A game that stays true to the sierra legacy...........
The initial civilizations in this game are only available to computer players at first, but you can create more. Unlike AoE, the civilizations have all the units, buildings, and technologies that any other civilization can get. The difference is that the have special bonuses. You can have a bonus to get swordsmen with 30% higher attack. You can get 50% stronger buildings. You can get almost anything you can think of. You have 100 points to do this with. But every time you puchase a bonus in a catagory, all other bonuses in that catagory go up in price. This makes you have to balance the bonuses you choose.
The AI in this game use strategies depending on what the know you are doing rather than always doing the same thing. If they know you are sending an army towards their empire, the will create defenses and slow you down with one of their current armies. Or mabye they will attack your empire while your army is abroad. You never know what they will do.
The epoch scope in this game is so much larger than that of AoE. You go through 15 different ages ranging from the age of nomads and clubman, the Prehistoric Age, to the age of lazers and cybers, the Nano Age. These ages are based on the real civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Rome, Medievil Europe, and the United States. Also the AI will choose different civilizations that will work better for the beginning epoch. So starting in the Copper age, AI will pick something like Israel. In the Industrial Age, the Ai might pick the United States.
The graphics in this games don't make it look all 2D like AoE, but the buildings look 2D in a way. You can see any side of the units, but you can't see the opposite side of the building. You can zoom in to see the game in close up view, but you can't rotate to look in another direction.Plus. the music in this game is very drab, almost annoying because it NEVER ENDS!
The campaines in this game are very fun and challenging. There are four of them and they all spen the history of the world. The firts one is as the Greeks from the Trojan War to Alexander's great empire. The second is as England's Duke William. The third is as the German's from WWI to the end of WWII. The fourth is a civil war in a futuristic Russia. They all have a good amount of scenarios and they all last along time. One campaine can last more than twelve hours while playing straight through.
The games map editor is just like AoE, but it's trigger system is extreamly complicated. It can take days to fully understand how it works. After you do understant it, it can be a powerful scenario creater.
This game is great and addicting. You can play for hours and it will only seem like 15 minutes. But, after playing for a few weeks,(or days if that's all you do) you tire of it only to come back to it a few days later. If you like RTS games, you need this game. There is, and never will be, anything like it.