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When considering real time strategy games - and in particular a benchmark to judge all others against, the Age of Empires series is one that immediately springs to mind. When Age of Empires was first released, it did not bring anything groundbreaking to the genre; rather it did everything very well. It was well-polished, both in story and gameplay, and its historical tie-in made it immediately popular. This formula was applied to later games in the series, such as Age of Kings, and the immensely popular Age of Mythology.

With a background such as this we were intrigued when we heard that there was to be an Age of Empires III. Would Ensemble try to move away from the successful formula and risk something new, or would they just put the game into a different era and leave it largely unchanged? Well, after playing through the game we can say they have performed a minor miracle and achieved both. Age of Empires III combines all the wonderful game play and story telling of previous titles in the series, but has also managed to introduce some new elements that are a huge departure from them.

The game is set in the era of discovery and colonial expansion. It has players vying for their piece of the New World as one of the major Empires of the time. You can play as the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, German and Ottoman Empires (unfortunately the American Indian is not a playable civilisation). Players must build a city, gather resources and train armies - all the while battling both the enemy and the environment.

The choice of empire is key to success both in skirmish mode and online play with each of the different civilisations having differing infantry, cavalry and naval units. These differences are even more obvious when choosing your home port. The "Home Port" is where you set sail from and is also where your supplies and reinforcements originate. Each of the civilisations has differing sets of reinforcement "cards" that can be played at any time, depending on the experience a player has gained and the era to which their colony has advanced (Discovery, Colonial, Fortress, Industrial, and Imperial).

These reinforcements can be in the form of more troops, settlers, building types, wood, gold and hero characters. The selection of these cards can really swing the game, when playing both online and in skirmish mode. The more games you play, the more cards you are entitled to add to your deck. Effectively, you build a personalised deck that suits your playing style. If your strength is in military, you can develop a deck that gives military units ahead of what's normally available to other players; if a strong economy is of more importance, you can tailor a deck to include additional towns and agricultural upgrades. This personalisation makes for some very interesting challenges.

Choice of game options range from three excellent campaigns, to skirmish mode and online empire building. The campaign is an excellent place to start learning the basics of the game. It quickly guides you through resource gathering (silver, wood and food), to basic military actions. A booming economy is relatively easy to set in motion, and once you have built a mill your farms are self-sustaining. There are various structures and upgrades you can research and build, and these of course are augmented by upgrades and buildings set-up in your deck of cards.

Experience points are earned - allowing you to play a card - by killing enemy units, destroying enemy buildings or by capturing and building a trading post on a trade route. These sites are pre-determined on the map and by capturing and holding them you can accelerate the play of your deck. This of course needs to be balanced against the resources required to achieve this. Another tactic is to use your hero explorer to quickly search out some of the prize locations, which once captured or conquered can yield more resources or new units. These areas can be protected by Native Indians, Pirates, or wild animals and are no easy beat in the early stages of the game.

Units are finely balanced with a complex array of paper, scissors, rock-type unit balance (pike men defeat cavalry, cavalry are good against crossbow men, etc.). The introduction of artillery and large forces of infantry armed with muskets make for a very busy and messy battlefield. The peasants, the cannon fodder of previous games, have been armed as well, so tactics of early infantry rushes can come apart when faced by volleys from settler blunderbusses.

The American continent as a playing area has been divided up along state boundaries, and each has its own unique play environments. Florida features dark swamps and lush forests, while the Texas State has parched deserts and rocky outcrops. All of this makes the skirmish battles a tactical challenge around balancing the environmental challenges with the unit mix - and how you play your deck. The graphics and animation simply shine! The game can easily get away from you as you are distracted by some of the lavish environments and well constructed animations. Seagulls soar across the beach fronts, waves lap at the shore and bison graze across the planes. The environments are truly beautiful (seems a shame to blow 'em up!).

These environments are supported by some gorgeous animations. Smoke rises over the Indian encampments, bits of building fly into the air when bombarded, and troops can become airborne when hit. On both land and sea Age of Empires III displays a high level of polish. Evidence once again that Ensemble is sticking to the formula of a solid gaming experience and a robust game engine. One issue is, however, the large control panel at the bottom of the screen. Its size is understandable given the amount of commands and options, though you wonder if it was necessary to take up such a large amount of screen space. The only other aspect we were concerned about was the lack of military formations. The game largely handles these for you, however we felt more control over these would have provided more tactical options.

As with most games in the series Age of Empires III ships with a fully functional game editor, so players can develop their own scenarios - including cinematics. This has long been one of the strenths of the series, with the player base developing some really challenging scenarios long after the developers have moved onto the next game in the series.

Overall Age of Empires III offers a lot of new game play challenges, new environments and new Ages to conquer and master, all wrapped up into a solid game engine that makes it easy to get into but a real challenge to master. A highly recommended game and by far the best RTS game on the market today.