I had been negatively influenced by the first game of the series and I was not eager to buy this game. I had heard it was much better but they always say that. I decided that I would get it anyway. I started playing and right away I could tell the difference. You can read my opinion on Age of Empires, so that you could compare the two games. Here is what I thought:

Graphics: 7
As you could see in my opinion about the original AOE, I thought the graphics were mediocre. I have the same feeling about this game, however, I gave it a slightly higher rating because there were changes made for the better. The buildings were much more inventive and much more detailed. I was actually surprised that they were that much different. I thought that maybe I was not using the right requirements, but I had the game installed on the highest requirements.

Setting: 8
I really disliked the setting in the previous AOE. In this game, I thought that the choices were much better. There were many more and very different choices. I was surprised, once again. I thought that they would be the same with just one or two different features. However, there were many major changes that made this game as good as it is.

Difficulty: 10
Can you say impossible? Don't even try any of the campaigns. I can beat the first part of each one, but after that, it is hopeless. I knew the controls well because I had played the original game. I understood what to do, but it was just extremely hard. I thought that this game had a very bad learning curve. It went from impossible to don't even try.

Overall, I think that this is a good game that can be played for a month or so and then it will be left on the shelf. I recommend that you buy this game after the price goes down a little bit. Overall Rating: 8 1/2