"empire earth ii" was generally well received scoring 8.9 out of 10 by ign, and 8.0 by gamespot. shortly after the game's release, it was generally complimented for good gameplay and the options players had to customize the game." criticisms of the game included high system requirements, issues with unit pathfinding, modest graphics, a poor unit counter system, a clunky, complicated, almost non-existent mission editor, and the increased complexity caused by the new game features." others included poor in-game music and few terrain types.