Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

... As long as you don't cheat

I got a demo version of AGE OF EMPIRES: THE AGE OF KINGS with a computer magazine and was so impressed with this that I purchased the full game . I certainly recommend this game for strategy fans in general and real time strategy addicts in particular

As with so many of these games you start of with villagers chopping down trees , collecting gold and tilling the fields in order to build up the economy , technology and military might but you've also got the choice of choosing different races , terrain , landscapes etc which unlike several other strategy games are in fact different . Not only that you can also choose several missions like embarking on a crusade against the mighty Saladin or unifying the Germanic lands .

I have to confess that not long after starting the game I surfed the net for cheats which spoiled much of the challenge . I awarded myself unlimited amounts of food , stone , gold and wood . I also managed to find a cheat which meant I could arm myself with cars that fired machine guns which while being fun in an anachronistic way ( The game is set round about the 12th century and never progresses beyond this time frame ) of machine gunning massive amounts of enemy means the game instantly stops being much of a challenge . Having said that I still sat in front of my computer for countless days wreaking carnage on my enemies knowing that there would be no chance of me losing a game which speaks well of its playability

Ive played this game since it was released, I loved the details and in a way, it was educative. The campaigns were amazing

This and Red Alert were some of the very earliest of the genre that I ever played, and they remain fantastic to this day. After the original, and its expansion pack, The Rise of Rome, that deserve credit as well, the first in particular, for their efforts in this field, and for offering an alternative to the straight-forward "make a base, gather your forces and annihilate that of your enemies"(for while they can surely be fun, developing them further is great when done right) ones, by adding researching, upgrading and four types of resources to get, this was released, near the end of the millennium. Taking place during the Middle Ages, not the ancient world or the Holy Roman Empire, this brought with it tons of features and improvements, and changed certain things from the others to make it more fair and evened out. You can now garrison men, for their protection, healing, and, oh yeah, they can actually return fire(with one possible exception). This can be done inside Towers, including the new kick-ass Bombard Tower(and it's not the only thing this has that's armed with a cannon, you get a ship that is, as well, in addition to being able to create ones pushed by one person each, and Hand Cannonneers, which are essentially riflemen), and one or two others, including the Castles. Yup, you now get to construct those, and they are responsible for so much pure cool-ness and fun in this that it might have been called Age of Empires II: Fortress. It fires a multitude of arrows simultaneously, it's where you train the unique unit for every civilization(including Throwing Axemen, War Elephants...), and it lets you make Trebuchets, and these are the ultimate siege weapon(although definitely not the only one, the Rams, for example, are excellent) of the "new" time, hurling one stone at a time a massive distance, and they are a force to be reckoned with. The Town Bell, when rung, will immediately signal all Villagers to return to the Town Center, thus keeping them safe and supplying a measure of resistance to thine enemy that ought not to be underestimated. And no building or man is neither impossible to defeat nor useless, one may have to experiment to discover either of them, and combinations are by far the greatest method to go with. The amount of different strategies is impressive. There are, if not many, bad things to this... there are a few bugs and glitches, though I've only encountered one that was major. The voice acting is reasonable, but the accents are overdone and silly. Meanwhile, the score is incredible, and sound work in general is, as well. And the story-telling is quite interesting, and stronger than that of the previous titles in the series(obviously, since those were all text on the screen) and I never tired of it. Only one cut-scene is in this, the intro movie, however, it's enormously well-done. The campaigns are marvelous and always well-done, authentic, based on real-life occurrences. The level design is almost beyond reproach, there are a couple of shortcuts taken, that's all. And if you want to try your hand at putting together your own missions, there is a Scenario Editor, and a Campaign one, so you can string them together, too. And you don't have to, if you just feel like playing, because there are plenty already done, and you can simply use Random Map to customizably spawn a fresh one instantly for you to use. The mode of Regicide is also seen here, making for another kind of experience, as you are now out to find and eliminate one specific character per foe, whilst protecting your own from them, instead of the entire base. There are still several different difficulty settings, so anyone should both be able to play, and be challenged. This has the prior entries beaten in complexity. There is additional info in this, itself, for example, you are able to read about history in it. The stats of each individual game still show after completion, and they're elaborate to a grander extent than before. The interface is better, and I'm not merely talking about the stances(Aggressive, basically meaning that the selected will pursue until what they've spotted of the opposition until they're dead, Defensive, where they'll return to their position and not follow all that long of a distance, Stand Ground, where they'll attack if possible from where they are without moving, and No Attack, that says exactly what it does, and is extremely useful for those people under your command that can hurt your own, and/or if you simply prefer to leave them near what isn't on your side, without attempting to tear it to the ground), the three abilities, Follow, Guard and Patrol, or the formations that allow you to flank those you fight, or scatter so that catapults won't hurt as many of them at once. There are options that weren't in AOE before, and you can define the so-called, and mighty helpful, hotkeys, to name one. You can set Rally Points for production facilities, so they'll head where you tell them to, rather useful for assembling an army. The culture implemented is extensive, and the artwork is detailed and *gorgeous*. The LOD is impeccable. The AI is varied, and always good. Your opponents will behave in ways, not limited to one, so as to decrease the chance of this ever being predictable. Multi-player is countless hours of entertainment available to you, and no cost beyond the retail price for this is necessary. Wage war with or on your friends, perfect strangers or a mix of the two. And that's apart from all the joy of battling the PC, if you are without an internet connection(in fact, if that's the case, congratulations on somehow managing to find this, given the situation), not part of a Local Area Network, or, heck, if you enjoy that. I know I do. I recommend this to any fan of RTS. 8/10

