Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12586 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2001-10-05
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 95

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 Gold Edition 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.

The gold edition includes the Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion and will let players wage war on an epic scale with all new civilisations, unique units and technologies and campaigns based on the infamous conquerors such as Attila the Hun, El Cid.

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
Multimedia PC with 166 MHz or faster Pentium processor;Microsoft Windows 95 or later;32 MB RAM for Windows 95 or 98; 64 MB for Windows NT or 2000;4x CD-ROM drive;SVGA monitor with 800 x 600 resolution;Local bus video card with 800 x 600 resolution, 256 colours, and 2 MB VRAM;Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device;28.8 Kbps or faster Internet access for Internet or head-to-head play;Audio board with speakers or headphones (recommended)

Customer Reviews

Wonderful game!
Age of Empires II: Gold Edition is Age of Empires II and Age of Empires II:Expansion sold together. And both are extremely wonderful games. You choose a civilization and then you lead it to rule the world. For example, there are villagers, who kill deers for food, and who build houses, castles, and so on... and there's the army people, which come from the stables, the barracs, the archery, or the castle, and also boats from the dock. You also have priests, and you can also research science, fot example if you discover the chain mail, your army will be stronger, or if you invent the crossbow, your archers will have a better weapon to fight with. There is so much to say about this wonderful game that I pratically didn't say anything yet. But if you are looking for a Middle-Age Time game, this is for you!

Age Of Empires II Gold Edition
If you liked the original Age of Empires - you will LOVE this one.

The gold edition comes with two games Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, and Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion.

I counted over 30 major improvements to this game. Apart from the obvious, there are many advanced features. You can chat to your computer allies - record your game - you can have a winter terrain (everyone leaves their footprints) - there is a "King of the Hill" game - where you have to fend off your enemies by controlling a monument in the middle of the map and hold it for an amount of time - and there are MANY MANY MORE.

There are campaigns true to history - with a learning campaign of William Wallace - there is a narration which lets you know how to perform certain tasks of the game.

If you do not have a fast computer, the graphics can become jerky - and this can get very annoying after a while.

I would give it 5 stars if it wasn't so hard!!! But maybe that is because i'm rubbish......

Buy this game - you won't be disappointed.

Essential stuff!
So, who do you want to be? Well, there's the blood thirsty Aztecs, the vicious Vikings or the courageous Celts...and many more. Every race is different, with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. The learning curve is just right, and I find myself still playing this game after a year of ownership. It's a must for any collection. The battle strategies are perhaps simpler than other military games, but it still requires tactics to win eg protecting trebuchets whilst sending in the infantry. Graphics are great, and its feels good to level an entire civilisation!