One of the first RTS games i ever played and one of the best, period.
User Rating: 9.5 | Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings PC
Let me first say this, I have played AoE:AoK for more hours than any other game I have ever played, which I give credit not only to the solid and fun gameplay but to one thing that almost every game with out of story modes should have, random maps. But that is not the only reason why this game is great but the great combination of sound, nice graphics and one of the most solid RTS game ever. Now I have finally gotten around to reviewing this game after so many years here goes. The gameplay for this game is superb, with a greatly balanced system for fighting and for the economy. One thing that I found very fun was the map editor which gave you many more things to do than just make a new map. You could, for example, playing with the units stats which I always found fun to see 20 samurai defeat hundreds for paladins. Also, though I never really did this much, you could make scripts for events and other things like how the computer would act and such. One thing that I thought was a nice idea to remain historically accurate was how they block certain civilizations from getting or researching certain technologies, like how the Japanese can’t research some gunpowder tech and the like. Though the gameplay is solid and well thought out, people looking for new and innovative features will not find much here. I find this is not hindrance as the gameplay is so fun and addicting that I think that this has no real effect. The graphics for this game are okay but not great, seeing how they are run on a 2d engine. But I usually don’t care about the graphics as much as how solid and fun the game is. The units are varied, you can easily tell a galleon from a fire ship in each unit type has a distinct feel to it. But those people looking for a flashy game should go look somewhere else. The sound in this game fits the mood well and doesn’t intrude at all. I generally like music in games and this is no exception, the attacks and such have nice sounds to them and are generally well done. Then comes the value which is very high. The random maps keep you coming back for more and new experiences and almost make it so that you never get the same map twice, which really raises the replay value. Also there are so many civilizations that its fun to see how you have to change you style according to what civilization your playing, like how the Huns don’t have to make houses. Also some value comes from the historical aspect of the game, from which they provide a kind of encyclopedia on the different civilizations and such. I have actually learned a lot from this game and it probably helped me in school sometimes on things we did. Overall this is a great game that has a lot of replay value and has rock solid gameplay to pretty good sound, since by now you can buy it for very cheap it is a good idea to pick this up and play it, for it is a great game that every strategy fan should play.
