Age of Empires III (AOE3) supports single-player campaign, single-player skirmish, and multiplayer skirmish. Getting started was made easier by a built-in tutorial and play a game feature. The tutorial shows new and prior AOE players the new features, and explores how to use them against the game artificial intelligence. The game setting spans over 400 years, from the discovery of the Americas in the late 1400s to the Imperial Age of the early 1900s. The 24-mission campaign plot is a story in three acts. Plot twists abound as four generations of the Black family battle for and against 8 countries who find underneath the battles the mysterious circle of Ossus who dogs them at every turn. Each act is followed by a 1.5 minute animated sequence, for a total of 4.5 minutes of cut scenes. In each of the three acts, you direct a member of the Black family, followed through four generations.

In the first act, Morgan Black, a knight of St. John, takes us from Malta to the New World on a mission to keep the Fountain of Youth out of the hands of the evil Circle of Ossus. John Black, the son of Morgan Black, and his son, Nathan Black, are featured in the second act, where they fight in the Seven Years' War in the American Colonies, a struggle among several colonial powers for dominance. The circle of Ossus uses the colonial powers and one unexpected ally, the Russians, to again attack the Black family, and the process proves lethal for some of the Blacks. The third act finds Morgan Black's great-granddaughter, Amelia, fighting the circle of Ossus once again, using the Black family business to unite the east and west costs of America with a railroad line.

The Sid Meier inspired heritage of the AOE series is evident through many Civilization-like elements, such as the technology tree, home city, and natural wonders. The technology tree has five age levels: discovery, colonial, fortress, industrial, and imperial. At different ages more advanced technology becomes available, unlocking better buildings, units and improvements.

A home city in AOE3 provides for more advanced reinforcements and shipments of supplies. As the game progresses, the home city gains levels, which open up new reinforcement or supplies 'cards." There is a maximum of 20 cards of any type to choose from, but only the more advanced cards are available at higher levels. These changes are permanent, and subsequent advancement is saved for future games. Most home city cards cannot be replayed except for certain situations.

The natural wonders of Age of Empires II (AOE2) were dropped from the AOE3 design, and you can no longer build and defend a natural wonder to win the game. Winning conditions are now limited to supremacy or death match in the multiplayer-over-the-Internet play, or single player vs. the computer, resulting in most matches going for over an hour. Ranked multiplayer opponents are easily available on the Ensemble Studios Internet opponent service, dubbed ESO2.

You can choose from eight civilizations to play for: Spanish, British, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, German and Ottoman. The Russians and Ottomans come into the picture from the campaign plot, which involves the Ottomans and Russians coming to the new world to compete for the waters of the Fountain of Youth. Different civilizations have different strength. Ottomans have more powerful cannons. Spanish have more useful and effective support from the home city. British and French have stronger native alliances. The eight civilizations give you more to try out when playing the game, making replaying games more interesting.

Resources include food, timber, and gold. Stone, which was a limiting factor in AOE2, is no longer a resource. The timber is logged and the gold mined. On maps where there are trade routes, resources can be earned from trading posts there. Food can be grown, gathered, hunted, or fished. Resources can also be gained by shipments from the home city or through production from a Factory building available at the fourth (industrial) age.

Combat has unique formations such as volley fire, where coordinated rank firing makes the units more effective, bombard, where the artillery are protected, and charge, where attack is increased and defense decreased. Units can turn on a dime, making flanking less important in the game. Battles tend to be large affairs, with dozens of units fighting dozens of units. The game AI does not just send suicide units to hammer you, but waits until a coordinated force is built that has a better chance of success.

Native tribes and trade routes are new for AOE3, and add new dimensions to the game play. You and your enemies can ally with native tribes or take over trade routes by placing an outpost building in the native village or supply point on a trade route.. Native tribes give you additional units to pound the enemy within forward areas while you continue to protect your own base and build resources. The native tribes have their own smaller technology tree, to improve effectiveness.

Trade routes start out with a native and horse pulling packages, and later upgrade to covered wagon and then railroads. Each upgrade allows you to earn more money, and the last upgrade provides your forces with the resources you specify. Defending outposts is a critical part of the AOE3 game strategy.

There are both nomad starts and fixed starts. In a nomad start, you get a wagon and a few settler units at the start of the game and have to pick a location and build your town center. The fixed starts open the scenario with the town center already built, with a few settlers and military units in addition to your explorer unit. Fixed starts get the game going quickly without wasting time looking for and establishing a town center.

Often you will need to micromanage situations, and you do not have eyes and ears everywhere. In one location your units might be fighting while buildings are going up somewhere else, and settlers are collecting resources. Often you can only deal with one item at a time, meaning that you play the game much like an entertainer spinning plates on sticks. If you don't keep moving from plate to plate quickly and keep them spinning, a lot of plates will stop spinning and break on the ground.

The full 3D graphics were pushed to the limits according to designer Shelley, who was surprised at the lack of recognition. The water effects are simply stunning and will tax the full power of your video card. Tone mapping, lighting and shadows, bump and specular mapping, and cliffs and riverbeds have special touches.

Animations are not just fixed, but many, such as the destruction of buildings, are randomly rendered on the fly so that the parts of buildings that fly off are different in size and shape for every mortar bombardment. Naval unit animations are somewhat unnatural and fantastic, since large naval vessels can unrealistically turn on a dime, just like the infantry soldier. Infantry units will volley fire and, when the enemy gets closer, switch to bayonet fighting in the animations. "Rag doll-like" animation occurs when a cannon attacks infantry and the units "rag doll" over obstacles, including cliffs. You'll easily miss these interesting animation touches and sophistication if you don't pay careful attention in the excitement and heat of game play.

I enjoyed the off-beat, even zany Masonic Holy Grail-like plot in the single-player campaign mode. The animations and game play are more complex and lead to longer and more evenly matched multiplayer play. The AI and pathing of units are much improved by the abandonment of randomly generated levels. The graphics are stunning. I enjoyed the game immensely but I did not find that it was the best thing I have played this year.