Age of Empires

• Release Date: 1999
• Genre: Strategy
• Style: 2D Real-Time Strategy

Review: Overall

Age of Empires is similar to strategy games like Civilization and Caesar but has its own unique charm that manifests itself with a different style of gameplay. Overall, players should find the experience unique and exciting.

The first step is to select which civilization to play from twelve possibilities, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The choices are Assyrian, Babylonian, Choson, Egyptian, Greek, Hittite, Minoan, Persian, Phonecian, Shang, Sumerian and Yamato. Each culture utilizes slightly different units based on real-world development. As examples, Greeks use hoplites and centurions, Choson have heavy cavalry and Cataphract and Egyptians use Elephant Archers.

In the next step, you choose two to eight enemies, allies and neutral races to play against with the only limitation being the requirement to have at least one enemy. You begin the game with a town center and three worker units. The units perform any action you need such as foraging for food, chopping trees and mining stone or gold for construction. Each building or unit requires a specific amount of wood, stone, gold or food and supplies are limited.

In addition to the cost of construction, each building and unit requires time to be built and all can be damaged. Fortunately, worker units can repair damaged buildings at a cost of resource and time investment. Only a priest can repair damaged units, a luxury that becomes available late in the game.

Some buildings, such as the barracks, archery range, stable, dock, academy and temple, allow you to produce units or upgrade those already existing. Others, like the market, storage pit, siege workshop, government centers and academy, research advances to move your civilization and units forward. For instance, researching Gold Mining increases mining efficiency while the wheel increases unit speed.

Victory conditions are optional: seize ruins, build wonders or control artifacts. To win, maintain control of all ruins or artifacts or build a wonder that lasts for 2000 years (about 15 minutes of real game time). Alternatively, you can opt for total destruction of your enemies. Other victory conditions include exploring a specific portion of the map, taking some object to another location, destroying an object or building, establishing the highest score within a set time limit and more.

Age of Empires includes 25 scenarios with most requiring four to eight players. You can play against the computer, human opponents over the Internet, or a mix of both. One of the major problems is the number of units allowed. Every kind of unit, from workers to military, counts against a preset total and with no way to eliminate useless units to gain much needed warriors or villagers, once you reach the "no more units" point, you're stuck.

Nowhere in the game, including the manual, are you instructed on how to hunt game, an early source of food. Only villagers can hunt and dead prey simply decays into bones in short order if not harvested for meat. Without a villager in the hunting party, your efforts are wasted. In fact, a great deal of information must be discovered by trial and error during gameplay, thus, expect to fail often in the early going.

Another somewhat irritating aspect is the artificial intelligence of the units. You'll often need to babysit troops or villagers to make sure they do what they are supposed to be doing during the course of play. Still, the positives outweigh the negatives. Age of Empires has its own quirks but still delivers a respectable game for the money. If you're looking for a real-time strategy game on the Macintosh with a twist, look no further.

Review: Enjoyment

After the learning curve, the depth of play and strategic aspects keep the game fresh.

Review: Graphics

Graphics are excellent, especially the units. Buildings change from age to age and all are crisp and clear.

Review: Sound

Contains the same type of incidental sounds you can hear in similar games like Civilization or Caesar. Nothing innovative or special stands out in this area.

Review: Replay Value

With the numerous options, replay is nearly endless. Additionally, you can set up your own scenarios, which gives the product an even longer life.

Review: Documentation

Much useful information is missing from the manual and you'll have to rely on discovery through trial and error or luck. The manual does provide information on backgrounds, history, units and special powers of each civilization but lacks necessary material on how to play the game successfully and accomplish certain tasks.