Recent reviews by Dr. Funkenstein

Genuinely good Anno game, shame about Epic store shenanigans.

It looks great, but unfortunately without the expansion packs it's a very trimmed version to that which I'm sure most HoMMIII players are used to.

Perhaps now that this game is officially abandonware my review won't get downvoted by frosty-eyed shills.

I deleted my first review because some time after I posted it I presumed it would be long out of date. Unfortunately the game remains unfinished, now officially abandoned, with many important features for creating a network such as simple crossovers are left out, many promised features abandoned such as content expansions along with further support for a game that is still pretty broken. The engine seems to have been unfinished or unsuitable from the start, an inability to cross roads over rail is something which apparently can't be fixed. The building system is frustrating, the game is feature lite, the whole experience has been frustrating.

I wanted to like this game, much of my play time is idle time spent minimised while I while away frustration in order to give the game more chances. Maybe buy this game on sale for a fiver if you really want to sperg out playing trains and you keep wishing there was something more modern than Railroad Tycoon or OTTD. DO NOT get burned for full price like I was foolish enough to be.

If any of you still haven't played this it is well worth it, really good fun despite a few flaws. Napoleon is mechanically the better game, this particularly reveals itself in naval combat, but the scope of Empire is a quality of its own that isn't matched by the Eurocentric map of Napoleon. Players with designs for a European empire will be better served by the more detailed map of Europe of Napoleon however.

Like most TW games this only truly shines with mods, Darthmod makes for a good "vanilla+" mod and would bea good start. I'd recommend Imperial Splendour for a more extensive going-over, with the added benefit of not having to strip the Star Wars rubbish that the creator of Darthmod inserts into the game menus and interface in increasingly obnoxious ways from game to game. Still, it makes sense to play a more vanilla experience to gain experience with the game and to csee the work that the Imperial Splendour team have done.

A good game on consoles, this game really shines when modded on a PC.
If you've played through it before on another platform, I'd recommend that you pick it up again on PC for the full experience, s the game should be.