|
Age of
Empires II will be one of the biggest games of this year. And
for good reason. While the game builds off the winning formula
of the original Age of Empires this is more than a mere sequel, it
raises the bar for real time strategy games. While it's a
gorgeous game but it really shines in the areas where it improves on
game play.
In AOE
II you play the role of one of thirteen cultures: Britons,
Byzantines, Celts, Chinese, Franks, Goths, Japanese, Mongols,
Persians, Saracens, Teutons, Turks and Vikings. The single
game only covers five of these cultures and the rest are reserved
for multiplayer and skirmish games.
In the
single player game you must accomplish various historic battles that
were important to that nation's success. While the battles
themselves are not accurate recreations of those battles, the game
isn't about creating authentic battles but about great game play.
AOE II
greatly improves the play experience by improving the user
interface, especially unit movement. The game introduces
automatic formations for your armies which nearly eliminates the
need to micromanage the deployment of your forces. Myth and
Myth II were the first games to employ unit formations but AOE II
takes it a step further. The units as they enter their
formations group themselves according to their strengths in melee
combat. Weaker units position themselves behind stronger
units. There are several formation types, all of them very
useful.
Anything
which reduces all the micro management necessary in so many RTS
games is most welcome to this reviewer. The AI helped reduce
the need to micromanage units somewhat by making path finding better
(units don't get stuck in nooks and crannies very often) and units a
little smarter. However, there are several things they could
have done to make life a bit easier.
Units
could have been able to react better when left along in
combat. Missile units would allow themselves to get into
combat at melee where they are vulnerable. Horse mounted
archers should have known to run away and attack from range.
Instead you are forced to micro manage this. Unfortunately the
computer AI seems able to micromanage itself as well.
While
not as common as in the original AOE, fighting on more than one
front can be very frustrating since you can't manage two battles at
once. Since the AI is still rather "dumb", units
would allow themselves to be decimated, ranged units would run
outside the walls into a mass of the enemy, etc. I often found
one group simply gone after I had to deal with matters in another
part of the screen. There are sound and visual queues telling
you when battles occur or other events happen, and while these
proved very helpful I often found myself missing these queues
because I was concentrating too hard on another task.
Now,
others might not have the same problems I had or feel as frustrated
as I did but if there is one thing that will drive me bonkers about
and RTS is too much micromanagement, especially when it'd be simply
to avoid it. In AOE II, the single most annoying bit of micro
management is food gathering. Farmers should re-seed their
farms on their own, fishing vessels should rebuild their
traps. Forcing the player to have to click on these units and
make them rebuild is a bit anal. While it's clear that this
activity is part of the game balance, I for one wish they'd balanced
food gathering differently.
The
problem with micro management is that if you aren't able to
multitask well you'll end up very frustrated. Fortunately, AOE
II has a very easy setting for those of us who are multitask
challenged. For those who are great at it, there is plenty to
keep you happy. At the higher difficulty settings, the AI
behaves very differently than at the lower settings. The AI is
smarter, uses better tactics and is more aggressive. I could
swear that the AI learned from its mistakes as the game
progressed.
Unfortunately,
in the single player game, the highest AI settings usually means the
better equipped computer opponents rush you at the start of the game
when you're weakest. This is a favorite tactic to make the AI
tougher to deal with. However, the strategy is always the same
for the defending player. You first build up sufficient
defenses to hold off the initial assault, then build yourself up
slowly until you can take the offensive. These kinds of
scenarios are generally games of attrition. For RTS games to
reach the next level of game play there needs to be some more
variety. With the improvement in AI, perhaps this will become
a reality in the next year or two.
The game
is beautiful. It gives you the feeling of being in a medieval
world complete with castles and walled towns. One of the
things that appealed to me most was the sense of building a walled
town defended by castles. I found out that walls have two
uses: one, to keep the enemy out and two, to funnel the enemy where
you want him to go. Strategically placed defenses can be tough
to breach. But any defense can be taken down just as any
offense can be defeated.
This
bring us to play balance. In an RTS it's often a matter of the
game "Rock, Paper, Scissors" where no single unit is able
to dominate the game. Each unit has its strengths and
weaknesses. While this concept may seem simple, it's actually
very hard to do it well in practice. AOE II did a great job of
it. You can create very powerful combos and if your opponent
doesn't have the right defenses you can roll right over him.
But if you run into the right defenses, your attacking force can be
decimated very quickly.
The
engine used to run AOE II does a beautiful job. I never
experienced a single crash in about 40 hours of game play. The
interface is straight forward and easy to use. The addition of
the formations for your armies allows this sequel to break some new
ground for RTS games.
The game
doesn't treat religion in any serious manner. Priests have a
function to heal and to convert but this is common between all
priests of all cultures (there are a few minor differences in
upgrade options). But that fits the generic nature of the game
itself. At the same time, this generic approach doesn't offer
any controversy either. Religion is, therefore, somewhat bland
and underdeveloped and relegated to a specific job.
As a
game of history, there is nothing in AOE II to commend itself to
learning anything beyond some cursory glimpses into the fascinating
cultures it covers. Even those glimpses are about as generic
as they can be. But AOE II isn't trying to be a history
lesson. Even so, more information or an RTS better integrated
in the story would have been a nice touch.
So,
should you go out and buy it? You bet. Unless you think
that violence is in every way wrong (even bloodless animated
violence), this game will provide you with many hours of
enjoyment. It's one of the better buys of the year.
Final
Score
Highlights: Beautiful
game, formation options for units is superb, a great feel and well
balanced game.
Lowlights:
Still too much micromanagement and the AI's stupidity can have you
pounding your keyboard in frustration.
Recommendation:
Well worth buying. It breaks some new ground for RTS games and
offers solid game play.
Age Appropriateness:
Pre-Teen to Adult
Christian
Sense (CS): 3
Game
Engine (GE): 4
Game
Play (GP): 4
Overall:
4 |
