Product Description

Age of Empires II Gold Edition unites the exciting game play ofboth Microsoft Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and Age ofEmpires II: The Conquerors Expansion - plus additional content -for one compelling gaming experience.Age of Empires II

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1884 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2002-10-04
• ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
• Platform: Windows 95
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, .33 pounds

Features

• MS Age Emp Gold 2/EN CD in DVDBoxW32

Amazon.co.uk Review
When it comes to vast, kingdom-spanning ambition, you can't do better than Microsoft's Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. Microsoft went all out to create this real-time strategy game, and it fairly hums with gorgeous graphics, sophisticated AI and challenging scenarios for the novice and experienced player alike.

The point of the game is to shepherd your fledgling civilisation to world domination, using war, trade and exploration. You start with the bare minimum to get going, and you've got to balance your people's needs with your desire to be a little Napoleon. The Age of Kings gives you a ton of new units and technologies to enrich your strategic options. Each scenario is placed accurately within history, but you're also free to create your own.

The multiplayer format is robust, allowing up to nine players to share a world. When battles commence, you can take control of every aspect of your workers and soldiers, sending them running for shelter in the town centre, ordering them to defend a watchtower, or setting their combat stance to aggressive for free-for-all sword smashing fun. When you're not fighting, find your idle peasants with a mouse click and send them back to work chopping trees, rounding up sheep, fishing or mining gold and stone.

As you acquire more resources, you can improve your soldier's gear and skills, start to trade more efficiently, and make life better for everyone in your empire. You can choose from 13 groups to manage, from the Japanese to the Teutons and Franks. Each group has unique units and special characteristics, making this a game that changes every time you play it.

If all this sounds complicated, it is. New players may be intimidated by the range of choices, but the teaching scenarios are very helpful in conquering the controls. Age of Empires II is a sophisticated, gorgeous successor to the wildly popular original. It's a real feather in Microsoft's cap--a world-building game that will hold you captive. --Therese Littleton

Manufacturer's Description
Age of Empires II Gold Edition unites the exciting gameplay of both Microsoft Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion - plus additional content - for one compelling gaming experience. Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings spans 1, 000 years, from the fall of Rome through the Middle Ages, in which players control the destiny of one of thirteen civilizations. Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion will challenge veterans and novices to wage war on an epic scale with all-new civilizations, unique units and technologies, and campaigns based on infamous conquerors such as Attila the Hun, El Cid and Montezuma.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable
Age of Empires II Gold Edition is definately a recommended buy. This edition includes both Age of Empires "The Age of Kings" and the expansion pack "The conquerors expansion".

A very enjoyable game, with a lot more features raising it above its prequel of Age of Empires 1. The expansion sees 5 new civilisations including Aztecs, Mayans and Huns. Real world maps have been included and the map editor allows you to create different scenarios and surroundings making the game a lot more interesting.

However, although building civilisations and armies is enjoyable at first, the game does appear repetitive after a few hours. Even the different campaigns are a little samey, despite the fact that they are meant to provide some contrasts to the original game.

Despite this however, being able to re-inact famous battles and take over huge cities is very enjoyable. The multiplayer options are a welcome edition and the game has obviously grown into a much more interesting and exciting game since the original Age of Empires.

If you are wondering whether to buy this game, you only need to look as far as the list of awards and acknowledgements it has recieved and hopefully this will persuade you to buy an overall popular and exciting strategy game.

A pretty historical escape
I've owned this game for a while now and still find the time to waste an afternoon on a random map or two. The gameplay on this is excellent with definite differences in strategy required for different landscapes and civilization types, and the graphics with its isometric animations, render characters and buildings attractively. My only complaint.. the slightly empty feeling after winning a long battle of attrition against AI.. still one day when I'm confident enough I'll join the online crowd.

Superb! a must for RTS (Real Time Strategy) fans
Age Of Empires 2 Gold Ed is a fantastic game for all fans of this genre. the game engine is versatile enough for the complete Novice all the way through to Expert it has a complete set of tutorial missions for you to get used to how the game plays and then followed by a vast array of single player mission that will test your skills to the limit. with 8 campeigns to challenge your fighting trade and search and retrieve skills plus lots more!!

The multiplayer side provided through MSN's Gaming Zone is the shining part of this title. You can challenge up to 8 other players simultaniously over all the standard maps or custom created ones with the built in Map Creation tools. This aspect gives the game a infinute amount of terrains to play on and so making the games lifespan almost infinute.

All in all it is a great title that will test you in single player and then push your skills to the limit in multiplayer all fans of this genre should have this title in their CD rack.