Solid game in all ways
Gameplay 8/10
I love this game so much because of how many units you can have onscreen at the same time it really gives you a feeling of how large of a scale the battles were back then. One thing that did bother me though was if your own troops walked through a group of archers half of them would get shot in the back by the archers. Dont you think whoever was shooting the bow would turn it slighly so they didnt shoot their own team in the back of the head? They say its realistic but.. its not. Another thing that somewhat bugged me was when two huge groups of soldiers would collide only the people in the fronts would engage in combat, everyone else would just sit around and wait for the guy in front of them to die, this makes sense with spearmen but when you have swords generally the ranks break apart and everyone is fighting everyone, if this had happened the game would have been truly the best ever. I did love everything else about the game though, how a charging group of horses could easily tear apart half the enemies troops of flanked and used correcly. Strategy is a huge part of this game which makes it stand above games like Age of Empires or Empire Earth.
Graphics 10/10
Nothing to complain about here, swords and golden armor gleam in the sunlight, clearly defined facial features, you can even see every single ring on the chainmail, you can see the horses manes waving in the air, nothing is wrong with this game graphically.
Sound 10/10
Love the games sound, perfect soundtrack also. Before combat theres a high paced fast music as the soldiers charge at eachother and horses kick up huge clouds of dust. Then just before they colide, the music stops and all you can hear is the clashing of steel and screams and your horsemen tear through ranks of troops.
Value 9/10
As i said before, i never had enough patience to finish the campaign as my empire would become much too large and impossible to keep track of and turns eventually last an hour or so as you engage in five different battles across the map. Again this is my fault not the games but it did get somewhat tiresome. However there is a great skirmish mode where you pick your army and your enemies army and have at it until you get sick of the game. Then once you warm up to it there is a fairly enjoyable online mode if you can find some good players.
Overall great game, if youre a strategy fan and you dont have this you are missing out.