Age of Empires II

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Age of Empires II because it was a nice trip down memory lane as I played it about 10 years ago or so. With that being said there were some downsides to the game due to its age, but Im going to stay away from them because Age of Empires holds a special place in my heart and will not be tainted.

Age of Empires is a strategic war game that takes place in the Dark Ages/Mid-evil era. It is not turn based like the previous game we played, Civ 6. However, I found this games style and form of combat to be much more appealing and strategic than that of the brand new civ 6.

One of the main differences between civ and Age of Empires was the combat, and the ability you have in combat for Age of Empires is much more detailed than that of civ. In Age of Empires you can choose the formations of your units, pick and choose which ones attack and when they commence their attack. This means you can hit the enemy in waves instead of just having a flat out attack. The military units also stay true to the time period, age of empires offers siege weaponry like the Trebuchet above. Which is important in taking down village and castle walls.

In the picture above are the different kind of walls that you are able to build. The act of building walls around your city is historically accurate due to the kings of the era wanting to protect the people (and gold ) that was being held inside the walls. As a player, walls are very important to your civilizations survival because they provide a first line of defense from invasion. On the flip side of that, the walls of your enemies can be pesky and require siege weaponry like the trebuchet above. There is an aspect of walls in the Civ VI game, but it’s just for your city to be able to shoot back, whereas in Age of Empires these walls set clear boundaries to your civilization and provide protection from invasion.

The last topic I will discuss is the Joan of Arch campaign against the English and the Burgundians. This level is extremely hard and I did not finish it with nearly as many soldiers as the player above did, but it was still very fun. There is a storyline that goes along with the mission that is historically accurate, and it even gives you a rendezvous point with landmarked directionals, common in an Era without GPS. You are trying to break the siege of Paris even though it is heavily defended by the English. This level requires you to be a diligent and smart commander, and not lose too many men because you are without re-supply. This campaign was fun to play and to be able to reenact its historically accurate storyline/mission by freeing Paris and Joan of Arc was truly a treat.

All in all, I am biased but I will still stay this game is a top notch game. It remains as historically accurate as possible and allows players to control armies just like the Kings and Lords did back during the mid-evil era. 10/10 would recommend!