Age of Empires

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Age of Empires, the first of the Age of Empires series (Age of Empires II and Age of Empires: The Conquerors) is an excellent game for those who like real time strategy. However, if you have not bought it, consider getting Age of Empires II. Although it is a fun and enjoyable game, AOE II is better because of its more advanced capabilities.

Playing Age of Empires

In Age of Empires, you can play as one of the many older civilizations: the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Greeks, etc. Also, a gamer can play anything from a quick map to a campaign as their favorite civilization. The graphics are colorful and crisp, even on a junky Pentium II. Moreover, the cheesy tunes in the game are bearable even though they are semi-repetitive. I even tried out the cheats for this game, and they prove to be mildly entertaining. For one, you can create photon men as well as nuke troopers who are fun for a beginner or for an expert. Even the units a player can train are fun to watch in battle, and they can be upgraded so much it is like almost doubling their armor and strength. Finally, there are many buildings and technologies to be researched, so a player will always be busy upgrading and helping out his civilization in the process.

The Campaigns

The campaigns that you can play are all very fun. The units for each civilization are different and specialized, and the contents of your army will always vary. The missions objectives are usually interesting and different from previous ones. The maps in the game are all different, and some feature unique geological features that are pleasing to the eye. The units and buildings for each civilization are all nice, and each civilization has upgrades that are unique form the others.

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Multiplayer

Multiplayer is a blast. I enjoy playing online with my friends and playing against a computer with human allies. These games can go on for endless hours of fun planning your meticulous strategy.

Age of Empires Setbacks

Nevertheless, all good games have a few minor setbacks. Many priests don't automatically heal and many soldiers do not automatically attack (even when their behavior is set to do so) enemy buildings which means that you must constantly direct your army in battle. Also, the towers are a joke. Granted, they are supposed to fire a ballista bolt, but these “bolts” are almost twice the size of a unit when you fire them from an upgraded tower. This setback detracts from the game's realism, but that's ok if you don't really care about that. Lastly, AoE units are slow which makes for long, dragged out battles. Even if they are strong and hearty, their speed could cause many units to be obliterated. I once sent an army of about ten cavalry into an enemy base and destroyed all of their buildings. Yet it was not for another five minutes before my cavalry cut down all the enemy's villagers.

Overall

Age of Empires is a fun game with a few minor setbacks. Aside from these few issues, Age of Empires is the one of the best RTS game I have ever played.