Regardless of which civilization you choose to play, each will exhibit traits, weaponry and research proclivities based on the historical record. The 13 civilizations are easily recognizable due to factors that include distinctive cultural philosophies (in both political and military areas), the flavor of realistic language indigenous to each race that, while somewhat limited in scope, is still very influential in developing an era-enhancing atmosphere and proprietary architecture that evolves throughout the various ages. Even though the on-screen images of similar types of units may at times be difficult to discern (especially in the furious heat of large battles), the designers have more than made up for it in several ways.

In effect, any faults AOEII may have are niggling at best and don't critically affect the intense and absorbing qualities of this real-time strategy success.įor those who like historically based strategy games, look no further than Age of Empires II. The designers have 'fixed' the majority of major complaints levied at the original Age of Empires and, in one fell swoop, have improved the product immensely while incorporating significant features in nearly all aspects of gameplay. While not perfect, AOEII contains no sharp-stick-in-the-eye game busters or fatal flaws that suddenly leap at you after hours of play. This brings me back to the subject of this review, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, a game that incorporates the best features of the real-time strategy genre and manages to avoid the numerous pitfalls that often lessen a gamers experience. In light of this discouraging and dismaying trend, the release of a RTS game free of any major problems is a significant event. Unfortunately, with this increased capability comes the logical downside, a necessary evil of modern-day gaming - the obligatory patch or patches that soon follow on the heels of the original game release, usually fed by fan feedback through on-line forums, e-mails, news groups and so forth. Who can blame the designers for trying to take advantage of every new possibility as they forge games with more and more capabilities and scramble to pack their products with the latest enhancements and technology of game design?

This might be expected, though not excused, due to the complexity inherent in most new titles as the limits of computer gaming technology expand in ever widening increments. Far more the exception than the rule, this happy event occurs much too seldom in practice considering the tremendous number of computer games released each month (circa 1999). Every so often a game comes along that manifests itself as a reviewer's delight.

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