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Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings

Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $19.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Caesar III is way better
Review: The problem with this game is that there is no room for artistry. You put up the same buildings, usually in the same order, and it doesn't much matter where. Games like "Civilization" have wonderful movies (showing, say, the blasting of a Titan rocket or the building of the pyramids) and require a great deal of strategy. Games like "Caesar III" allow you to feel as if you are actually presiding over a Roman City. Indeed, as you build your city, you have to balance every aspect of Roman life, from water resources to the worshipping of Gods. However, Age of Kings enjoys none of these dimensions. I have found that the one-player version (that I play)is simply more frustrating than fun. The messages from other kingdoms flash too quickly on the screen, the demands are outrageous, and then you get invaded by all three other kingdoms at once. And, unlike Caesar III, the stockpiling of resources in Age of Kings is simply dull.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: STILL totally unfair and NO ELEPHANTS
Review: Even with difficulty level set to easiest, this game is almost impossible to play. I can use cheat codes to increase resources and it still takes hours to win. Also, I've only been able to make elephants in ONE mission out of 30. Rediculous.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredible!
Review: The graphics are amazing in this sequal. Great strategy game and love playing other people over the net. Great game!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I don't like RTS games.... except Age of Empires II
Review: I really don't like real time strategy games. Ok, I did play Warcraft 2 for a while, but still... Untill now, now that I've played Age of Empires II! It's highly addictive and it's so much fun espacially when played against friend or collegues. At least try it, you'll like it

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice improvements, but some critical flaws.
Review: If you liked the first AOE, you'll probably like this game. It has some nice new features - for instance, hotkeys for finding idle villagers. That said, however, I think they've made a HUGE mistake: the buildings are too big! Clearly someone there made the classic "bigger is better" mistake, and now the screen space is really tight. The buildings are enormous, making it tough to navigate around (and around them).

Someone over at Microsoft has completely missed the point of real-time strategy. You have to be able to see what you're doing. It doesn't matter if you can count the hairs on the tails of the horses in the stable. By limiting the visual field (and there's no zoom-out that I could see - if there is, it should be easier to find) they've reduced your ability to respond to threats and execute on your tactical plan.

All in all, the new artwork scale is a major screwup, making an otherwise really playable game much less interesting.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An improvement over the original, a credit to its genre.
Review: For those who feel that this game lacks a depth and is not a significant improvement over age I, I must emphatically disagree. The diversity of units, their strengths and most importantly their vulnerabilities, make strategic considerations very important. Even the weakest of units, the peasant, can become an effective defender when garrisioned in a building. Buildings are harder to knock down, and the ability to garrison missile troops and peasants within them make the importance of well planned and diversely equipped invasion forces critical. A force of infantry that is not supported by siege engines will eventually run out of steam when faced with fortified castles and garrisioned town centers. Cavalry raiders can be effectively crushed by cheaper pikemen and camels. Armies made excusively of expensive missile troops can be completely smashed by a single shot from a catapult, or by relatively cheap groups of skirmishers and light cavalry. The effectiveness of countering strategies makes a planned assault and defense critical to game success.

Control of your military units is far more refined than the mob mentality that prevailed in age I. The addition of easy to use formations makes marching multiple unit types (cavalry and archers, for example) far simpler to manage. And the ability to set stances (defensive, aggressive, no attack) prevents your units from fervently pursuing villagers across the map, or attacking things that they cannot hope to destroy. Add features like patrol routes and guarding, and one can easily see that this game is not just a matter of building more units than the other guy (though that certainly helps!) The path finding is also VASTLY improved...

As for the visual and auditory, the attention to detail is simply astounding. Individual villagers of each culture speak in the native language of their civilization. Architectural styles are beautifully rendered, and buildings appear to scale with the units around them. The landscapes are lush and atmospheric, as is the local plant and marine life. The game is simply gorgeous, a pleasure to look at and listen to.

Only a few complaints. Managing farms and automating villager functions is still a hassle. Naval combat, while impressive to behold, is not much different from the disorganized mess it was in age I. The formation improvements used in land combat were not applied to ships for some inexplicable reason. And it sure would be nice to be able to automate the attack-and-retreat tactics that come so naturally to horse archers.

Still, most of my gripes were minor. Overall, I am completely impressed with the game, and plan to play well into the next age...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The prodigy of a game has a son
Review: The prodigy of a game has a son. Not many games have sequels as close to the perfection the original had. Easy to learn, hard to master. Play as the astounding Britons, Byzantines, Celts, Chinese, FRanks, Goths, Jappenese, Mongols, Persians, Saracens, Teutons, Turks, and the Vikings. Fight alongside of Joan of Arc and Gengis Khan and others. The graphics are astounding. I gave it a four because of its slow loading time to start the game. Everything else is perfect. You'll love this game, espiecally the Scotish guy in the training mode(learning Campaign.)Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sequel to the extremely popular Age of Empires
Review: Chose from 13 civilization to play from, extremely detailed gameplay; each civiilzation has their own fighting styles. The graphics are beautifully the best ever in a RTS. If you dont have it already, go get it now.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: more hyped than linux and java! , isnt amazing?
Review: OK,OK ,I should not rate this with one star but I have to equilibrate other reviews.

Prettier Graphics than its predecesor, more sound, but gameplay just the same thing, terrible disappointement.

Quantity of Units and technologies to research just the same, same unfair gameplay againts computer, same way of getting resources. Certanly a most buy if you dont have Age 1 already or if you desesperatly want to improve graphics a bit.

Not a big deal if you have Age 1.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It's just an ok game
Review: I have been a real fan of turn based video games (civilization, civ2). I wanted to try a real time strategy game and this one is ok. The one thing I really don't like is that you just build the same things in every scenario, and there is not that much to build. It's an average game.


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