Age of empires two gold is the box set that fans of RTS should check out, regardless if you like the series or not.
AGE OF EMPIRES TWO REVIEW:
Age of empires two is the sequel to the less than thrilling Age of empires, which was a dramatic take on the golden age of Rome and other civilizations. Just like in Age of empires, you try to build a civilization and as you go from campaign level to campaign level; your civilization grows, along with better technology, troops, and design of your buildings that matches with the age of that civilization. While it’s sound department leaves a bit to be desired, it’s colorful graphics and addictive strategy makes this one of the best Real Time Strategy games around.
Age of empires two set with a host of options to do. For starters, you can do the normal campaign mode, which takes you through lots of different civilizations. From the French to the Romans, you’ll see it all. The whole campaign is set through events that actually happened, so the main characters that are in the story such as, Fredrick Barbarosa, who has his own campaign, can also be played as on the map while playing. The story of each campaign basically brings out exactly what happened from start to their tragic deaths. It’s all very exciting and not only is you playing a real thinking game, but you’re also learning about history too.
The battles you fight are also very well done. One mission has you going through the streets of Paris with Joan the Arc, bringing her troops to the final stand at Chaltu. You get to live out the entire battles that were fought throughout the campaign and it can be quite thrilling to be able to play through these realistic battles, especially if you’re a history buff.
Age of empires two’s core gameplay is very addictive. Controls are spot on and are very responsive, giving the player the best feels for their empire. You can have up to 32 units selected at once and they move where you tell them to go very quickly without delay. Age of empires 2 has some thrilling moments in its fights. It’s also worth noting that you should make your army stronger by having diversity. Don’t just send in a bunch of horse riders or foot soldiers, instead, mix it up and even throw in some archers and monks to heal your army for good measure. Doing this will make you much more versatile and ready for an enemy strike, which no matter what type of game your playing in Age of empires 2, I guarantee it’s going to be a tough haul.
The difficulty mainly comes from a lot of things. For starters, you really can’t see too much in front of you, although each different type of soldiers has his own line of sight, a monk for instance has a very long line of sight, while the champion foot soldier has a small line of sight. It’s a very nice touch that makes you think twice before storming out, seeing as you can’t see everything. The enemy is also very smart, even on the lowest difficulty level, the AI is going to give you a run for the money from start to finish, mainly because of the vast amount of expertise and things the enemy can do at once, making you work hard and build buildings and make units fast before the enemy comes and attacks and to be ready to counter-attack. You can also have up to 8 people at once, either computers or people or mixed. Seriously, you can have 8 computers going at it on the hardest difficulty and actually sitting back and watching them. It can be entertaining since they make buildings and units faster than any human I’ve ever played. Even seven people against one computer can be challenging at times. You can also play and do all of this over the internet or on LAN making for some thrilling and memorable moments.
Age of empires two even lets you create your own maps. That’s right; you can create pretty much any map you want with the map editor placing any enemy/unit/building/terrain anywhere and fight when ready, set the enemy to any difficulty and then go at it. This is in my opinion, the most fun and most exciting part of the game.
The graphics in Age of empires 2 is solid. Although not remarkable and definitely not the reason to play, the graphics are colorful enough and give a distinct difference to the type of buildings. The Chinese for example and their Asian style has a distinct look to it, while the more Middle Age British caste has its looks to that are way different than the Chinese. It all looks great, although nothing is terrible detailed.
As you progress through Age of empire two’s campaign, you can then start going from one age to the next. Although the highest age, which is the Imperial Age, isn’t available at the start, by the time you complete the campaign you will definitely be able to access the age. There are four ages in all and every time you enter a new age, the game offers you newer units/building looks/buildings to build.
The buildings you can build are substantial with everything from Archery for your archery units to a blacksmith to upgrade the unit’s arms and attack damage. As you progress through the campaigns you then start unlocking newer upgrades.
Age of empires two offers over 20 different type of empires, from the British to the Japanese to the Vikings, each empire offers unique type of abilities. For starters, every empire can’t have every upgrade and every type of unit and some civilizations, such as the Goths, can’t even have stone walls. Of course, every civilization can have a castle and in that castle you can build the empires unique type of unit. Each one is unique, but some are way better than others. The British longbow man are great for long-distance fights, while the Goth’s huskarls are great for melee combat since their damage and armor count is huge. It really adds a lot of diversity to this unique and stunning Real time strategy game.
Age of empires two also has town centers; these are basically where you can upgrade to a newer age when it becomes available and also where you can build villagers. Although your units/soldiers go out and fight, the villagers are way more important. Although they can hardly fight, they can however build buildings and pick up resources to do this. Building buildings takes quite a while, especially if it’s something huge like a castle or if you can achieve it, a wonder, which is also unique to every empire/civilization. The resources you collect are: stone, wood, food, and gold. Gold and stone are almost always in short supply, but are needed to build things, of course putting the S in strategy. Wood and food are everywhere, as trees are pretty abundant, and as you go through long campaign levels that can take a few hours to complete, you’ll find yourself trading off wood for gold at the market you build. Of course, the food can be achieved in a variety of ways. You can either fish it out of the water, chop up lambs/deer, farming, or just getting wild barriers and such.
If fighting in the land doesn’t suit you, can always fight in the water. The water is sometimes the perfect way to get around certain fortresses, as you can build galleons and such to go through barricades and can be great for breaching a fortress form two fronts, land and sea. Fighting in the water can be dangerous, but again, each civilization as their own unique type of ships.
The sound in Age of empires two isn’t very impressive. Some looping songs play as you go along, but it just kind of fades into the background. There’s really no voice acting except from the soldiers as you tell them where to go, they’re respond in different accents and words depending on which country their from. But they always follow your command, so don’t worry. The noise of swords and shield clashing is again just noise, so this is the perfect game to play with the TV on or some friends with you, as you don’t really need it.
Age of empires two isn’t for everybody. It really is a tough game and by all means if you don’t believe me, give a try it, will even make you frustrated after a while. But those who can accomplish this difficult game and learn the ropes will have a ton of fun and I guarantee, apart from Civilization four this is the best Real time strategy game ever made.
AGE OF EMPIRES TWO THE CONQUERORS EXPANSION REVIEW:
Age of empires two was a real treat for RTS fans. It was a strategy game un-like any other, with some of the most addictive strategy around. The first expansion delivers a lot of the same great multiplayer and campaign strategy, all the while, letting you play the original Age of empires two so that the two games stack.
Instead of writing a whole new review for the Age of empires two strategy formula, I’m just going to write about the new features; you can read my Age of empires two review for all that.
The biggest new addition is the five new empires. They are: The Huns, Koreans, Mayans, Spanish, and Aztecs. Although each has different abilities and some are way better than others, I personally found the Spanish to the best overall. Their technology is un-matched, despite their unique unit being a bit weak.
You also have four new campaign modes. You play as: Attila the Hun, Montezuma, and El Cid, with a special campaign that has heroes throughout the world fighting their own unique battles that you get to live.
Apart from this, not much has changed, Age of empires two the conquers still has the same fantastic gameplay and un-matched addictive strategy that makes this a must play for RTS fans. The only real down side to this expansion is you need the original Age of empires two to play it, but that shouldn’t be a problem considering how outstanding the original was.
Age of empires two and the expansion is a fantastic purchase if you haven't played these two steller games. The main reason is because of the addicitve strategy, I just can't stress this enough. If you like RTS games, you need to check out these two games, and what better way to do that then with a box set like this.