenzo Interviewed about Empires". Retrieved 2008-09-08.
  12. ↑ "Homebrews: Empires". Archived from the original on June 10, 2007. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
  13. ↑ "PCGamer UK July 2006". Retrieved 2 February 2014.

External links

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