Age of Empires

by Microsoft

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001LDC8
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: July 1, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,865 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Review

Before Age of Empires 2 there was Age of Empires, which still stands as one of the most popular real-time strategy games of all time. Set in ancient instead of feudal times, Age of Empires lets players guide one of a dozen civilizations with various strengths and weaknesses through a variety of campaigns and single scenarios.

The civilizations are diverse, running the gamut from the Assyrians to the Persians to the Yamato, and each can be played from its Stone Age roots to the epoch of its greatest achievements. This is one of the few games in this genre that lets players choose either an aggressive path or a more peaceful defensive course of action, as it is possible to win many games by defending your border and building an expensive Wonder of the World.

Overall, the game's graphics are very good, but special mention must be made of the animations. At last, horses move like horses, elephants move like elephants, and even the sight of a villager chopping wood looks realistic. Battles can get a little out of hand since the game lacks military formation controls, but they are a sight to behold nonetheless.

Should you tire of the single-player challenges, Age of Empires is still very popular online. It isn't hard to join a multiplayer game at nearly any time of day. Be sure to grab the latest patch, which lets you build many more units and is necessary for playing online. Even if you already have Age of Empires 2, don't miss out on the game that started it all. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Good graphics--especially the unit animations
• Many ways to win
• Still popular online

Cons:

• Needs a patch to achieve true greatness
• Would be more fun if civilizations had bigger differences

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, March 11, 2003

By 

Dr.||\\//|| "To Hope is to do Magic" - See all my reviews

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

The Age of Empires, Age of Kings, Age of Mythology series is definitely the best ever sires of real time strategy games. In all versions of the game you are allowed to control both the armies and economies of your nation. You can build buildings, creature soldiers or peasants, even priests. Your peasants you command to do the different menial tasks such as farming, mining, and building castles. While your armies roam the land either defending your peasants, sieging enemy castles, or raiding their peasants. Priest have the power to convert both peasants and soldiers. If you like being king of the world, this is for you. Finally, I just want to differentiate between the games. Age of Empires is the oldest of the games and should run on any computer, but I wouldn't recommend the game without either the Rise of Rome Expansion Pack or just buying the Age of Empires Gold Edition. These two correct many problems with the original Age of Empires. Next game up the latter for medium computers is Age of Kings (that's what I'm still playing.) It can run on just about any computer with sixty four megs of ram and a two hundred megahertz processor. I use it on a five hundred megahertz and a one point four gigahertz. Next game up is the Age of Mythology. This introduces a whole new realm of playing to the sires. This one you civilization chooses different gods to worship and is given power from them. Unfortunately you only get two really spectacular god powers each game and you can only use them once, but then it keeps the game to more strategy and less luck and wildcards. (It is fun to get the wildcards when you have them though!) This game should have a processor of I would say at least a six hundred and a graphics card at least thirty two megabytes; and lastly this is not the game for everybody. I still use Age of Kings/Conquerors not because of my computer, but because I don't like all the crazy stuff in Mythology; I think it distracts from the medieval battle tactics. Really choosing between Mythology and Age of Kings is just a matter of personal opinion. I'd say download both demos and try them both; or if you have the money to blow, buy them both. Either way I think you'll love both of them. Well that's all for me. This is just a general over view don't take my words as gold check out the specs and requirements yourself. I just wanted to help point you in the right direction.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Beautiful, August 13, 2000

By 

Qualaqube - See all my reviews

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

Age of Empires, in my view, is a perfect strategy game. What else can you expect from the creators of DOS, Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and 2000 (That would be Microsoft of course :))

Ok we'll start with the playabilty. I don't think there's any game or series I have played more than AoE. The possibilites are endless... what about a deathmatch with victory conditions set to conquest for a huge game. Add a little twist... pick large islands for your map type and barricade your island by building watch towers and a wall all around it. Oh, and then build up a mighty fleet of juggernauts (ships) and attack by sea. Or how about choosing eight player mode and allying with a few of them, then unselecting the Fixed Positions option and placing your civilization next to your allies. For a touch of reality why not play Persians versus Greeks? I could go on forever...

Then we have graphics and audio. The graphics are beautiful, the objects are solid so you don't get that annoying "soldier walking right through tree" effect. This game is not new so that's quite an achievement. The colors are bright, not dull or depressing. Audio, well could be better. The units' vocabulary is limited to gibberish like "Hamas" and "Hoyo". But I guess that's because they're prehistoric and don't have languages. AoE 2 fixes that problem with real phrases from over a dozen languages. Repetitive backround music plays continuously.

What else? As it is not new, it runs perfectly without 3DFX, and a Pentium 200 PC is more than enough. A fast CD Rom is personally recommended because it used to freeze up for a couple of seconds occasionally.

As for the CONS I'd have to say: The population limit. The limited audio. The initial difficulty of moving through the Ages.

That's it. Get this game if you like strategy!!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible...., June 20, 2000

By A Customer

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

This game has it all. Different types of units, decent graphics, and TONS of possible strategies. The fun part about this game is that there are soo many possiblities. The newer games like AOE2 are just too balanced. There aren't any strategies besides a typical well-balanced army. But in AOE, anything can win. That's the beauty of it. It's not overly balanced. The game isn't going for realism, it's going for fun. For instance, there is a strategy where you can win with a cavalry rush. Attacks with one kind of unit work in AOE. But not in AOE2. The possilibty of an extremely early rush in this game are slim, but are still possible. This game is truly a masterpiece. And if you want to play online, OK! There are usually around 2,000 people playing this game on the Microsoft internet gaming zone. Buy this game, you won't be dissappointed.

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