This is, without a doubt, the greatest RTS in existence. Gamespot gave this an 8.5. They have no idea how to score an RTS, so don't listen to them. There are over 15 factions ranging from indians to all the Europeans and each one has its own special unit. For example, the British have Longbowman.

There is just so much to this game and it's from 1999! I can't really describe how great it is. I guess it's just the way the game feels and plays. Play a skirmish battle for 10 minutes and you'll know what I mean. You can play with up to 8 people and the map can fit all of you and doesn't make you feel cramped.

There are a whole lot of different maps you can choose from. There is my personal favorite of Black Forest and then there are other ones there are rivers maps, lake maps, all land maps. But what makes them all different is that they are randomly generated every time you start up a game making the maps not get stale or boring. Although you will be playing the same type of map like a river map or a forest map.

The campaign is historically accurate with a Joan of Arc campaign, a William Wallace campaign, a Saladin campaign, and others. The capaign is decent, imo. It's probably just me since all I ever want to do in an RTS is the multiplayer or skirmish battles, which is where this awesome game really shines.

I've had many LAN parties of just playing this game and it has been fun for the whole time. We played for hours and hours.

Now-a-days every game thinks that it has to be different and complcated and have a high learning curve like AoE 3. This is not the case. AoE 2 is a 2D game from '99 and is still the best. There are only 2 games that can come close to rivaling it's prowess and those are Age of Mythology (also an Ensemble Studios game) and Rise of Nations.