The game itself contains many unique and innovative features, including a ' morale' system, which directly affects individual units statistics. To do this, the player must create both an army to invade enemy cities, citizens who will work collecting resources and buildings to create units and defend the player's own cities. The player must attempt to destroy every opposing civilization on the map, thus conquering the world. The gameplay of Empire Earth is similar to that of other real time strategy games like Age of Empires II.
