Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings

by Microsoft

Product Features

• You will take an ancient people through a 1000 year span, and develop trade, armies and technology to lead them to greatness
• Amass and equip an army like none ever seen, and use strategy to have them conquer enemies
• Construct means of commerce and diplomacy, while discreetly employing intrigue and regicide
• Command one of 13 civilizations - including the Franks, Japanese, Byzantines, Vikings, Mongols, and Celts
• Battle alongside heroes of the day - Joan of Arc, William Wallace, Genghis Khan, Saladin, or Barbarossa

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002NDRY
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches ; 8.8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 7, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (384 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,012 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #52 in Video Games > PC Games > Strategy
  • #71 in Video Games > PC Games > Action
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

When it comes to vast, kingdom-spanning ambition, you can't do better than Microsoft's Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. Microsoft went all out to create this real-time strategy game, and it fairly hums with gorgeous graphics, sophisticated AI, and challenging scenarios for the novice and experienced player alike.

The point of the game is to shepherd your fledgling civilization to world domination, using war, trade, and exploration. You start with the bare minimum to get going, and you've got to balance your people's needs with your desire to be a little Napoleon. The Age of Kings gives you a ton of new units and technologies to enrich your strategic options. Each scenario is placed accurately within history, but you're also free to create your own.

The multiplayer format is robust, allowing up to nine players to share a world. When battles commence, you can take control of every aspect of your workers and soldiers, sending them running for shelter in the town center, ordering them to defend a watchtower, or setting their combat stance to "aggressive" for free-for-all sword smashing fun. When you're not fighting, find your idle peasants with a mouse click and send them back to work chopping trees, rounding up sheep, fishing, or mining gold and stone.

As you acquire more resources, you can improve your soldier's gear and skills, start to trade more efficiently, and make life better for everyone in your empire. You can choose from 13 groups to manage, from the Japanese to the Teutons and Franks. Each group has unique units and special characteristics, making this a game that changes every time you play it.

If all this sounds complicated, it is. New players may be intimidated by the range of choices, but the teaching scenarios are very helpful in conquering the controls. Age of Empires II is a sophisticated, gorgeous successor to the wildly popular original. It's a real feather in Microsoft's cap--a world-building game that will hold you captive. --Therese Littleton

Product Description

Age of Empires II: Age of Kings puts you in control of a powerful ancient civilization and challenges you to become the dominant power! Use the Map Editor to design your own campaigns See if you can conquer a worthy opponent online!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

144 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gaming excellency, April 29, 2000

By 

T. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings (CD-ROM)

I had been a die-hard fan of AOE for about a year and a half before AOE2 hit the shelves. I didn't pick it up until about March but I loved this one twice as much as the first and here's why: (1) Unlike the first, AOE2 offers you the ability to garrison units which is great for an ambush. (2) AOE2 also offers players the ability to place units in formations such as the box, staggered, etc. (3) New scenarios which actually help players learn to craft and fine-tune their skills. (4) The ability to save a multi-player game. How many times have you been in an awesome two hour game when something comes up; no more. (5) Great new customizable scenario building tools that make it more fun then ever. (6) Castles, Unique Units, and all the other new buildings and techs. (7)Trading from the market- a simple way to trade for that 200 gold for the easy castle from the feudal age. (8) Recorded games- a great way to fine-tune your skills by learning from a master. (9)More Random Maps for total playability. (10) Right-Click farming, ah, that is what get's me on this game. Before you had to click a villager click the build, etc. No more! Just right-click the farm, saves you plenty of much-needed playing time. Age of Empires 2 outdoes its predecessor by far and becomes highly addictive and playable day after day after day.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An improvement over the original, a credit to its genre., November 13, 1999

By 

Arka C (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings (CD-ROM)

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...

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HINT!, December 7, 1999

By 

Aaron (Harvard Law School) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings (CD-ROM)

Amazing Game! Keeps me awake in class. To those complaining about being unable to keep up with the computer because it can fight while simultaneously building more troops and its economy--here is the solution. Use F3 to pause the game and then direct your troops/buildings/villagers to their tasks at your leisure. Then unpause the game and let them go to work. This takes away a lot of the anxiety and time frustration of trying to be 4 places at once. It also makes it possible to take notes occasionally.