Customer Reviews

Age of Empires

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!!

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.

---GENERAL---
Age of Empires is a real-time stragity game where you control a civilization and have to turn it into an empire. You start with a shappy building and a man dressed in deer skin, and upgrade, build, and reaserch into an empire.

---GRAPHICS---
The graphics are OK, but could use some work. They do have good things when a villager is working, or a catapult catapulting, but not that impressive. From 1 to 10, I would rate the graphics 4.

---MULTIPLAYER GAMING---
I have 9 words about this. DO NOT PLAY MULIPLAYER WITH A SLOW INTERNET CONNECTION. It is painfull. The players go VERY slow and do not have a chance at winning. Unless you have a DSL or LAN, do NOT use multiplayer.

---MAP CREATING---
The Map Maker is a very good addition to AOE. It has the normal units and buildings, as well as special units that can only be made from the Map Maker. Overall, I would rate the map maker 8. ...

Thank you! I hope this review was helpful, and if not, I appoligize!

Age Of Empires is a classic strategy game. It was one of the first I'd ever bought, and I got hooked. I have played every possible scenario and made a hundred scenarios myself.
Everything about this game is brilliant - the campaigns are great, the random map is cool but my absolute favourite part of the game is the death match - I LOVE how you get 10,000 wood, gold, stone and food, it means you don't need to gather supplies you just can get right into building up your army.
My favourite thing to do in any match, is kill off the enemy. I just love destroying everything! I'm not happy unless everything is destroyed.
I like playing multiplayer and making my own scenarios (it's a laugh writing in the instructions and hints etc), but it gets kind of boring after awhile. But this doesn't draw away from the game itself.
I love all the units, all the buildings and I'm in LOVE with the music. The soundtrack to this game is AMAZING. I love to use cheats I get off the net, it makes the game even more fun.
Overall, a CLASSIC game that every strategy game enthusiast needs to play or own at one stage.

If you've never played AOE, you must be new to computer games. And if you're new to computer games you probably don't want to spend $60 on the "latest thing" which might turn out to be a poor investment. So for you, I'd highly recommend this game. It'll cost you about half of what a new release costs, plus it's every bit as good as most games released in the past year (it's just that every one but you owns a copy so they've dropped the price!) It won nearly every award it was up for in its opening year 1998 and has since gone on to thrill countless junior emperors both on-line, on-LAN and totally solo. Read the other reviews to see what the game is about, but if you're undecided, I'd HIGHLY recommend trying it out. Even better, try AOE Gold Edition which gives you this game (the original) and the Expansion pack (AOE: the Rise of Rome). After playing the original you'll be begging for the expansion. And by the way, this game lets you play by yourself on a pre-programmed sequences of "campaigns" or on so-called random-maps; there's even a map and campaign editor if you want to create your own scenarios. Or you can play on a LAN network (i.e. your school/office with friends). You can even play on-line with total strangers (who will either loose bitterly or annihilate you within moments). Either way, you'll have a blast. Happy gaming!

I have had AOE for over a year now, and it is still the only computer game I ever play. I'm not going to spend an hour explaining what you can do with this game, because from what you've read from the other reviews, it would be redundant. But, even if AOE isn't as complicated and doesn't have the 3D graphics, when compared to the Sims in hours of fun and price, who wouldn't want a game that's just if not more fun and $30-$40 less expensive? Buy it now, you won't regret it! (Even though it IS a Microsoft game)

Age of Empires is on of the best games in the world. You can make your very own Roman city. Your goal is to defeat other cities using your military that you made. There are many other ways you can win. Age of Empires is a lot like Sim City but better. Try other reviews. If you think it will be a good game to have buy it or you can try to find the demo Age of Empires and try it out before you buy it.

I think that this was a great game. I discovered this game through the demo. These graphics surprised me and they are GREAT! I tried it out on my new computer and they just amazed me. These graphics were certainly one of the best, especially at the time it was made.

I think this is one of the best games for strategy lovers. If you like things like command and conquer or heroes of might and magic you will love this. This game brings you all of the features of building a civilization you slowly build up your city over time and go up through the ages the stone age, iron age and the bronze age. You have fights with other civilizations for land, food, building matireals and money. You have to buy this game!