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Awesome Strategy Game of the Year!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 34
Date: November 14, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This is the coolest game I have ever played. With all the resources and the rush to get a wonder the game goes very fast, but with all the technology it becomes and awesome game. I recomend that you do not try to find cheats though, because it ruins the game. The only way to not be cheated out of the real fun is to not cheat. But don't take my word for it, buy it!

Major time sink...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: March 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I purchased the original Age of Empires years ago when it first came out, and the Roman expansion when it became available, so I have the equivalent of the so-called "Gold Edition".

Out of all the games I own, this is the most addictive. Time just flies by when I'm playing this game, which isn't always a good thing. This IS a good thing when my flight has been delayed however. With my laptop, extra lithium-ion batteries, and Age of Empires, airport delays are not nearly as painful as they used to be.

To create a game that remains addictive and interesting over the years is quite an achievement. Most video games become boring after a while, either because they are too frustrating and difficult, or they are too easy or repetitive. Finding a balance that is both entertaining and challenging is tough, and these guys have done it. I personally love the random games. The environment really dictates the strategy you should use, as it does in real life, and the possibilities are nearly endless. You can also design your own scenarios, which kills a lot of time and allows you to experiment with environmental conditions that the random map generator would never come up with.

The Roman expansion didn't add much, but it also didn't cost much. The most important feature I was looking for was the ability to put gates in my walls. In Age of Empires, if you build a wall around your civilization, you can not get out without destroying part of the wall. As I understand it, this has been corrected in Age of Kings, which I have not gotten yet.

If you enjoy real time strategy, you're gonna love Age of Empires!

The most addictive game you will ever play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 26
Date: March 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is absolutely wonderful. I can't think of how anyone could make another game of the same genre that would rival it. You begin way back at the dawn of man. You have just villagers & clubmen. From there, you size up & use your assets to your best advantage; villagers can chop wood for houses & buildings, mine gold for $$$$, mine stone for lookout towers, fish, hunt, build stuff and...oh my.

The strategy of this game is what makes it so intoxicatingly good. This is not a game where you can just go out, play it a couple times & have it completely mastered. You must learn how to use your assets to your best advantage & how to defend your village(s) against invasion. Otherwise, you will be destroyed.

With every mission comes new technology. You can build heavy infranty units, calvary, naval armadas, war elephants, catapults, priests....and the list goes on and on. The Gold edition also has the Roman Empire scenarios which offer a few more neat tidbits such as camel riders and Fire galleys. The only slight precaution I would have for anyone is to stay away from making stone throwers on the Rome version. They are next to useless.

Even when you have gone thru all the scenarios for this game you're STILL not done. You can have random scenarios constructed for you by the computer and then there are the death matches (impossible if you pick 7 armies against you). You can also play the game on-line against friends at the website (although you need a fast modem for this). The fun goes on & on!

So, if you like strategy games, this is one of the very best, hands down. Build cities, make them into empires and conquer all the known world. I can't recommend this game highly enough.

A smash hit!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: November 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I am not an rts expert but after playing the demo I knew I wanted it. This game is so immersive that when you begin, you have no clue where to start. There is so much to see and do. If you are new to the series, you should try out the campaigns which are carefully designed according to skill level. This game can be compared to a mixture of sim city and warcraft. Not only do you build massive empires that look incredibly realistic, you also have to maintain and nurture a small nomadic tribe that will eventually grow into a world power. The game combines war stategy and food gathering techniques plus terrain strategy and economic simulation. There are several modes of play. There are the campaigns of course. You start with easy campaigns and proceed on to tougher scenarios. The cool thing about this mode is that the objectives are so varied. Not always do you have to destroy your enemy. Somtimes you have to rescue a trapped unit or find a lost relic. This keeps the game going. The next mode is the death match. You start with stock piles of wood and gold and food. Using your rich store, you have to advance through the ages and develop an army to defeat and destroy your growing enemy. This is an exiting mode! You don't have to worry about food shortages. All you have do is build fortifications and create a large army. The third mode is a customized scenario. This is the real deal in the game. You have complete control over how your world looks. Do you want a island power like Greece? Or maybe a huge mainland. The choice is yours. You can even use cliffs to stategicly fortify your city from attack. In addition, this game has over 100 technologies and units that make the game varried and interesting. You choose from 16 civilizations to start with, each with distinctive strengths and weaknesses. Maybe by now you can see how complex this game really is. If you are thinking about buying it, I assure you, this is a game that will not let you down. Microsoft and ensamble studios have created the best rts game hands down.

