Very addictive

For my 17th birthday I received a brand new Micron computer – fully equipped with CDs too numerous to mention. One of these CDs was entitled ‘Age of Empires’. I’ve never really been interested in computer games (mostly because I haven’t had a computer until recently) but I was intrigued enough to pop it in and try it out. I was more than pleasantly surprised.

‘Age of Empires’ is a strategy game in which you battle rival ancient societies, with the ultimate goal being survival. The graphics are excellent and once you get the hang of how to play the game it becomes very addictive.

To begin the game, you are given three villagers and with these men you must lay the framework for a military and economy. Once you build enough structures (granary, storage pit, barracks, etc) you will be able to upgrade your society. However, there is always a risk of attack from a rival society or even from animals.

You are given a certain amount of wood, stone, food, and gold to begin the game. As you create structures and produce villagers and soldiers, the supply of these items decreases. However, you are able to cut down trees, fish, pick berries, hunt animals, and mine for gold and stone to replenish your supply.

Ultimately, you will be forced to defend your society against another civilization. To do so, you can build a watchtower, barrier, stable, archery, barracks, boat dock, or siege workshop and create a military to defend your land from invasion – or you can invade other societies.

One thing I particularly like about the game are the options. You can play by yourself or play against others through the Internet. You can choose to have a full map of the land or you can choose to discover land as you go. The number of opposing civilizations can also be varied.

There are multiple ways to end the game. One is to simply wipe out the other civilizations (which is what I usually attempt). Another is to collect all the artifacts (which look like treasure chests attached to wheelbarrows) and hold them for 2000 years. Another option is to claim all of the ruins (which look like demolished versions of Stonehenge) and hold them for 2000 years.

Each civilization is different and has its own distinguishing colors and style of architecture. However, a drawback to this is that one civilization may not be able to gain the same advancement in one aspect of its society as another civilization. For instance, the Egyptian society may be able to produce archers that ride on elephants – but the Greek society may only be able to produce horses that wear gold plating.

Overall this is a very enjoyable and addictive game. It takes a while to play and even longer to dominate (a 3 hour long game isn’t out of the ordinary) – but it’s fun. I’d very much recommend it.