AGE OF EMPIRES II: AGE OF KINGS
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Excellent knights ahead for fans

By JAMES ANTHONY

The Age of Chivalry. The age where knights were bold and good and ... well, English, dammit! And where do they appear in The Age of Kings? Well, nowhere in the campaign game, except as the victims of Saladin and the executioners of Joan of Arc.

Now it's fair to say that Saladin, the Saracen general who put one hell of a lot of crusaders through hell (to get to hell), was only defending his country ... and so was that dashed Joan, talented teenage vixen that she was, you could say she was doing the same, but when you think of knights and chivalry you think of England.

So why is it that the best real-time strategy game ever made makes such an obvious omission? Well, it must be something to do with the American influence from Microsoft.(They haven't forgiven the Brits for burning Washington in 1812, or barbecueing Joan for that matter!). It fair makes me sizzle!

Fortunately, the British influence does come in when you play the other facets of Age of Kings - the regicide game and the death match. In both you can pick one of up to 13 races - including Britons (yayyyyyy), Celts, Persians, Japanese, Byzantines and the hairy, horrible Vikings.

Start your power play with a town centre, a soldier and a villager or two, and create something splendid in the way of civilisations.

Like Age of Empires, gameplay is natural and it's pretty easy to find out how things can be built or upgraded without being forced to resort to the manual. In fact, most gamers will take to it like Norsemen to water.

Regicide speaks for itself - kill the opposition kings before they get you - and the death match gives you massive resources to start with so you spend more time researching technologies and building armies before, yup you guessed it, you get to wipe out the opposition.

There is a wide selection of new units to manage and once the serious fighting bgins you can even change formations and battle tactics.

Monks are very powerful and, with the right amount of teaching/research they can heal, as well as convert units and structures to join their sides. Very sneaky little devils, indeed.

Some of the siege engines are stunningly effective and can reduce structures to rubble in a very short time. They are also nifty to pack up and move to other locations, although this does make them susceptible to attack.

Then, each side has special historical units that only they can create and these, such as longbowmen for the Britons, janissaries for the Turks or throwing axemen for the Franks.

In addition, there are societal advantages that can affect the way you play and they include:

The Byzantines are excellent defenders, earning a 50 per cent hit bonus on structures.
The Vikings get cheaper ports and a 25 per cent hit bonus.
The Mongols are superlative hunters and work 50 per cent faster.
The Teutons are harder to convert and their monks can heal at twice the range.
The Persians have war elephants, but trade is their major advantage.


An excellent development is that of the markets where if you urgently need something - such as wood, stone or food - you can purchase it, at a premium price of course.

Being a game of knights and bowmen Age of Kings would not be right without castles and these structures give you your unique units. They can be garrisoned and one nifty tactic is to have a monk inside as well so he can convert attackers while sitting in relative safety.

The graphics are beautiful with a real attention to detail and the maps represent the historical regions and have been massively enlarged to allow for greater expansion.

Dwellings and buildings have also been given a course of grow-plus and are larger and prettier than those in the original Age of Empires.

Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings is too big a game to adquately cover in a non-book-length review. It is deep, takes a long time to complete, is complex (yet exceedingly playable) and without doubt the best real-time strategy game yet produced.

Ensemble Studios and Microsoft have to be congratulated for such a stunning piece of gaming.

ORIGINALITY 85%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 95%
PLAYABILITY 95%
ADDICTION 95%
ENJOYMENT 95%