9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Wow, what an improvement over the first!
Date of Review: Dec 30, 2002
The Bottom Line: Whether you liked the first or not, borrow from a friend and give this one a try at least. It's definitely better. New players will enjoy it as well.
Overview
Another one of your ancient world conquest games. You start with a city, and try to eliminate your opponents through battle or diplomacy. AOW2 isn't your average game though. Boasting much more value than it's predecessor, it has some unique and interesting features. Even if you didn't like the first AOW (and I wasn't a big fan myself), you may find that you love this one.
Gameplay
The game is basically the same as the first. You have cities spotted across the countryside that will act as production facilities, defense points, and strategic centers for the game. You will build up the city, fortify it, and build an army to rage across the land. Unlike many other games, AOW relies on small armies...up to 8 total units. That's not 8 groups of units, that's 8 units.
Like many games you have your basic resources. In AOW it's gold and mana. You will use gold to pay units, produce buildings, and recruit heroes. Mana is used to cast spells and teleport artifacts you find to your heroes.
You notice the difference from other games right from the start though. You don't just hit the "upgrade" button in town now. There are a number of buildings that you can build to do anything from producing mana to increasing income to increasing production speed. The town screen is basically just a lit of buildings, so it's doesn't have the best interface for town management yet, AOW never was based much around town intricacies.
The biggest change is your wizard. He is your main character. If he ever dies, he is resurrected for you a few turns later with a hit to your reputation. He's much like a hero, except he cannot go up levels or get experience. Now, so long as you're in a town with a Wizard Tower you have a "domain". This is an area that encompasses a lot of land surrounding your town. You can cast a spell with your wizard anywhere in your domain. If your army is in combat, your wizard can cast combat spells even though he is not there, just because you're still in his domain. Increase your domain by building a bigger wizard tower or getting heroes who "radiate" a domain around them.
I've noticed the AI is pretty neat too. They seem almost like players the way they negotiate with you. I've had computer players hold grudges against me. Then others go from rejecting my peace treaty to proposing an alliance because the balance of power has shifted against them. Some are xenophobes while others are either allied or fighting with every player. It's pretty cool.
The biggest flaw is a trap that many games have fallen in to. Your production queue is for units and buildings. In other words, build your army, or upgrade your town....not both. It takes a lot of the fun out of the game I think. Mostly because you need to get the town building up first, so your first few turns are pretty boring with just your little starting army. This flaw is much more apparent when you look at the second biggest flaw though.
See, there are a number of spots around that give you stuff. You can see how strong the guardians of these places are by clicking on them and seeing that they're "weak" or "strong" or "average" or something. Here's the problem: If it says weak, it means you need to wait until you have a big town and can get some of your better guys (an army of your better guys) before attacking. If it says average, you'd better have some top level guys in your army. I've never tried a strong...and I don't even want to know. In other words, these places are all off limits for the first 20-30 turns of the game, unless you want to lose a lot of guys (which generally isn't worth it).
I'm giving it a 4/5
Graphics
The graphics are pretty cool. It's a lot like the first AOW, except with a little more 3D. The spell effects are pretty awesome to watch, though somewhat disappointing because they look so cool and sometimes do so little ;). The overmap is a pretty good compromise. Every game makes a decision about how it's main map will look. It's like a slider. Looking cool is at one end while playability is at the other. I think this one is a little too close to the "looking cool" side, but it's still decently playable.
Battle graphics are improved over the first. Besides the cool spell effects the player attacks just have some cooler looking effects. Hard to explain except that I enjoy watching more now :).
Graphics get a 4.5/5
Sound
Sound is pretty good actually. The first AOW's music was awesome. There was no official soundtrack, so I converted all the files and burned my own. I may do that with this one, though this has more songs that fit with the situation. It's hard to explain. I didn't even notice the music at first. Last night I picked up on how I never minded waiting for the computer's turn to go though (we were playing with 6 computers). I realized it was because the music that played was so soothing it didn't make you feel like your computer was chugging away and you were impatiently waiting...more like it was just a quick intermission that you could sit back and enjoy.
Sound gets a 4.5/5
Conclusion
Whether you liked the first or not, borrow from a friend and give this one a try at least. It's definitely better. New players will enjoy it as well. You'll find a lot that made the first AOW tedious and repetitive is gone and there's some interesting new rules. How long will it keep you captivated? I don't know, I've only been playing for a week now ;). But that's longer that many games have lasted on me!
