Customer Reviews

Fate of the Dragon

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I played Age of the Empires II prior to my purchase of Fate of the Dragon and as much as I liked AOE, FOD was far more interesting. In fact, it is more realistic, fun and practical as opposed to AOE, which was already pretty good.

A little comparsion for those who have played AOE and not FOD:

On farming:

AOE - You create villagers and place them to farm.

FOD - Upon assigning the labourers to farm and their functions, they will automatically function. What's more, beside wheat, you can breed pigs!

On food:

AOE - Creating a farm automatically means you have food.

FOD - Just by growing wheat and breeding pigs are not enough - you have to build a workshop and assign men to make food and wine!!!

On warriors:

AOE - You just pay tribute and negotiate.

FOD - You have to assign warriors and scholars to positions before actions can be taken - titles such as prime minister, premier, commander-in-chief, great general and much more are assigned. You have to hire the talents through Inns and pay for their services making things bit harder to get a great team working for you.

On gold:

AOE - You just get villagers to dig.

FOD - You have to apply tax to your people and as such, loyal and happiness are associated with it. What's more, you can conquer outer towns and impose taxes to ensure more money!

On fighting:

AOE - You build barracks, archeries, stables and workshops.

FOD - Very much similar but barracks fall between swordsmen and pikemen while archeries are the same. The main differences are the fact that upon building a stable, you have to assign the army men on the horses in order to become 'knights' - once they lost the horse, they automatically become swordsmen, pikemen, etc, etc Also, the workshop in FOD provides more interesting options to invading other cities.

On fighting 2:

AOE - Army does not need to eat.

FOD - If you army leaves the city, their energy levels go down and affect their fighting ability. You would need to build outside camps and constantly fill the camps up with food and wine by assigning labourers with horses to transport the goods.

On fighting 3:

AOE - You build villagers and army personnel separately.

FOD - You train your labourers into sergents and vice versa balancing your population accordingly.

On technologies:

AOE - You develop technologies to improve your equipments.

FOD - Pretty similar but you do all that in the National Academy and there are hundreds of developments.

On disasters:

AOE - There are no disasters.

FOD - Lots and lots of them! (famine, flooding, locusts, etc) In fact, so many, it can make the whole game much harder and frustrating!!! To combat disadters, one would need to build temples and offer sacrifices to the Gods or improve technologies.

On loyalty:

AOE - Nothing there.

FOD - You have to constantly reward yoru generals and scholars to prevent them from defecting.

On citizens:

AOE - No one cares about their happiness.

FOD - You have to ensure you have to popular support.

On graphics:

When I first heard of FOD, I could not understand why it would need a 3D graphics card. But having played the game, I can understand why... the graphics are excellent (compare to AOE) and it is much smoother. Eidos did a very good job to bring out the first english version of Romance of the 3 Kingdoms on PC (I may be wrong there).

Final note:

The game is very good and I have told you so much from six hours of playtime. There may be lots of benefits that I have not seen. The scearnio games are excellent and follows the historical development of Three Kingdoms, which remains to be one of the most famous story in Chinese history.

Good job Microsoft but Great job Eidos!

A excellent Age of Empire like game. But with enough game play difference to make it unique and refreshing. I particularly liked the military aspects of the game, it's somewhat more complicated than the Age of Empires, including army camps, the need to supply field armies, and the individual unit gradual depletion of strength. The massive city walls looks great and ways to attack a city using scaling ladder attacks add a interesting dimension to the game.

New innovative units based on legends and history include Kalfeic Kites, which rise like a hot air ballon and can illuminate a large area of the map. Also there are giants kites that can catapult your soldiers passed the city walls to launch attacks.

The graphics is superb all around. A very enjoyable playing experience.

The game is a retelling of a mass popular Chinese story that has been told hundreds of generations. And the developer made a huge effort to make it appealing to Westerners like us. But they've done something none of other RTS had done before, and they've done them right, and realistic. The graphics, the sound effects and voice over (I know some Chinese, and I can tell you that what those little soldiers said were reall cool) are all great. But two most impressive things are the resource management and millitary management.

You need to collet many different resources, which sounds very hard. But the developers made what would be complex job easier, because your workers are the smartest of all RTS. Once assign them a job, they do it forever. You don't need to tell them re-plant the farm and go find trees somewhere else. And the fact you can actually produce some reall stuff out of raw materials makes the game much more realistic.

