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93%
PROS
Totally different storyline from Age of Empires, good map editor, very fun- never gets boring.
LOWS
Bad music, few people can play in Multiplayer, graphics look fake sometimes.
OVERALL
The best RTS I have ever played, highly recommended, should be in every household!
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In Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, you can play as one of the many civilizations of the Middle Ages, as opposed to the Mesopotamian civilizations in the original Age of Empires. Besides that, there are many other changes in the sequel to Age of Empires.
In this exciting game based on the Middle Ages, you can play as the British, Goths, Celts, Vikings, Saracens, plus many others who each have their own special units and technologies. The general purpose of the game is to advance through the four ages, (dark, feudal, castle, and imperial) and to obliterate any opponent who challenges you. There is also the option to play scenarios as Genghis Kahn, Joan of Arc, Saladin, Barbarossa and the William Wallace Learning Campaign which are each enjoyable and exciting, besides the fact that they are not easy to accomplish. If a player doesn't want a campaign, he/she can play a death match (you have a large sum of resources and must destroy your enemy), regicide (protect your king and kill all the others), or make a custom scenario where you decide the map size, population limit, resources, etc.
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The units are extensive yet easy to use and learn, and every civilization is very balanced. All of the civs can beat one another so there is no way that you can wreck an enemy and not have a struggle. Finally, the units are well designed in that they have interesting sayings and, unlike in Age of Empires, attack, heal and convert automatically unless you have the settings set otherwise.
Multiplayer mode is an awesome feature in this game. It is so much fun to play online with friends and is so much better than the online games in Age of Empires. Also, there are hilarious phrases you can send to other players like “My granny can do better than you” and “You play 2 hours to lose like this?” These are especially fun to use just as you're about to crush and opponent.
Also in the game, a player can build custom campaigns and scenarios. This is cool because you can do whatever you want in a scenario, even if it means sticking units like archers on cliffs where they can't get down. Also, you can build custom campaigns where you can make friends play them and you can make them so difficult that even the best person can't win. Both these pieces of the game are good and amusing.
This game, however, does have a few downsides. For one, the units sometimes seem to have no distinct lines and the colors seem to just fade out, which can sometimes look really gross and make the game feel inferior in graphics even on advanced systems. Also, in Multiplayer mode, you cannot have many people playing at once (ex. 10 or more). Next, enemy walls take forever to fall, even with rams and trebuchets (large catapults). Also, the trebuchets take time to load and unload, which sometimes can prolong your attack and retreat.
The minor problems however, do not outweigh the awesomeness of the game. It is a must buy for any RTS lover. Go for it, it's worth the money.
