Microsoft Unveils Age of Empires 3: The Warchiefs
- August 08, 2006 16:47 PM PST
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Real-time strategy buffs, rejoice -- Microsoft Game Studios and Ensemble Studios are preparing a king-sized expansion pack for their legendary RTS title, Age of Empires 3.
Entitled Age of Empires 3: The Warchiefs, the prime focus of the expansion pack is to flesh out the Native American characters. In the raw version of AoE 3, Natives work much like hired mercenaries.
Not so in Warchiefs. There are now three new fully playable Native civilizations: the Iroquois, the Sioux, and the Aztecs. Each tribe has respective strengths and weaknesses, much like their European counterparts. But the Native clans also bring in several interesting gameplay tweaks. For starters, the new Warchief character acts like a typical hero unit, but emits a powerful aura effect that grants all nearby allies a substantial advantage. The Sioux warchief, for instance, can make his followers faster; the Iroquois warchief can make his followers stronger, and the Aztec warchief can make his followers gain a bigger bounty (though we're sorry to report that the Aztec's often-gruesome human sacrifices will not make it into the game; the developers are striving for a Teen rating).
Another advantage of the Native tribes is that they can create Fire Pits, which further grant powers to the tribe. By allocating a certain number of dancers to a fire pit, tribes can perform rituals like fertility dances (which speed up unit production) and a warchief dance (which makes the warchief even stronger), among others.
Europeans haven't been left out in the expansion. European settlements will be able to revolt against their home cities. And there will be new buildings; the Saloon will let players recruit mercenaries and outlaws as powerful units.
This PC expansion will launch at an unspecified time this fall for $29.99. The original game is required.
