Age of Empires Developed by Ensemble Studios Corporation for Microsoft Corporation Strategy Game 25 00 System Requirements Multimedia PC with Pentium 90 or higher processor Microsoft Windows 95 operating system Windows 98 operating system or Windows NT Workstation operating system version 4 0 with Service Pack 3 16MB of RAM for Windows 95 and Windows 98 24 MB of RAM for Windows NT 80 MB of available hard disk space 50 MB of available hard disk space for swap file Double speed CD ROM drive for game play Quad speed CD ROM drive for cinematics Local Bus Super VGA video display with 1 MB of VRAM Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device Sound board plus speakers or headphones to hear audio 28 8 Kbps modem for head to head play Internet access for Internet play Actual Requirements The only change I would make to the stated requirements would be to have more RAM The game seems to move more smoothly with at least 32 MB of RAM Obviously the speakers modem and Internet access aren t necessary to play the game They can however make playing it that much more fun especially the speakers GAME SUMMARY Story Line In Age of Empires there are a four different campaigns Each campaign is associated with a certain ancient empire s rise to glory Each campaign is split up into a variety of scenarios with a variety of different goals associated with the story line At the beginning and ending of each scenario some historical data is given about what actually occurred The first campaign Ascent of Egypt Learning Campaign is designed to teach the player the basic steps needed to successfully play the game The other campaigns that can be played are Glory of Greece Voices of Babylon and Yamato Empire of the Rising Sun The scenario goals of each campaign start out fairly easy in order to familiarize the player with the game and become progressively more difficult Player s Role Each player s roll in Age of Empires is to build up a civilization and create an army in order to defeat the other civilizations that are its enemies The player is able to defeat the enemy through a variety of methods First the enemy can be defeated by destroying all of its buildings and killing all of its characters Second an enemy can be defeated by capturing all of the ruins and artifacts that are scattered throughout the game board and holding them for 2000 years approximately 10 minutes Third an enemy can be defeated by building a special building called a wonder and maintaining it for 2000 years approximately 10 minutes Installation Installation of Age of Empires is fairly easy Once you access the CD ROM an installation window appears with step by step instruction to guide you through the process User Interface The game can be played solely with a mouse if desired All of the necessary commands are displayed at the bottom of the game board in the form of large buttons Also there is a map of the entire playing field at the bottom of the screen This map starts out black and is filled in as you explore the area Game Play In each scenario the player starts out with at least one villager and perhaps a town center The player must then use his villager s to gather resources such as food wood stone or gold Then the player must build a variety of structures and create new characters Each type of building or character has its own attributes that are useful in defeating the enemy Some types of buildings are able to produce certain types of villagers or soldiers which you can use to attack the enemy Other types of buildings are able to modify certain characteristics of those villagers and soldiers in order to make them stronger faster or more resistant to injury After you build a few buildings and gain enough resources then you may advance to a new age of evolution In each age of evolution new technologies become available to you Each technology however requires you to give up a certain amount of resources Scoring There are many different ways to score in Age of Empires First you gain points for every enemy character that you kill Also you gain points by obtaining technologies and creating characters If you have the most kills technologies or characters then you receive a bonus score Also if at the end of the game your civilization has survived then you get another bonus Artwork The graphics are quite clear and each character is easily identified from the others even though the playing field is somewhat small Sound and Music The music in Age of Empires is ok at first but eventually it is necessary to turn the volume down quite a bit The sound effects are very useful while playing the game Whenever the construction on one of your buildings is complete the game makes a specific sound that correlates to that type of building Also if the enemy is attacking one of your characters then a warning trumpet is played Special Features In Age of Empires it is possible to create your own scenarios You are able to transform the landscape in any way you see fit Also you are able to modify the characteristics of each civilization on the playing board You also place all of the resources and wildlife on the game board Manual The manual that accompanies the game is mostly comprised with how to start the game and the different attributes and histories of the different civilizations There is not a great deal of information on strategy or game direction Most of this type of information is available in the game itself At the beginning of each scenario there is a list of hints that can help the player to achieve the scenario goals Bugs For the most part there doesn t really seem to be any bugs One thing that is strange though is the fact that the computer will not transport any of its villagers over water If it did this then it could use much better strategies in defeating your armies GAME REVIEW What Is Good About The Game I enjoyed the real time battles The amount of choices that are available for game play The player isn t restricted to one story line which must be finished before any other What Is Bad About The Game One bad thing about Age of Empires is the fact that there is a limit on civilization size Once you have 50 characters you are unable to create any more until some of them die Also many of the preset scenarios are set up for more than one player and if the computer is placed in one of those spots then it doesn t play very effectively Why Is It Better Or Worse Than Similar Games The only other games that I have played that are similar to this one
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