Spanning across the epochs of mankind's history, Empire Earth is an encompassing, deep real-time strategy game similar in style to Age of Empires. Ranging from the very dawn of civilisation with the discovery of fire to the penultimate achievements of mankind's futuristic nanoage, players have all of the resources of the era at their disposal, from the club-wielding cavemen of prehistoric society, to atomic bomb-laden B52 planes of the Atomic Age. Featuring a robust campaign editor, and random scenario generator, Empire Earth is both a technologically-sound and enjoyable game.
This is an amazing game. I remember the day I got it... instantly fell in love with it.
You have the ability to go through the ages just like in Age of Empires - but you have a lot more ages to embrace.
I recommend ignoring the bad reviews and just moving on to play the addon AoC. Yes, sure, maybe it didn't add a lot of new stuff and wasn't really worth whatever its cost was back then, but nowadays its pricing should be fine regarding what has been added, right?