I have chosen to start this on a sour note, just as what I am reviewing does. After the clever and well-done opening cut-scene of the immediate predecessor to this opened that exactly as it should be, and setting the tone right, the intro of this is rather underwhelming. It's a lot of the same footage, some lengthened, in a very obvious manner, that leaves it moving too slow, and run downright choppy, a little has been added, to elaborate on what goes on, and it's not particularly pretty or all that well-done. It tries to look stylish, a bit, neglecting the fact that that does not fit with the material, indeed, with the rest of the product. Accuracy and realism are key, like with all prior entries. The wrap-around is taken out, awkwardly. The whole thing is just plain obvious, and it feels like it was thrown together without a lot of effort, and goes on for overly long, all in stark contrast to that of AOK. If you go on to play the single-player of this, and go in numerical order, you are shortly thereafter introduced to the Tarkan, which is unique to the Huns, a horse-borne man who carries something I could not tell what was at first. Then I realized it: It's a lit torch. This is a cool concept, and makes sense, but it doesn't actually look or work all that great(and when you have to try hard to be able to tell what it is...). They didn't take the consequence and make it able to actually set buildings(what they damage the most) ablaze, a la Populous: The Beginning, or at least do a strongly defined flame-effect and damage model, like C&C, and it comes off odd(meanwhile, it is a good investment). Why do I start on these seemingly small, in the big picture, complaints? Simply because they were the first impressions, they may very well be for others, and I hope to deter anyone from jumping ship from this initial disappointment. You see, beyond those, this actually has a bunch to offer... and some of it is golden. There are touch-ups since the "parent" to this. Attempts are made to smooth game-play and such out, if not all are successful. Workers immediately begin gathering resources when they've completed a place to deposit them, automatically, and that cuts down on hand-holding. Not to mention the Reseed Queue, that lets you set Farms to automatically rebuild, so long as you've got a Mill, and the Wood upfront. The Tech Tree is now always available, a button right there at the top of the screen. Advancing through the Ages now gets a status bar, also up there, so you don't have to consult your Town Center. There are strategic opportunities that did not exist before in these. You can Garrison inside Rams, though that can be annoying as it can't be turned off, and it's relatively limited. The objectives now change during missions, and this is more open. Color is used to make it faster to distinguish and keep track of opponents(when they message or attack you). There is clumsiness here and there, and the level design isn't always fantastic. There are new areas, and snow is put in, for example. There are ten real-world maps, and many new types. King of the Hill, Defend the Wonder, Last Man Standing, etc. are included. There are five civilizations brought in, including Spanish(Conquistadors and Missionaries!) Vikings(Longboats and Berserkers!), Japanese(Samurai!) and Korean(Turtle Ships!). You can also now build Petards, that appeared very briefly in AOE2. The story-telling is improved upon since that, and is mighty compelling and in-depth, better than that of any release earlier in the series. It's very detailed and clearly an area they spent time on doing well. The ridiculous accents are gone from the briefings(there are ones for units), and the voice acting is of higher quality, almost invariably, than earlier. The AI is changed, not always a positive here. There are now only three difficulty settings(and there definitely was not paid equal attention to them), and it picks up where Kings left off. However, the campaigns do seem to start somewhat soft. The population limit goes up in them. The fourth one is not a continual arc, like all apart from it. Instead, it is a compilation of grand battles, eight in total. You aren't limited to going through them chronologically. This makes for several of the best ones, as far as being interesting goes, although when the tailoring backfires, they can get a certain kind of bad, ugly, nasty, and worse. This expansion pack gets extra upgrades and research. The Scouts feature gives you info about your enemies and/or the surroundings, is there from the beginning, and like objectives and hints, can be viewed any time. The history remains the focus, and there's more of it than in the others. This may cost it fighting. I personally enjoyed it. The Aztecs are quite different from the others. I couldn't say if it evens out, unfortunately, as much as they did change for them, it still seems like they have technology they shouldn't. There is heavy-handed criticism of their religion, values and spiritual ideas. You can select men and horses that are inside something(like a boat, a tower, a Castle), now, and while I understand the argument against this, I'd say there's nothing negative to it. The authenticity is still far up on the checklist of important stuff, and it shows, in a marvelous way. OK, so El Cid's time is further back than gunpowder, at least in use in rifles, and spread beyond China, and outside of fireworks and maybe bombs... nevertheless, it makes for fun cavalry. The MP gets renewed vigor, not that it was lacking any. All in all, I'd surely call this a worthy purchase, if you dig Age of Empires, and like the second game of the franchise(while this isn't flawless). I recommend this to any fan of RTS(especially these). 7/10

Age of Empires II it's a construct empire game,about combat and conquest,you will beginning in a loyal position in the height mild age" These are the principal guidelines of the game. Age of Empires II,will get you to the past,to explore,combat,conquest and constructive as the human do in the past. You can play as William Wallace,Juana De Arco,Gengis Khan,and lots more,these give to the game more positive points,thinking about the hight possibilities to win,or loose. This PC Game is one of the best ever made,if you have an opportunity to play it,play it,it's an fabulous form to entertainment. And to know more about the history,about things ho happened in the past,and lots more. Maybe the possibility to the codes decreases the game difficulty,but at the same time,it increase the REPLAY VALUE of the game.

I give it 10/10,microsoft did an excellent PC Game.