Discount Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings - PC

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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 marketa simple way to trade for that 200 gold for the easy castle from the feudal age. (8) Recorded gamesa 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.

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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...

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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.

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For my money, this is the finest strategy game on the market. The balance of the various kingdoms is far better than in the original, with all empires having serious strengths and equally devastating weaknesses. One must learn the value of combining force types into effective mixtures of defense and offensive units to even have a chance at success. The serious player will probably take something on the order of a year to master the game, because the complexity level is so high.

The campaigns on this sequel are of a much hgiher caliber than those on the orignal, so single-player use is very much improved. In fact, the campaigns are actually historically accurate, unlike those in AOE. Indeed, the historical section on the CD is fascinating reading in and of itself, and will please those who love the time period, as well as the tactical problems involved.

AOK's real strength, though, is like that of its predecessor: the game's extreme playability over network. I heard that AOE was the most popular network game ever, and there's no reason AOK won't follow in its footsteps. This is GREAT stuff to play in real time with others. Be warned, though: players in Microsoft's Gaming Room are ruthless to the novice. Don't even think about going online until you've gained a level of proficiency playing by your own. And take the time to learn the keyboard shortcuts: you'll need the time it saves.

For most games, I think that strategy guides are a wimp's way out, but with AOK, I highly recommend the Ensemble Studios' guide. It's invaluable to improving the quality of your game-playing experience.

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AOE II has been rated by numerous gaming magazines and online reviewers as one of the top five strategy games of all time. I have to wholeheartedly agree. The improvements over the original AOE are too numerous to count. If you like strategy games and you have never played AOE, push the ADD TO SHOPPING CART button right now. Don't even wait to finish reading this.

This game has everything you could ever hope for in a strategy game. You must manage resources of your civilization, research new technology, build defenses, and maintain diplomatic relations with other computer/real players, all while trying to avoid annihilation. This is a real time game rather than turn based, so even on the slowest speed it is sometimes wonderfully maddening to try to keep track of it all.

The setup allows you numerous options. You can start with allies or solo. There are various levels of difficulty and options for map size, number of opponents, type of terrain, etc. Each civilization has different characteristics and you can choose which ones you want to play against or randomize it. If you just want a short game, you can play for a certain amount of time with the highest score at the end of that time declared the winner. The difficulty levels allow for a challenge game at any level of expertise with the hardest level being impossible (at least for me). The game also includes various scenarios you can play.

This game doesn't get boring. Once you find your level, you can expect a challenging game each time. You might beat it one time and get eliminated the next. A strategy that works in one game fails in the next. You have to reinvent your strategies to adapt to the situations as they arise. Each game is different.

I rate this game a 10/10. It is utterly addictive. I recommend it highly. If you already have the game, look into AOE II: The Conquerers. It is a game extension that makes this great game ever better.