Alright, hello there, people. Link has decided to sit in on this review, since it contains swordplay, and the like.



Alright, today is a review of Age of Empires, The Age of Kings. It is perhaps the last shot from Microsoft to use the medieval era in its games, as many people consider this game to be a small port/twin to the original AoE II, Age of Kings. That came out in 2000, and this version in 2006. But, enough about Microsoft's spotted history.

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Now, the Review.

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Gameplay

The first and foremost part of any game. The gameplay works out well, although, one could note, it is much easier to use your system's buttons than the loosely-constructed touch-screen controls. It was a nice attempt, but, you'll only need the touch screen to replace your Hell & R buttons.

I'm not going to go into the controls, because you can look those up practically anywhere, and the Walkthrough Campaign tells you.

It should be noted that anyone who is familiar with the PC versions of this game, should NOT assume that this is an RTS Game. This is done in a chess-esque style, where you move as many bits of your army as you like, per turn. It could actually seem a bit more Warhammer 4000, if only I remembered what the hell that was about.

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Campaigns

Alright, time for the backbone of the game; The Campaign Mode.

We have 5 Campaigns: Joan of Arc[tutorial], Minamoto Yoshltsune,[I apologize for putting an "l" there, but it read out the vulgar word for feces.] Genghis Khan, Saladin, and Richard the Lionhearted. Each Campaign has you play as a different civilization. The Franks, Japanese, Mongolians, Arabs, and Britons. Each civilization has different bonuses and hindrances, and a special unique unit.[ie; French Throwing Axeman, and the British Long-bowmen.]

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Graphics

Ahh, graphics. Your lack-of presence makes for great games, but, when you insist on being there, amid all your gory beauty, you make the game pretty much crap.

Here, for graphics, I'm simply going to show some photos.
Long Swordsman Fight.

Long Bowmen firing arrows.

A cut-scene from King Richard's Campaign. Note the stained-glass graphics for cut-scenes.

One should note that certain things are distinctly different from Version to Version, depending on your country.

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Main Menu

Probably should've mentioned before hand... Oh well. Anyway, while playing Campaigns, you can earn several "Empire Points", depending on how many objectives you complete. With these, you can by new maps to play on in free-mode, or special units, again, for free-mode.

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Library

Amazingly, this game is quite educational! The developers put a lot of information into the Library Section, and you can learn quite a lot. I've spent hours reading some of the stuff in there, amazing. You should always g there when you have a chance.

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Well, that about concludes this Review. Enjoy for now, I recommend the game.

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::SOURCES::
http://gamespot.com, http://eurogamer.net, and http://joergspielt.de for the images.