AOE will tune your brain-waves to crave more and more of it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: July 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you you spend little time with your family, or need to "get things done"...stay away from Age of Empires because this is the most amazing, entertaining, and of course the most addictive game in existence. I'll tell you how AOE changed my gaming experience. I used to be a video game fan, and disdayned pc games as boring, slow passed and silly. As with most console games, skill is directly proportionall to the speed of your fingers as you press the bottoms in the control pad, nothing more. Well, in AOE skill is measured in terms of intelligence. I yet have to find a review that makes justice to this game. I will try to achieve that here. Some people say that AOE becomes boring in the long run because it is impossible to win: "the computer is to hard to beat." Well, they could not bee any more right, and wrong at the same time! I spent my first month playing AOE 24/7 just to learn all the technologies, unit attributes, and civilizations by playing campaigns and random maps. Two months after I became frustrated being still unable to beat the computer on a regular basis. So I lost interest and went back to play Tekken 3. But one day a friend came over and beated 6 computers by himself in front of me, and set to hardest difficulty! Wow I was amazed, he used hot keys, he knew some great strategies to move trough ages and technologies rapidly, he managed his economy amazingly and organize his army for an efficient kill! The computers were no match. "I must know your secrets my friend!!!"...well, he just told me to play in the zone: www.zone.com/aoe And let me tell you that was when my aoe experience begun. AOE is a multiplayer game, far superior to star craft, Age of Empires 2 (which I also own to my regret), Age of Conquerors and any other strategy game, or just any other game. period. It is impossible to summarize all the strategies involved. And this is because AOE is a game that evolves, people come out with new strategies, there is no fix set of rules. Sounds weird I know, all you can do is get the game, get on the zone and play. Don't worry about being a newbie, people will show you how to play. Then all you gotta do is improve and invent ;) Well, today I have been playing almost everyday for over a year and guess what? I am still thrilled by it, just like that hundreds of people I play with/against in the zone every day. And also, I can beat the computers so easily now that it is not even funny.

Age of Empires: Microsoft's best series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 23
Date: June 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Age of Empires is an excellent strategy game for all who like strategy games. The gameplay is great, the graphics and sounds are stunning, and the city building and troop training will keep you entertained for months. It allows you to play campaigns, which are actually not superb, but its random map ability allows you to have a showdown that's different every time-a very uniquely good ability that actually never makes the game old. You can also build your own map and campaigns as well. You can even play others via the net, which is another fatcor which will allow you to play for months. If you like this game, I would also reccommend that you buy Age II: The Age of Kings. I think that Age of Empires was near perfect-thus Microsoft fixed all of its errors and made Age II, which is perfect. Thus, I highly recommend Age of Empires, and only a fool wouldn't get it with the expansion (in the Golden Edition), because it only improves on it.

Very addictive, despite many flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: July 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

As someone who generally prefers abstract turn-based strategy games (I disliked Warcraft), I did not expect to be terribly pleased by Age of Empires when buying it two years ago. However, my expectations were quickly surpassed by this engrossing game. Just building cities and fortresses and amassing armies is a pleasure with the richly detailed visual art. Don't expect a very accurate treatment of ancient battle tactics or weaponry--the infamous "helepolis" unit can slaughter waves of advancing cavalry as efficiently as any modern machine gun, even if historically it was only used in a handful of sieges--but this game still tests your intelligence (lightning-fast mouse operating also helps) and creative abilities. You must also fine-tune resource management and supervise large numbers of villagers; economic considerations are in many instances more important than military. The wide range of civilizations is one of the best features--from Phoenicians to the Yamato empire of Japan, with distinct architecture to match (!), and there are four campaigns which loosely trace the development of the Greek, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Yamato peoples.

Now for the flaws: 1. The game has very little actual depth. Death matches and random map scenarios are for the most part mindless exercises in fast mouse-clicking and cheap "rushing" strategies. 2. The AI is generally stupid. This helps you when you're playing on the easy levels, and frustrates you to no end when you're trying to extricate endangered units from rough terrain. You'll often have to personally guide them through obstacles step by step. 3. Simple, but glaring, oversights by the designers...too numerous to list, but for one, farms double as walls, since they're impassable.

An entertaining game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: May 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is one addictive game as has been brought out, I can play this game for hours and lose total track of the time (which can be a problem sometimes ). The game has the benefit of having the ability to be diffrent the next time you play. The ability to set up random scenerios adds to the gameplay and to the value of the game in general. The age of empires expansion does add to the game and is worth the extra money. This is because it allows for even more gameplay for a little more money which makes it worth the cost. This is a great game and a great job by its creators!

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: May 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This was really my introduction into the strategy genre, and I loved it. Regardless to say, I really don't think the expansion pack (Rise of Rome) is all that spectacular. The expansion pack, I felt, featured some useless units (Camel, Scythe Chariots, Armored Elephant) nothing that could really, significantly boost gameplay. The new techs didn't help either, and their wasn't a fix to computers or anything like that; but don't let this discourage you. Age of Empires really was what not only got me into strategy games but into Ancient History as a whole. The guys at ES (Ensemble Studios) did a great job with the history throughout gameplay. Age of Empires has some great features including, (1) Chariot Archers, which are probably the most overused unit (although that's not a bad thing). (2) It also has the internet gameplay feature which is really what sold this game for me. (3) Lastly, not only does it have good graphics (for the picky, I can say at least for 1997) but it has the excellent ability to play the DMs (deatmatches) and to make your own scenarios.

3 WORDS AWESOME AWESOME ERRR KEWL

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: March 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have got to say.. out of the hundreds of games i have played that his has got to be the best.. the graphics are great the sounds are real and there is total freedom to do what you want.. some ppl say that this game is "impossible" to win at.. well that is just no true.. it is very easy to win if you will just practice and it doesn't hurt to go to their homepage and look up some strategies like the tower rush.. wher eyou build alot of towers on their land and it kills them.. it is a very addictive game and i have had loads of fun.. i play it 25 hours a day... i REALLY suggest you buy it

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