Better Than Age Of Kings. Nuff Said.
This expansion is a must for anybody that owns AOE2 or is considering buying the game in a combination pack. This expansion improves on the Age of Kings version creating an unbeatable strategy game.
Plot: You take up the challenge of building an empire with your chosen civilisation, battling your way through well constructed conquests or playing against the computer or online players in tense multiplayer games.
What has been added: The Conquerors comes with an impressive 5 new civilisations, including the Aztecs, Huns, Koreans, Spanish and Mayans, each bringing a new challenge and style of play along with 11 new units. This along with the 26 new technologies, 4 new campaigns and a host of new maps and game types compliments the original perfectly.
Gameplay : As with AOE2 this is amazing, and only improved with the host a new maps and features. No longer do you have idle villagers wasting time or building themselves in, the new smarter villagers now automatically gather resources and are noticeably more intellectual. The difficulty levels are extremely variable in the multiplayer and the campaigns adopt a shallow learning curve allowing gamers of all abilities to enjoy this game to its maximum potential. Instead of the limited options for game play in the Age of Kings, there is now a multitude of enjoyable options, including: King of the Hill, The Wonder race, Defend the Wonder and the Last Man Standing, where even the team members get to turn on each other for the title of supreme champion. All this along with improved chatting features and control of CPU players allied with you makes you wonder how you ever lived without it.
Graphics : Although they do not compare with the ultra realistic graphics of todays games they are still very detailed and suited to the game as a whole. Even so, with 200 units per player and 4 or more civilisations the game can get a bit jerky so I would recommend running on lower detail settings if you’re not too confident with your processing power. An odd feature of the game as a whole and not just the expansion pack is the strange scales, with elite war elephants bigger than houses and units taller than buildings. This is not a bad thing at all just something amusing I noticed and appears to be synonymous to all isometric strategy games from that perspective. This game excels at the finer details right down to the individual movements of the units in a battle, and the blood stained ground beneath the skeleton of a fallen soldier.
Sound : This game has a great repertoire of sounds, and hosts some of the most amusing taunts and commands I have heard in a game. These are easily accessed with the use of a number in the chat window and can also be used to control the computer players who are allied with you. I generally do not play with the music on, but those who prefer the whole experience will not be disappointed as the music is well suited to this genre and fits nicely with the conquest and war feel of the game. Once again great attention to detail has been spent here, with the villagers speaking in their own native languages and the noises of the individual weapons clashing in the many battles that you encounter.
I have yet to tire of this game, even after completing the new conquests you are still left with the multiplayer aspect. The new and improved map editor allows you to create an infinite number of new worlds, this along with the extremely variable game settings and new modes gives you every opportunity to test your skills to the limit no matter how skilled you get. This game does become less pleasurable however if you do not aim at your own level, it is unwise to aim too high as constant failure only dampens sprits whereas constant wins can leave you feeling cheated. It is doubtable if you can ever become bored of this game; only another edition could tear you away from this add on once you install it.
Overall this expansion pack is not revolutionary, nor does it need to be, what it brings to the game in small amounts only improves on the total experience, concentrating not only on the visible additions such as new civilisations but on the smaller features such as, being able to stock replants for your farms and tweaks to the existing civilisations to give a altogether more involved feeling.