The military management includes hero system, which is a lot more real the the hero effects of the Age of the Empire. Think about it, when you have a legendary hero of some sort in your army, of course your army will fight better. And the developers are so smart to integrate this in the game, and almost all heors were real people. And the supply line for soldiers out in th battle field is brilliant. It makes the game way more challenging and gives both sides of the players more room to use strategies. Unlike many RTS games, you can simply win by outnumber your enemy, you can't do it here because a large number of army means a huge usage of food. And your enemy can destroy your supply line at ease. So it forces you to really think and plan before an attack. It may get hard sometimes, but I enjoy it. And there are always cheat codes...

Over all, it is a very challenging game that will put you on a test - especially if you play on internet against other players.

I think this is one of the best strategy games I have come by It has awsome Graphics and Gameplay. You can be three different heroes in the struggle for China. It is set during the three kingdoms period (That really happened)and you mission is to unite China under your rule. there are tons of different features packed into this game like upgrades, siege engines etc. When I played the game a got stuck on a seige of a city they just don't give you anough soilders but after a while you get to mastering sieges. the game seems compicated at first with lots of recources to handle and feeding the soilders outside the walls of the city, but you can place temperary camps for your men suppling them them if there hungry. If they have no food there value in combat goes down. but the more you play the beter it gets. the battles are exceptional as it usually ends up the person with the most troops wins. I think the Lui Bei and Cao Cao campaigns are fun. I think this games might be better than AOE II the expansion and I give it four stars next to starcraft. I recomend this game for any RTS lovers.

This game definitely brings more to the table than the typical "get gold and raise army" game. While that is the premise, the level of detail is an interesting break. And the micromanagement is made easier by peasants who, for example, can be taken from the farmwork they're doing to build something and when they're done they'll go back to farming. You can dictate where the peasants you "create" go to by default (like the rally point in Starcraft), including being able to default them into barracks for training or farms etc..

The fact that you're tucked away in a castle means early rushes won't work unless it's 3-4 computers stomping you. Having to constantly supply your troops in the field with food is nice; it adds a layer of realism/complexity.

The downside of the game is that it's repetative. Almost every level is the same, meaning that after the first 2 weeks, I only play it on average once a week. The fact that there are only 3 unit types (plus heroes) adds to the repetition. The battles have no real tactics and are won by upgrading the heck out of your troops, mounting them on horses and numbers.

The battles and levels are fun, even is they are all pretty much the same. The graphics are great, the sound is good (except the annoying heroes, I hate their responses). Overall it's worthwhile if you like RTS with depth, but it's not on par with Starcraft (what is?).

This game adds the supply dimension into the RTS equation. All military units consume food every month, and all units fielded in the battlefield will gradually wear off, and have to rest in camps. This makes the game so much more strategical (as opposed to tactical), as players have to balance a big army and financial feasibility.

However, the game is so TEDIOUS !! The game does not start with a fast scout unit with good line of sight, and the fog of war is not designed well. So a player has to spend a lot of time scouting. Before a battle, a player has to build a supply wagon, and assign villagers to stock it up with food. And it takes FOREVER !!

So, with so much meaningless micro-management required, there is little time to think about strategy. And without strategy, this game is definitely inferior to some of the better titles on the market.

This game is the ... its mad fun cause there are so many aspects of the game that are missing in such games as starcraft and red alert. Dont get me wrong, these are classic games, but if you want to experience something new, then you should check this game out. For example, the simple fact that you are in a castle is a whole newe level in strategy. To get in other people's castles, you have to use ladders or huge kites. This is an awesome game overall and i recommend it so ever;ybody. I hope enough people like this game so people will actually be on the internet playing each other.

Well, all i can say for this game is that it has nice graphic. But there are only three types of basic military. Four if u add the heroes. The heroes are very annoying. Not to mention they're basically all the same. If u want to try this game i suggest u download the demo version, which has all the units that is available in the retailed version. So playing the demo is the same as playing the retailed version...I warn u, DO NOT buy this game, u can spend the money on other games which are much more fun and enjoyable!

It's a really old game, so I didn't expect much anyway, especially compared to other RTS games that have been released since then. I got it mainly for the story line but since it's so old, the video doesn't even properly work on my computer.

i think this game is alot of fun. it gets a little redundent after you get used to how to build your city. though if you like building citys and taking over other towns then this is a good game. i like age of empires and age of mythology so this game was a easy fit into that gender. overall i had a good time playing and would say if you like the other games like this one then you will enjoy yourself.