Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (PC)

Reviewed by

Greg Kasavin

on 10/12/1999

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Even Blizzard's Starcraft confines you to a basic set of strategies, whose subtle variations separate the experts from the rest. However, in Age of Kings, your options tend to be more flexible. If your opponent is too focused on particular tactics, you can easily allocate your resources into countering whatever it is he's sending your way. Swarms of infantry can be stopped cold by a simple wall; a contingent of archers may kill a line of cavalry but would be hard pressed to damage even a single war machine. Swordsmen can deal with pikemen easily, but the pikemen's reach make them much more effective against units on horseback. At one time, games aspired to such principles with the rock-scissors-paper game as a model. But Age of Kings has so many variants on this theme that to even suggest a similarity between Ensemble's sequel and the old betting game would be to grossly undermine Age of Kings' intricacy. It doesn't take long to realize that Age of Kings is complicated, but your appreciation for its detail will only grow with time as you begin to understand that, unlike in most real-time strategy games, you really do have several distinctly different but equally viable routes toward victory.

There are also several different ways to play the game. You can use the random map generator to quickly create a custom-tailored, finely crafted map for up to eight players, or build your own map from scratch. You'll find a consistent challenge in taking on one or several computer opponents set to the default difficulty or above, although you'll soon learn of the computer's propensity to use guerilla tactics and fall prey to particular tricks. You can start with a ton of resources and just have at it in the deathmatch mode; you can set out to kill the enemy king in a regicide match; and you can play one of Age of Kings' five historical campaigns. These campaigns focus on such legendary leaders as Joan of Arc, Frederick Barbarossa, and Genghis Khan in a series of linked missions interjected with voice-over narration describing these figures' tribulations and victories. All five of these, including the William Wallace tutorial campaign, are fairly short and only begin to approach the sense of style and cohesion pioneered by Blizzard's real-time strategy campaigns.

But you'll enjoy playing a part in these characters' historical accomplishments anyway, even if the narrators' accents are a little heavy and the artwork depicting the outcome of each mission looks rushed. At any rate, unlike in Starcraft, the campaigns seem more peripheral in Age of Kings, because its historical context and 13 civilizations will keep you interested with or without a plot to back it all up. Of course, you can also play Age of Kings over the Internet, although Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone can't compare to Blizzard's refined Battle.net.

No matter how you play it, chances are good that you'll enjoy Age of Kings if not for its careful historical detail then because its context never takes precedence over the game's playability. And if you've ever liked any other real-time strategy game in this classical style, then you'll clearly see why this one deserves so much credit, even in direct comparison to the finest examples in its category.