Rating: 
Summary: This is an excellent "product" from a guy who...
Review: This is an excellent "product" from a guy who admits he is just a "casual" gamer. He actually admits this in an interview somewhere and I think he's more competent than most designers and much older. So there, you little whipper snappers.My main complaint with this game has nothing to do with the game or developers except that they should be more careful about who they allow to start fan sites. A certain very popular site, perhaps the best site with the best forum gave me a very bad experience. In one of my first posts a regular there refered to me as stupid and silly and wondered in public if I was senile. All this because I questioned the diplomatic system in AOK, which any competent reviewer will recognize as being a joke. When I complained to the moderators of this site about this abusive behavior and a general abusive behavior towards Americans, I was banned from the forum and my ISP contacted for the crime of contacting these people through e mail. And now on to more pertinent information. I found the game easy to learn and fun to play. The graphics were good but not great. Pretty soon I found myself relying on one strategy. Wall out the invaders. Get to castle age as quick as I can and build lots of town centers to expand and defend. Once you beat the initial big invasion, the idiotic AI tends to just send invaders in little trickles that never stop, but aren't that hard to deal with. It's fun to use the various seige weapons, but I didn't really bother mastering the armor and tremendous variety of knights and swordsmen. They all looked about the same to me with the exception of the english longbowmen. You could play this game for a very long time, but there are lots of very good games to play. This is deep strategy, but not as deep as Railroad Tycoon 2 and Rogue Spear. It's also all tiny people and buildings. There's no zooming in and out or rotating. The fans are kind of ummmm...well, you read what I said above. I only played twice on the internet and the first guy left as soon as I knocked down his whole wall with a massive seige attack. The game then ended leaving me without the ability to even finish off what he'd built. My second game I used the wrong culture and after a prolonged build up I quicklly got slaughtered by the elite teutonic knights. My Woad raiders didn't have the ability to build cannons I found out too late. So there you have multiplay in a nutshell. If you are winning, people leave and call you a hack. If you are losing, they love you and possibly think you suck. There was no third, more experienced multiplay for me as I got wrapped up in the incident up top and lost interest in the game.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you people crazy?
Review: AoE II = the best game ever. So many high points, very very few low points. In a few months it will be a E-Game meaning you can win money for playing it.
Rating:
Summary: I'm a bad gamer.....
Review: I'm bad at most games. I mean that I'm not as good as most of the people that I've played with on-line; with the exception of sports games. I was really leary of buying this game because I'd never played one of this ilk before, and the term "turn based game" didn't sound all that great to me. Of course, I have come to find out that this isn't a turn based game. When I first played AOK I was terrible (even on easiest setting.) But now, with a little practice, I'm actually pretty good at it. Not great (yet) but pretty good. If you are just getting involved with "Strategy" games I would highly recommend this title. It's just plain fun. I put the game on the "slow" setting so that I can experience all the graphics and sounds that it has to offer. this also helps in situations where you're not ready for an attack and you need time to think. Anyway, that's my two cents. This is the best game that I've ever played!
Rating:
Summary: If you want to lead a productive life, don't buy this game.
Review: I find myself wasting the whole day when I fire Age of Empires II up, the game is so engrossing, the hours slide by in no time.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing Special
Review: For a long time AOE (the original) was my favorite game. I would play it for hours on end and all my friends would have intense multiplayer games. I couldn't wait for the sequal to come out. When it finally did, I bought it as soon as I could. I was impressed by the graphics, which were better than the original's. However, besides from the better graphics, it seemed like the same game. There are no cool units in the game. The buildings and units are basically the exact same as those in AOE, (only with the buildings larger and the units smaller). Another problem is that the civilazations are not balanced. Whenever I play multiplayer games with my friends (which is rare, because nobody likes this game) everybody wants to be one of the two civilizations with cannons because no other civilization can compete with them. I can't pinpoint exactly what I don't like about the game, but there definatly is something. For months I could play AOE for hours each day. I was bored of this game after a week.
Rating:
Summary: It just keeps getting better!
Review: Age of Empires just gets better in its second installment, with improved graphics and gameplay over the original. Age of Empires 2 provides many different modes of play to keep you busy for days or even weeks. In the main game ,random map, you can choose form a multitude of early civilizations including: Japan, Briton, the Vikings, and my personal favorite the Turks. You can also choose from tons of locals like Archipeligo or The Baltic Region. But this is not all, there are also lots of other ways to play, like campaign mode where you can follow in the footsteps of Ganghas Kahn or Joan of Ark. Although this game is not for everyone it may give action fans, who get bored with regular turn-based stregy, a reason to start playing stregy games with relentlessly atacking enemys which you have to fend off while gathering the resources to fight them and progress to the next age. This games only problem that I found is its absense of a true "free game" ,but this is easy to over come by just ignoring objecitives and playing it as if it was. I highly recommend this game to anyone!
Rating:
Summary: The best computer game I have ever played.
Review: This is the greatest computer game I have ever played. I liked Myst and Riven, but couldn't spend the time necessary in front of the computer to solve the puzzles. I don't like the shooter or fighting games, but I loved AOE I and the Roman expansion pack. You can move along at your own pace in these games and playing them is almost like directing your own movies. AOE II is twice as good as the first AOE. The graphics and music are better and the added features make the game more complex and interesting. I can't imagine a better real time strategy game.
Rating:
Summary: The Very Best of the Genre
Review: I was introduced to real-time strategy with the Total Annihilation and StarCraft series. I thoroughly enjoyed both games. I dabbled a bit with Age of Empires, but it never quite caught my fancy. Age of Empires II, however, pulls everything together quite nicely into a game that has enthralled me more than any other. From the finely crafted graphics to the character animations and sound effects, this game is what every real-time strategy creator aspires to build. Players have numerous races from which to choose and a wide variety of units, including unique units for each race. Every time I play I experiment with a different race to see what they can do. This is a much more mature game than other RTS titles, which tend to be fanciful and are not as finely tuned. Many beginners in the genre may find the game a bit challenging, but the learning campaigns will get them on track quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Age of Empires 2 (Age of Kings)
Review: Awesome game...Almost exceded my expectations! <Grin> The new campaigns are more challenging and exciting...well worth the cash!
Rating:
Summary: The master of tactics
Review: I love the game! The formations are increddible! The computer enemys are so much better. The comps army is not just priests (or monks) any more. The game can be set to a high speed which i like. And the game is awsome on the ZONE! GET THE GAME!
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